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This review was originally published on May 17, 2024 out of the Cannes Film Festival.
We are recirculating it now timed toKinds of Kindnesss theatrical debut.
Yorgos Lanthimos can now reclaim his throne as our reigning cinematic poet-king of serial humiliation.
Hes fully back in his sandbox.
The stories inKinds of Kindnessare separate, but theyre not entirely disconnected, and theyre certainly not dissimilar.
Among the tasks: He has to ram his Jeep at an appointed hour into an oncoming vehicle.
So, Robert refuses.
(God, of course, was Dafoes characters nickname inPoor Things.)
And yet, this god is fundamentally an unremarkable man.
Like a proper Judeo-Christian deity, hes a connoisseur of destruction.)
The other two stories inKinds of Kindnessturn around many of these same ideas.
But in Lanthimoss cinematic universe, divinity can be a monstrous, corrupting thing.
The cult members of the final story live a life of constant purification and needy sexual congress.
In other words, theres no escape from the insanity.
I only ever see Lanthimos at festivals.
His pictures are being released by a Disney subsidiary, for crying out loud.
Not just the cruelty, perhaps, but also the ways that we so casually go along with it.
Lanthimoss unwavering, matter-of-fact style embodies the unquestioning nature of his characters.
And while the internal logic of his controlled worlds feels ironclad, it never really is.
