Movie · 2024 · Drama, Comedy · 2h 44m · R · English
Curator score: 3.5/10 (595.7K ratings)
We might all be in danger.
Overview
A triptych fable following a man without choice who tries to take control of his own life; a policeman who is alarmed that his wife who was missing-at-sea has returned and seems a different person; and a woman determined to find a specific someone with a special ability, who is destined to become a prodigious spiritual leader.
Ratings
Curator score: 3.5/10
IMDb: 6.4/10
Letterboxd: 3.31/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 71%
Metacritic: 64
TMDB: 6.5/10
Director
Yorgos Lanthimos
Production
Searchlight Pictures, Film4 Productions, TSG Entertainment, Element Pictures, Limp
Cast
Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons, Willem Dafoe, Margaret Qualley, Hong Chau, Mamoudou Athie, Joe Alwyn, Hunter Schafer, Yorgos Stefanakos, Fadeke Adeola, Tessa Bourgeois, Kencil Mejia, Thaddeus Burbank, Suzanna Stone, Jerskin Fendrix, Nikki Chamberlin, Christian M. Letellier, Lawrence Johnson, Lindsey G. Smith, Kevin Guillot
Where to watch
Hulu
Curator Review
Verdict
A sharp, divisive anthology of control, devotion, and social ritual, built around deadpan performances and escalating cruelty. It’s not Lanthimos at his most accessible, but it’s a confident, formally precise provocation for viewers who enjoy bleak absurdism and moral discomfort.
Best for
fans of dark absurdist comedy
viewers who like anthology structures and triptych storytelling
people drawn to controlled, symmetrical, highly stylized filmmaking
audiences interested in power dynamics, devotion, and social manipulation
Skip if
you want a straightforward plot or emotional realism
you dislike cold, mannered performances and repetition
you’re sensitive to sexual humiliation, cruelty, or body-horror-adjacent discomfort
you prefer comedy that is warm, broad, or conventionally punchy
Overview
Kinds of Kindness is a triptych of obedience, dependency, and the strange bargains people make to be loved, chosen, or forgiven. Each chapter resets the board while keeping the same emotional weather: deadpan dread, social awkwardness, and a creeping sense that everyone is trapped inside a system they helped build.
Worth noting
The film is less interested in plot mechanics than in behavioral patterns. Lanthimos turns gestures, routines, and power exchanges into a kind of grotesque social science experiment, and the cast commits fully to the discomfort of it. Some viewers will find the repetition punishing or the provocations self-conscious, but the precision is hard to dismiss.
Bottom line
What lingers is the film’s commitment to its own logic. It can feel cruel, funny, and absurd in the same breath, often within the same scene. If that blend works for you, it’s one of the more distinctive studio-scale oddities of the year; if not, it will feel like a very elaborate exercise in making you squirm.
Top Letterboxd reviews
ndc32002 (4★) · 24029 likes
part 1: willem dafoe
part 2: willem dafriend
part 3: willem dafreak
myfilmthoughtss (4★) · 17752 likes
when your circle is small but yall are crazy
Karsten (4.5★) · 13355 likes
he’s being peculiar again
♤ (4★) · 12653 likes
hunter schafer briefly showed up, served tits and a bob, then left!
iana (5★) · 9783 likes
an anthology about the lengths and limits of people’s devotion to one another. yorgos back in sicko mode. the old man next to me got so mad he pushed me out of the way to get the hell out. we’re so fucking back friends.