A grown man cannot have sex, drink alcohol or move around without the permission of his boss. Is this meant to be a commentary on the modern-day exploitative work culture? In Greek auteur Yorgos Lanthimos’ Kinds of Kindness, this man is a part of a sex cult. Robert (played to perfection by Jesse Plemons) fakes injuries, groans and tries to get himself hospitalized to escape the cult. Controlling every aspect of his life like a puppet is the formidable Raymond (Willem Dafoe).
Kinds of Kindness: ‘The Death of RMF’
Emma Stone is Rita Fanning, a seductress with cherry lips who traps Robert when he tries to escape the cult by unconvincingly faking a foot injury. Margaret Qualley plays Vivian, Raymond's wife who is aware that his husband is sleeping with Robert. She rather encourages the two to go at it, sometimes by leaving them alone, or by playing a piano as the two men cuddle.
The conspiracy theorist in me couldn’t help but wonder if babies of the receptionists are a part of the sex cult. Is there a hidden pedophile ring? Are receptionists supposed to show off their babies to prospective clients? Or is this critic finding meaning where there is none?
The scene where Robert runs into Vivian’s arms and cries after killing RMF broke this critic’s heart. The scene, which can be interpreted in many different ways, seemed like a survivor of abuse running back to their abuser’s arms, begging them to accept them back. Robert and Raymond’s dynamic wasn't very different here. Was RMF supposed to die because he dared to escape the cult? That's food for thought.
Kinds of Kindness: ‘RMF is Flying’
Lanthimos goes full ‘Shutter Island’ In ‘RMF is Flying’. Is Daniel (Plemons), a white policeman who shot an innocent man, asked his wife to chop off a finger, and gouge her liver out actually crazy? Is his marine biologist wife who came back from dead actually possessed by an alien entity? The absurdist elements in this short are many.
One might just argue Lanthimos is making a statement on the subjective nature of reality—how we all perceive events differently and if there truly is one single objective truth. Is Daniel really insane? Is his wife Liz (Stone) conspiring against him with her father (Dafoe)?
Or, perhaps, Lanthimos is wondering if any of us is actually sane. We are ‘crazy’ in someone else's story. Much like Daniel, those who notice obvious signs of foul play and speak up, are labeled psychotic. The world that Liz and Jonathan were sucked into had “dogs as humans, and humans as dogs”.
A traumatized Martha (Qualley) watching a sex tape herself and Liz (who was presumed missing then) is perhaps the funniest moment in this short. Surreal, ridiculous and mind-bending, ‘RMF Is Flying’ is a theater of absurd come to life.
Kinds of Kindness: ‘RMF Eats A Sandwich’
You thought chopping fingers, eating human liver and cannibalism was too much? Wait till you see ‘RMF Eats A Sandwich’ where dead bodies are used as test subjects where a medium has to try to bring them back to life.
If you thought the first two shorts were fucked up, wait till you see ‘RMF Eats A Sandwich’ where Dafoe plays OMI, the leader of a sex cult who Plemons’ Andrew is dating. A single mother, Emily is a part of the cult, following their instructions, playing Holy Water (made up of Andrew and AKA's (Hong Chau) tears).
There is a bizarre and frankly, weird bit where AKA and OMI test if the cult members are ‘contaminated’ by licking their sweat (now that's absurd!). However, what absolutely blew this critic away was how the final act of this short culminated in a way which lead to the beginning of the first short. RMF is brought back to life by Ruth (Qualley) and Emily crashes the car, killing Ruth. Now that's what you call cyclic triptych art!
Kinds of Kindness: What Works, What Doesn't
What didn't work as much for this critic was the monochrome shots showing flashbacks which seemed, for the lack of a better word, telenovela-esque. Still, one cannot deny that these shots do fit in the narrative. The comic moments are the highlight of this anthology. The humor is dark, inappropriate and even outrageous at times.
The off-key piano which plays in pensive moments adds to the tension. The creepy masculine and feminine chanting accentuate the macabre and sinister nature of each story.
In many ways, Lanthimos’ absurdist anthology forces its viewers to make sense of its tales. It expects us to guess, extrapolate, over analyse or even find a connection/link between the three stories. Cheerfully nihilistic, the film shows “nothing really matters and everyone's going to die one day” but does so while making us laugh at the most ridiculous things.
Star rating: 3.5 / 5 stars
Kinds of Kindness is now streaming on Disney+ Hotstar.
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