Keswick Film Club - Kinds of Kindness

Synopsis

So... Lanthimos is back, and back with Emma Stone and Willem Dafoe. Whether you liked 'Poor Things' or not, it certainly made the Oscar news, but his latest film is more in line with his earlier 'The Lobster' or 'Dogtooth'. "If you enjoy films that explain it all for you, then let me do you a kindness and say that 'Kinds of Kindness' is not for you. But if you like the kind of challenge that exasperates as often as it entertains, then this mesmerizing mindbender is just the provocation you need. It's your choice" -Peter Travers, ABC News. How could we NOT show it?!

What we have here is a triptych of films, seemingly only linked by the mysterious subtitles, but also all containing stories about control... over other people. In Story One - 'The Death of RMF' Robert (Jesse Plemons) has a boss (Dafoe) who tells him what to do in EVERYthing. In Story Two - 'RMF is Flying', Plemons has become a cop who doesn't believe his wife (Stone) is who she says she is, but she will do ANYthing to prove she is. Then Story Three - 'RMF eats a Sandwich' - has Plemons and Stone as members of a weird cult, whose leader (Dafoe) rewards impossible demands on his followers.

Mark Kermode (Kermode and Mayo's Take) says he thought it was really funny, but that he loves Lanthimos and could understand some people not liking it, whilst Peters Travers finished with -"That's the thing about Lanthimos -- his indisputable talent seduces actors and audiences to participate in his vision of a cruel world that looks scarily like our own. But I can't help thinking that his secret agenda is to have us rebel against him and maybe think for ourselves. And that looks to me like a kind of hope"

There is only one way to find out what you think - come along and see for yourself. I will certainly be there.