“Kinds of Kindness is another highlight in the oeuvre of a man who isn’t afraid to go off the beaten path.”

People with an obsessive love for someone can often go to great lengths to stay in the good graces of their object of desire, for fear of rejection is one of the greatest human fears. The deeply felt need to stay close to the ones they love makes them do weird things, and humanity’s more peculiar behaviors are exactly what attracts Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos. He must have no fear of rejection, because after two films that were relatively accessible, certainly by his standards (The Favourite and Poor Things, both Oscar winners) he now to some extent returns to his more off-kilter output from his Greek period and films like The Killing of a Sacred Deer. Gone are the belly laughs and back is the uncomfortable (but funny) situational comedy, this time in the form of anthology film Kinds of Kindness. It is unlikely that his latest will repeat the success of its predecessors, but Kinds of Kindness is another highlight in the oeuvre of a man who isn’t afraid to go off the beaten path.

Kinds of Kindness is a triptych in which the same cast of players, with an additional actor here or there, play a different set of characters in three stories centered around its main character’s strong fear of rejection by a figure they hold in high standing. In the first story this is Robert (man of the hour Jesse Plemons, who fits right in to Lanthimos’ universe), who is obsessed with the praise from his employer Raymond (Willem Dafoe). Raymond controls every aspect of Robert’s life, right down to the birth control of his wife Sarah (Hong Chau). Raymond’s ultimate test of Robert’s blind faith is requiring him to cause a car accident in which the driver of the other car is supposed to die. After a first failed attempt, Robert confesses to Raymond that he can’t do it. From that moment on, Raymond causes Robert’s life to fall apart. Robert does everything in his power to get back on Raymond’s good side, and his final ploy is through ingratiating himself with Rita (Lanthimos’ muse Emma Stone), an associate of Raymond.

After weeks of gnawing despair, police officer Daniel (Plemons) gets good news: his wife Liz (Stone), a renowned oceanic researcher lost at sea, was found on a deserted island, along with one of her crew. Initially happy with her return, Daniel soon gets the creepy feeling that this isn’t actually Liz. She suddenly craves chocolate, something she hated before, and her shoes no longer fit. As paranoia sets in and Daniel refuses to eat the food Liz serves him, Liz tries everything she can physically do to get her husband back, including self-mutilation at the command of Daniel.

Emily (Stone) and Andrew (Plemons) are two cult members who are looking for a prophesied woman who should be able to raise the dead. Devoted to their cult’s leaders (Dafoe and Chau), their first attempt turns out a dead end: the corpse won’t lift a finger once the prospective ‘chosen one’ tries to resurrect it. Dafoe’s Omi is unperturbed, and suggests another candidate. Emily’s world starts to unravel as she runs into the ghosts of her former life, her husband Joseph (Joe Alwyn) and her little daughter (Merah Benoit). While Andrew sleeps off a fever in their cheap motel room, Emily reluctantly accepts Joseph’s invitation to visit her former family again. As he spikes her drink and rapes her, Emily’s biggest fear becomes reality: her body’s water is now, according to the cult’s rules, contaminated, and she is ousted from the cult. She only sees one way back: find the true Christ-like woman who the cult is looking for (who is an unassuming veterinarian played by Margaret Qualley).

Lanthimos’ screenplays and his casts are often seen as stars of the show, but what people often overlook is his masterful shot compositions. In particular in Kinds of Kindness‘ opening act, which is set in a world of stately mansions and skyscraping office buildings, Lanthimos has a field day with the sight lines that the sharp delineations offer him. There are definitely subtle differences in style between the three parts, each befitting the worlds on display. The second story’s mise-en-scene more closely follows the tropes of the mixture of family drama and body horror that it is, with wide shots often from a low vantage point and slow zooms over an eerie piano (the music a recurring motif); the final entry is more out there in its use of color and sound, especially when on the cult’s grounds.

Both screenplay and cast are still strong though, even if not all of it works. The ending of the middle story is particularly befuddling; Lanthimos’ world may not be entirely ours, but there are rules, which seem to fly out the window when two different versions of Liz show up. The gory humor of this part will also not be everyone’s cup of tea, and sees Lanthimos, never shying away from a little blood, at his bloodiest. There were some who did not appreciate the sex in Poor Things, which Lanthimos used to great comedic effect, and they will definitely not be amused by a wild foursome between Plemons, Stone, Qualley, and recurring cast member Mamoudou Athie. The shockingly raunchy home video comes out of the blue to cause great hilarity, but some won’t get the joke. What it shows is the incredible amounts of trust his actors have in Lanthimos, because they throw themselves into their work with abandon. Stone, an A-list actress with two Oscars to her name, is especially fearless in front of his camera, going full frontal on several occasions again. This is not meant to gratuitously titillate, but to shock the audience into laughter; it’s part of the Lanthimos experience, and that is to abandon all inhibitions.

Kinds of Kindness is a peculiar entry in Lanthimos’ work because of its anthological nature, which undoubtedly leads to comparisons between the three stories despite their shared themes (and cast). For this reviewer’s money the middle story is the weakest, even if its reversal of focus from Plemons to Stone makes its storytelling the most dynamic. Likewise there will be much debate about the standouts in the cast, but the more noteworthy thing is that Lanthimos is starting to collect a set of regulars much in the vein of Wes Anderson. Lanthimos’ style isn’t as rigid as Anderson’s, which offers the cast more freedom to show themselves instead of the limiting caricatures of Anderson’s work, and Plemons is a nice addition to Lanthimos’ troupe. But with a return to his more daring work, Lanthimos creates a more alienating world that will not win over many new fans, and some of the ones he gained with The Favourite and Poor Things might just be too weirded out by his latest effort.