‘Kinds of Kindness’ First Reactions: Yorgos Lanthimos’ Latest Emma Stone Collaboration Is a ‘Dark’ and ‘Twisted’ Return to Form

Samantha Bergeson
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Two-time Oscar winner Emma Stone further expands her cinematic universe alongside auteur Yorgos Lanthimos with their latest collaboration “Kinds of Kindness.”

Yet while “Poor Things” was an Academy Award-winning feature, the Cannes premiere for “Kinds of Kindness” seemed to puzzle critics and fans alike. The feature, which was originally titled “AND”, is Lanthimos’ eighth film and co-stars Willem Dafoe, Margaret Qualley, Jesse Plemons, Hunter Schafer, Joe Alwyn, Hong Chau, and Mamoudou Athie.

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Lanthimos previously described the contemporary anthology film as being “three different stories, with four or five actors who play one part in each story, so they all play three different parts,” which, according to the director, was “almost like making three films” in one.

Lanthimos reunited with frequent screenwriter collaborator Efthimis Filippou to pen the script for “Kinds of Kindness.” The duo previously co-wrote Lanthimos’ “Dogtooth,” “The Lobster,” “The Killing of a Sacred Deer,” and “Alps.”

The IndieWire review of “Kinds of Kindness” deemed it an “allergic reaction” to Lanthimos’ recent more mainstream success, with critic David Ehrlich writing, “if anything, ‘Kinds of Kindness’ finds a tickle of sadistic pleasure in setting audiences up for a fall.”

Ehrlich wrote, “The happily inhospitable ‘Kinds of Kindness’ can’t help but feel like an allergic reaction to the mainstream success he’s enjoyed — or at least capitalized upon — since pivoting from Greek to English with ‘The Lobster’ in 2015. Always interesting, seldom enjoyable, and somehow both smothered and excessive at the same time (and at all times), this nearly three-hour bonfire of Searchlight Pictures’ annual budget is a towering monument to human love that betrays almost zero interest in actually being liked. [Yet] I hesitate to think that ‘Kinds of Kindness’ is quite as spiteful as it seems. Lanthimos isn’t giving the finger to his fans just because he’s aggressively forsaking his own need for acceptance. For one thing, that hostility is part of the reason why so many people liked his work in the first place.”

Fellow frequent Lanthimos collaborators Ed Guiney and Andrew Lowe of Element Pictures told IndieWire’s Anne Thompson that “Kinds of Kindness” has been five years in the making.

“It started off as a single film and then evolved into three separate stories,” Guiney said. “It’s more in that universe than in the Tony McNamara [of ‘The Favourite’ and ‘Poor Things’] universe. And then further the idea of the same cast playing different characters in three separate films about belief and belonging and faith. The film goes from high comedy to tragedy in a nanosecond. [Yorgos] is very good at that. He keeps you on your toes as a viewer.”

“Kinds of Kindness” opens in theaters June 21 from Searchlight Pictures. Check out the first reactions out of Cannes below and read the IndieWire review here.

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