Arts & Culture
‘Kinds of Kindness’: Lanthimos at His Weirdest
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Yorgos Lanthimos has quickly arisen as one of the most important directors in recent memory, known for his surreal settings that place his characters in Kafkaesque scenarios. Prior to Kinds of Kindness, he saw critical success with The Lobster and The Killing of a Sacred Deer, both of which I had watched in high school and raved to friends about for the black comedy aspects that intertwine two entirely different stories but shared an element that tied them together: they were weird. Then Poor Things came out, and that seemed like a page had turned for Lanthimos. He used Emma Stone again as a leading character after she starred in The Favourite (his previous movie), but Poor Things was both more grandiose and more accessible, making it a hit with critics and scooped up four Oscars. Then came Kinds of Kindness, fresh on the heels of Poor Things, and it is at once his most ambitious and disappointing film for me.