Running time: 164 minutes. Rated R (strong/disturbing violent content, strong sexual content, full nudity and language). There are so many supremely skilled actors in director Yorgos Lanthimos’ latest film, “Kinds of Kindness.
” But about 15 minutes into the three-part, nearly-three-hour slog, I found myself whispering of Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons and Willem Dafoe: “Poor things...
” Lanthimos’ past works, such as the Oscar-winning Stone vehicle “ Poor Things ,” “ The Favourite ” and “ The Lobster ,” were, to varying degrees, eccentric, sexy and smart. The unbearably pretentious “Kinds of Kindness,” on the other hand, is a Euro-chic, albeit stylish, endurance test that will divide film buffs and outright appall mainstream audiences. I found it torturous.
Ask yourself this: Is a woman cutting off her finger and then pan-frying it for her husband to eat for dinner hilarious? The answer will determine your tolerance, or lack thereof, for “Kinds of Kindness.” Lanthimos’ self-indulgent freak show, which makes “The Lobster” look like “The Sound of Music,” is an anthology of three weird tales, featuring the same company of performers and told in a consistent, brittle monotone. In the first, the ever-fascinating Plemons plays a man whose job is to do the extreme bidding of a mysterious boss (Dafoe).
That could be gaining weight, reading “Anna Karenina” or getting hit by a car. The vignette is like watching paint dry, only less colorful. Next.
