![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/img\/b\/R29vZ2xl\/AVvXsEg9Qd6RR3u9TJzPkKS2eeCdEgTEc1ojMfUYz3E4oSxe9Q991mfGIN4nOWC3_nYM9ghinP6Ka_1l3RiC5Z2EK2f-sU2C4cnFCxi5fAigAczr85IL9xSs1a34lhWuUAoxmrEVh_eSFoAuJ73bh9eroxFso44eYW-1yBOVH-ckCbfG7Y2AkL72-oE7rA\/s1600\/Kinds-Of-Kindness-1.jpg\")
<\/a><\/div>\nKinds of Kindness<\/i> takes flight with Yorgos Lanthimos\u2019 return to the wacky; weird and wonderful origins that defined his career. Think more Dogtooth<\/i> and The Killing of a Sacred Deer<\/i> than The Favourite<\/i> and Poor Things<\/i>. This will not get him an Oscar; especially so soon after Poor Things<\/i>, but it allows for Jesse Plemons, Willem Dafoe and Emma Stone to put in some of their best work to date in an anthology that spans three chapters; seeing Dafoe, Plemons and Stone all play different, disconnected characters, stories linked by themes of warped kindness and twisted obsession. With Lanthimos working off a screenplay he wrote with Efthimis Filippou, the sheer absurdist charms of it all make a play for greatness.\n<\/p>\n The Death of RMF<\/i> is our first chapter, about a man called Robert Fletcher, played by Plemons, who follows every order given by his boss Dafoe, who tells him when to have sex, what to do, the weight, what to wear and more importantly, who to kill \u2013 a man known only as RMF at a stoplight. He fails and then realises that he can\u2019t do it \u2013 but Dafoe\u2019s Raymond won\u2019t give up easily. His rewards, including Senna\u2019s helmet and McEnroe\u2019s smashed tennis racket, are quickly taken, one by one.\n<\/p>\n The chapter\u2019s sticking point of showing how much you can push a man before he breaks highlights the need for Robert\u2019s attachment and desperation; we learn how much horrible things he\u2019s done in Raymond\u2019s name and how pathetic his character has become; such as staging a meeting of his wife on Raymond\u2019s orders by faking a trip so she\u2019ll notice him. It\u2019s something that he tries again with comical results in an absurdist, dogmatic method \u2013 once wasn\u2019t enough, maybe it\u2019ll work again? In steps Emma Stone\u2019s Rita, a woman who is also being controlled by Raymond \u2013 his need for control is portrayed superbly. Dafoe is at his best in this chapter \u2013 manipulating Robert in a way that will make your skin crawl. For a film called Kinds of Kindness<\/i>, you\u2019d expect some here, but it becomes apparent the title is very much a misleading misnomer, but instead it\u2019s free will stripped, and not just stripped, beaten to a bloody pulp. Control is key here \u2013 and in this film, Lanthimos exercises its total dominance over multiple chapters.\n<\/p>\n Plemons and Stone share the next chapter again; this time with Stone being the one manipulated by Plemons \u2013 instantly in a position of power as Daniel, a cop \u2013 who finds himself spiralling when his wife Liz is rescued after an ocean expedition. However she\u2019s changed; different \u2013 now she eats chocolate, and does numerous other things \u2013 there\u2019s a touch of uniqueness here, an oddity and perversion to Daniel\u2019s character from the start, he makes his friends watch a video of the four of them having sex in his time of mourning, and then he exerts that same control over Liz, he\u2019s feeling peckish he claims, he wants to eat first her finger, and then her leg \u2013 in a dominating display of control that almost makes you wonder what if Lanthimos had become a TV director instead \u2013 Yellowjackets would\u2019ve probably been a lot gorier. There are downright uncomfortable scenes in this one and whilst it is the weakest of the three chapters; it\u2019s only due to the strength of the first and last.\n<\/p>\n<\/a><\/div>\n<\/a><\/div>\n