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.

Arts & Culture

On ‘Poor Things’: Her Own Means of Production

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“Everything in the world is about sex except sex. Sex is about power.” While the attribution of this quote to Oscar Wilde remains debatable, Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things embodies its essence flawlessly. A masterpiece of fiction, Poor Things continues to stir a maelstrom of contrasting reactions: Some adore it, others find it disconcerting; it exudes opulence yet leaves an unsettling impression. The bizarre brilliance of Bella Baxter (portrayed by Emma Stone) has prompted some to exit the theater within the first 30 minutes, while others, myself included, found themselves ravenous for seconds.

Arts & Culture

The Oscar Nominees: The Ones I Liked Less

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Well, it can’t all be great. As good as this year’s Oscars slate is in comparison to say, 2021, it still isn’t quite able to escape the inadequacies or odd choices befitting any body of wealthy West Coast liberals and reactionary octogenarians. There isn’t a Green Book this year, or any other film whose victory might call into question the value of the exercise itself, but (unless you suffer from the same brand of brain rot as me) watching all the nominees is never a necessity to cover the best of this year in movies. Here are the ones you can skip: 

The Holdovers 

I hate to be the curmudgeon unable to find much of the joy in this film about a curmudgeonly old man finding joy, but — alas — The Holdovers was not for me. I’m incredibly sympathetic to its warm nostalgia for ’70s aesthetics, even if the specific genre its cribbing from has never particularly appealed to me.