After the comparatively \u201cnormal\u201d visions of \u201cThe Favourite\u201d and \u201cPoor Things,\u201d Yorgos Lanthimos is back in provocateur mode. Working more in the vein of his earlier, more surreal flicks like \u201cThe Lobster,\u201d \u201cDogtooth\u201d and \u201cThe Killing of a Sacred Deer,” the filmmaker’s latest reunites him with Efthimis Filippou, the co-writer of those movies, to deliver a study on\u00a0the many facets of control: How we claim to fight against but often return to it, and how often it limits our ability to live\u00a0to satisfying lives.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cKinds of Kindness\u201d overflows with ideas, giving\u00a0the project the feel of three films that Lanthimos and Filippou couldn\u2019t quite flesh out to feature-length. So, seemingly, they decided to cram them together into a nearly three-hour anthology. Conversations about what ties the films together thematically may end in frustration. Still, the one thing that undeniably unites them is Lanthimos\u2019 mastery of tone, making another film that\u2019s alternately hysterical and terrifying, even when it puts up walls against interpretation. The anthology nature of the project brings to mind the theory that if you try to make two (or in this case, three) movies, you\u2019re not making one cohesive one. Still, the audacity of the project carries the day, and a cast once again bringing their A-game for a director who knows how to work with ensembles.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The first of three films within a film is playful even in its title: \u201cThe Death of R.M.F.\u201d It\u2019s not long before one realizes every character\u2019s initials could fit that monogram. It\u2019s probably Robert Fletcher (Jesse Plemons), the corporate lackey who follows every<\/em> order from his boss, Raymond (Willem Dafoe). Like most Lanthimos projects, the filmmaker takes a relatable concept and pushes it to theatrical extremes to make his point. You think your boss is controlling? Raymond tells Robert what to do with nearly every minute of his day, including when to eat and make love to his wife Sarah (Hong Chau). Because of how it would impact his workflow, he\u2019s even forcing Robert into drugging his wife to miscarry so they will remain childless. However, Raymond\u2019s latest order\u2014to murder another man with the initials R.M.F.\u2014finally pushes our protagonist over the edge.<\/p>\n The problems start for Robert when he pushes back on first-degree murder, even though Raymond insists that the victim is willing to go through with it himself. When Raymond stands up for himself, his life falls apart, leading him to worry that he\u2019s been replaced in the corporate machine and desperately trying to reclaim his role as a cog within it. Plemons is stellar here, conveying a sort of desperation that comes from adults who have never really had any control over their lives and how drastic change can unmoor a person. Plemons grounds Lanthimos and Filippou\u2019s vision in a relatable, emotional spiral, which helps make \u201cThe Death of R.M.F.\u201d the most effective of the three chapters. It\u2019s also the one that grounds the thematic throughline: control and what happens when we lose it. It\u2019s not accidental that Robert and Sarah are gifted one of John McEnroe\u2019s broken tennis rackets and Ayrton Senna\u2019s battered helmet: relics of lost moments of control. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" After the comparatively \u201cnormal\u201d visions of \u201cThe Favourite\u201d and \u201cPoor Things,\u201d Yorgos Lanthimos is back in provocateur mode. Working more in the vein of his earlier, more surreal flicks like \u201cThe Lobster,\u201d \u201cDogtooth\u201d and \u201cThe Killing of a Sacred Deer,” the filmmaker’s latest reunites him with Efthimis Filippou, the co-writer of those movies, to deliver …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[33,45],"class_list":["post-1392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-drama-movies","tag-comedy","tag-drama"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1392"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1392\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}