‘Kinds of Kindness’ review: Lanthimos once again delights in human depravity

Many of those who discovered the cinema of Yorgos Lanthimos thanks to ‘The Favorite’ (2017) or ‘Poor Creatures’ (2023) will probably feel disconcerted by this new work, a work rigorously dedicated to delighting, generating discomfort in the viewer and, incidentally, , remind us why the Greek became one of the most divisive current directors, an outstanding student of Buñuel for some and a mere provocateur for others.

Composed of three stories that are independent of each other despite being performed by the same actors, it is the fifth movie which he co-wrote with screenwriter Efthimis Filippouand connects with the other four -‘Canino’ (2009), ‘Alpes’ (2011), ‘Lobster’ (2015) and ‘The sacrifice of a sacred deer’ (2017) – in that it also talks about closed worlds and absurdly regimented, characters completely stripped of emotion and depraved, cruel and aberrant human behavior.

With it, the director once again explores what is undoubtedly the central theme of his filmography, the brutal dynamics of domination and abuse that govern our lives and the violence derived from them, and this time his representation of that violence is more savage than never before and more effectively oriented to function as a vehicle for very dark comedy and sick humor. Human beings are terrible by act or omission, Lanthimos reminds us, and to live with that certainty the only thing we can do is laugh at it..