If our world should one day cease to exist, and some improved civilisation from another galaxy stumbles upon our popular culture and seeks to understand all the fuss about Emma Stone - well, we now have the film clip they should see. She’s not even speaking, so translating Earth language won’t be an issue. She’s simply dancing.
It’s toward the end of her latest collab with Yorgos Lanthimos , the challenging, intriguing, perplexing-if-not-downright- infuriatingly-opaque Kinds of Kindness . Stone is doing an improvised victory dance, and it’s glorious. What’s clear is that the Stone-Lanthimos pairing, in their third feature together, is continuing to nurture an aspect of Stone’s talents that increasingly sets her apart: Her fearlessness and the obvious joy she derives from it.
Then again, it’s possible we especially love this scene because by now we’re parched — thirst is actually a theme of the film, but let’s forget that for a second — for a wee bit of joy. There’s barely an ounce of it in Kinds of Kindness , nor is there much beauty (unlike the gorgeous period romps many know Lanthimos best for, The Favourite and last year’s sumptuous Poor Things .) Nor is there any recognisable kindness to speak of — “recognisable” being the operative word here.
Which might be the point of the title. Or not. So what IS Kinds of Kindness ? Okay, here goes.
Lanthimos, working for a fifth time with screenwriter Efthimis Filippou ( The Lobster ), has created a .