Skip to content
Kinds of Kindness is described as a ‘triptych’, thus, a fancy word for three-part story, which feels rather like three episodes of Inside No.9 and/or Tales Of The Unexpected – which obviously inspired the BBC series, one after another, albeit with a link between them.
Part one is entitled ‘The Death of R.M.F.‘, although several characters appear to have this initials, so I was set trying to speculate to whom they were referring. Can’t just be the man actually listed as R.M.F., can it? That’d be too obvious, I felt.
Going into the basic premise of this segment, Robert’s (Jesse Plemons – Civil War) boss, Raymond (Willem Dafoe – The Boy and the Heron), gets thought of as some sort of master by his staff – such as telling them to to put on weight, along with other aspects of their personal lives – sometimes getting TOO personal, and forces him to participate in a car crash which could kill a man, but apparently that’s what the latter wants.
When things don’t quite go to plan, he’s told he must repeat the crash in two days time, but is reticent to do so, as he finds it morally reprehensible. That said, he lives a good, affluent life, given the complementary car, house and his wife, Sarah (Hong Chau – The Menu), won’t be happy if they have to give that up, along with their bizarre gift of a tennis racket which was smashed by John McEnroe in 1984.
Meanwhile, in the second part, cop Daniel’s (Plemons) wife, Liz (Emma Stone – Zombieland: Double Tap), is a marine biologist who has gone missing at sea, but upon her return, soon after, Daniel feels she’s quite a bit different, although he can’t quite put his finger on it and needs to figure things out. As for part three, I’ll leave you to discover that.
Given how I wanted to see multiple films at the weekend, this one hovering around the three-hour mark, along with Horizon: An American Saga Chapter One, and since I’m on Three, I diverted from the usual Odeon visit and went to Cineworld for £3. I also chose that film over Horizon at that cinema, since Odeon’s Trafford Centre’s screen 1 is still blurry and Mr Magoo at Guest Relations keeps telling me everything is fine. Well, it ain’t!
(and before I went into a film in that same corridor on Sunday at Odeon, I popped in to screen 1 for a minute, and it’s still broken! FFS!)
Overall, for Kinds of Kindness, it was a fairly busyish screening, and while I got a mostly great film – including some very odd things that I’d expect from director and co-writer Yorgos Lanthimos – I figured the average cinemagoer wasn’t really in tune with what they were about to witness. Maybe they saw his Poor Things, with many of the same key cast members, and assumed it was also up for Oscars? Then again, I didn’t understand why, after that one was brought out in January, this follow-up has come just five months later. Why not just hold on to it until next January, and make it a big release? As such, this film is disappearing from both Cineworld and Odeon’s screens after just one week!
Still, at least the teaser, below, doesn’t give anything away about the film’s content, and aside from that, there is a mid-credits scene, details of which are in a video below.
I’ll give no spoilers as to what might’ve caused the following to happen, but safe to say that one couple walked out just after the first hour, another 3 couples before we got to the end of the second part, and then the last couple just after that. They must’ve really been unhappy at what came up!
I can understand Kinds Of Kindness won’t be for everyone, but doesn’t anyone look up who the director is, what he’s done before, and the fact it’s almost 3hrs long? So, they’re not just coming in for a quick 90-minute comedy before they naff off next door for a burger?!
As a sort-of aside, I had an aisle seat in row E, and found a couple in it. I just nicely said, “Hi, I’ve booked E10” and they said something I didn’t catch exactly but which was well-meaning, and went back to their seats a few rows back which weren’t aisle ones.
They were one of the five couples that left 😀
Kinds of Kindness is in cinemas now, but isn’t yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD. However, once announced, it will appear on the New DVD Blu-ray 3D and 4K releases UK list.
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 164 minutes
Release date: June 28th 2024
Studio: Searchlight Pictures / Film 4
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 (Anamorphic /i Scope, Anamorphic Atlas Scope, Anamorphic Panavision)
Cinema: Cineworld Didsbury
Ratings:
The Death of R.M.F.: 8/10
R.M.F. is Flying: 9/10
R.M.F. Eats A Sandwich: 7.5/10
Overall: 8/10
Director: Yorgos Lanthimos
Producers: Ed Guiney, Yorgos Lanthimos, Andrew Lowe, Kasia Malipan
Screenplay: Yorgos Lanthimos, Efthimis Filippou
Music: Jerskin Fendrix
Cast:
Rita / Liz / Emily: Emma Stone
Robert / Daniel / Andrew: Jesse Plemons
Raymond / George / Omi: Willem Dafoe
Vivian / Martha / Rebecca / Ruth: Margaret Qualley
Sarah / Sharon / Aka: Hong Chau
Will / Neil / Morgue Nurse: Mamoudou Athie
Collectibles Appraiser / Passenger / Joseph: Joe Alwyn
Collectibles Appraiser 2: Thaddeus Burbank
Mr.Smith’s Secretary: Suzanna Stone
Paramedic: Fadeke Adeola
Louise: Tessa Bourgeois
Cheval Barman: Kencil Mejia
Jonathan: Ja’Quan Monroe-Henderson
R.M.F: Yorgos Stefanakos
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.