REVIEW #384 Kinds of Kindness (2024)

Three unique stories, a man searching for his independence, a man who believes his wife isn’t what she seems and then a women searching for someone with special abilities.

Kinds of Kindness is yet another example of a director taking the weird and whacky to the extreme, at the expense of the overarching storyline. Yorgos Lanthimos is no stranger to bringing the peculiar to cinema screens but in previous projects like Poor things, he paired the weirdness with meaningful character exploration and it worked nicely. Unfortunately not even one of the three stories portrayed in Kinds of Kindness comes remotely close to that. I found myself bored before act one even finished, the impressive musical score was the only thing generating any sort of emotional response from me, because it was anxiety inducing madness, which purposefully causes the audience to feel really uncomfortable through the strangeness on screen. Of course the actors are great, it’s a spectacular ensemble but I can’t help but think they were completely wasted by a script desperately trying to feel unique and edgy. I won’t be surprised if this movie doesn’t do well financially because I really can’t see any casual movie fans enjoying it, which is a shame because Lanthimos is a talented director but he was just too over ambitious here. Kinds of Kindness joins Beau Is Afraid on the category of movies that I believe Hollywood needs to leave behind.

Overall (4.5/10)

Thanks for reading.

Callan