Kinds of Kindness

Kinds of Kindness is a nearly three-hour endurance test from Yorgos Lanthimos that systematically dismantles any structure that might give human life meaning. Family, authority, devotion, faith, community - each of the film's three stories constructs one of these structures and then destroys it. The experience is expertly made and deeply unpleasant.

The film is an anthology of three loosely connected stories, each featuring the same actors in different roles. The first follows Robert, a man whose wealthy boss Raymond controls every aspect of his life - his house, his car, his marriage, his sexual schedule. When Raymond orders Robert to crash his car and kill a specific man, Robert cannot do it. Raymond casts him out. Robert's life collapses. In a desperate bid to regain Raymond's approval, Robert eventually does kill the man and is welcomed back into the fold. The film presents this as grotesque, but Lanthimos refuses to offer any alternative. The need for approval and belonging is shown as so deep that murder is its logical extension.

The second story follows a police officer convinced that the wife who returned from a near-drowning is not actually his wife. His paranoia escalates into violence. The third story follows a woman in a cult-like community searching for a special individual prophesied to have extraordinary powers. This story features graphic sexual content and cannibalism imagery.

All three stories carry the same thesis: human devotion - whether to a boss, a spouse, or a spiritual leader - is ultimately coercive. The person who demands devotion is a manipulator. The person who gives devotion is a victim. There is no authentic love or genuine community in the Lanthimos universe. There is only control, compliance, and the illusion of connection.

This worldview has consistent ideological implications. Traditional institutions that conservative Americans value - the family, the church, hierarchical authority, devotion to a cause - are precisely what Lanthimos is dissecting. He is not presenting them as flawed implementations of good ideas. He is presenting them as inherently coercive by nature.

The performances are extraordinary in the technical sense. Jesse Plemons won Best Actor at Cannes. Emma Stone continues her collaboration with Lanthimos with complete commitment. But the question of what these performances are in service of is unanswerable, because the film is not in service of anything except provocation.

The 164-minute running time is a particular concern. This is not a film that earns its length. It repeats its thesis three times in three different settings. By the third story, the point has been made - repeatedly, graphically, and without mercy. The additional fifty minutes do not add insight. They add footage.

For conservative viewers, Kinds of Kindness is essentially a filmed argument that every form of human devotion is a mechanism of control. That is a deeply anti-traditional premise, and Lanthimos pursues it with the conviction of someone who genuinely believes it. This is not the film for you. It is not the film for most people.

Trope	Category	Location	Authenticity
Institutional Evil (Authority as Abuse)	WOKE	Entire film - all three stories present authority figures (boss Raymond, husband Daniel, cult leader Omi) as fundamentally coercive; devotion to them is presented as psychological bondage	Authentic to Lanthimos's filmmaking philosophy. This is not injected ideology; it is his entire artistic thesis sustained across multiple films.
Anti-Marriage / Anti-Family	WOKE	All three stories feature marriages or couple relationships that are mechanisms of control; none is presented as genuinely loving	Defining. The film does not permit any functional loving relationship to exist. Every bond is coercive by definition within Lanthimos's worldview.
Religious / Spiritual Community as Cult	WOKE	Third story - the community that Andrew and Emily serve is a cult with ritualistic practices, sexual demands, and prophetic claims; framed as exploitation	Intentional. Lanthimos consistently treats organized devotion - spiritual, professional, romantic - as indistinguishable from cult dynamics.
Sexual Transgression as Provocation	WOKE	Multiple segments - graphic nudity and sexual acts; cannibalistic sexual content in third story	Signature Lanthimos. He uses sexuality and bodily transgression as a consistent tool for disorientation and provocation.
LGBTQ+ Casting Signal	WOKE	Hunter Schafer in a supporting role - Schafer is a prominent transgender actress; casting is a deliberate creative choice	Reflects Lanthimos's casting philosophy. No source material is violated since this is original IP.
Nihilistic Worldview	WOKE	Throughout - the film offers no redemption, no genuine human connection, no framework for meaning; the final images of all three stories are empty or disturbing	Defining. Lanthimos's nihilism is philosophical rather than incidental.
Craft and Cinematic Excellence	TRADITIONAL	Production-level throughout - the cinematography, production design, and performance work are all exceptional by objective technical standards	Authentic. Whatever one thinks of the film's content, the technical filmmaking is excellent.
Commitment to Artistic Vision	TRADITIONAL	The film refuses to compromise its vision for commercial appeal; it runs 164 minutes and makes no concession to audience comfort	Authentic, though this is a formal quality the content does not deserve.