Kinds of Kindness

Kinds of Kindness is a 2024 absurdist black comedy anthology film directed by Yorgos Lanthimos from a screenplay he co-wrote with Efthimis Filippou. It stars Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons, Willem Dafoe, Margaret Qualley, Hong Chau, Joe Alwyn, Mamoudou Athie, and Hunter Schafer.

Kinds of Kindness had its world premiere at the 77th Cannes Film Festival on May 17, 2024, where Plemons won the Best Actor award. It was released theatrically in the United States by Searchlight Pictures on June 21, 2024, and in Ireland and the United Kingdom on June 28, 2024. It received generally positive reviews from critics and has grossed $11 million worldwide.

Plot
Structured as a "triptych fable", Kinds of Kindness consists of three distinct but loosely connected stories:

"The Death of R.M.F."
Robert Fletcher follows every order given by his domineering boss and lover, Raymond. Raymond controls every aspect of Robert's life, including setting Robert up with his wife Sarah and ensuring they cannot have a child. One day, Raymond orders Robert to crash his car at a particular intersection to kill a man known only by his initials, R.M.F., who has willingly agreed to be killed. After failing at first, Robert confesses that he is strongly unwilling to do such an act, but Raymond sternly insists that it must be done. After his refusal, Robert's life falls apart and Sarah goes missing. Robert desperately tells Raymond how he regrets his refusal and begs for another chance, only to be rebuffed.

Trying to gain Raymond's respect again, Robert meets Rita, a woman whose life Robert quickly finds out is also being controlled by Raymond. After Rita was also tasked with crashing into and killing R.M.F., she ends up in the hospital, with R.M.F. in critical condition. In a last ditch effort, Robert kidnaps R.M.F., dumping him in the parking lot and repeatedly running him over, eventually killing him. Robert then arrives at Raymond's mansion, and he, Raymond, and Raymond's live-in lover Vivian embrace on the couch.

"R.M.F. is Flying"
Police officer Daniel is mourning the disappearance of his wife Liz, a marine biologist who went missing at sea, when he receives news that she was rescued in a helicopter piloted by R.M.F.. Liz miraculously returns unharmed to Daniel, but many things about her are strange; her behavior and interests seem to be the opposite of how she was before, their pet cat acting aggressive towards her, and her feet no longer fit in her shoes, leading Daniel to become suspicious of her. Amid his paranoia about Liz, she tells Daniel she's pregnant. He orders her to leave and threatens arrest if she refuses. Daniel's paranoia escalates during a traffic stop, where he acts erratically, shoots a passenger in the hand and licks the wound. As a result, he is suspended from the police force and prescribed antipsychotics.

Liz recounts to her father a dream she experienced while lost at sea, in which dogs were the dominant species and kept humans like Liz as pets, being fed chocolate, a food she previously hated but ate due to there being large quantities of such. She concludes that it’s better to rely on something consistently available rather than something that depletes each day. Homebound and still unconvinced of Liz's identity, Daniel starts starving himself and then orders Liz to harm herself. She follows his command, severing her thumb and serving it to him. Daniel tells his doctor Liz mutilated herself on her own admission and claims she began punching herself in the stomach and face. At a gynecologist’s office, Liz is found to have miscarried, and claims that Daniel in fact hit her after she talked back, blaming it on the antipsychotics. Later, Daniel demands more food, suggesting her liver. Liz complies, cuts out her liver, and dies. Another Liz arrives at Daniel's door, and they happily embrace. Over the credits, footage of dogs living like humans is shown.

"R.M.F. Eats a Sandwich"
Emily and Andrew are two cult members looking for a woman with the ability to reanimate the dead. They examine a candidate named Anna, whom they find to be unsuccessful. Emily secretly makes regular visits to her estranged husband, Joseph, and their daughter. Later at the headquarters, cult leader Omi gives Emily and Andrew information on another possible candidate, only for them to find out that she is already dead. Emily believes that the woman they are looking for appeared to her in a dream. While Emily and Andrew are eating at a restaurant, a woman named Rebecca, who resembles the woman Emily dreamed about, approaches them and says she knows who they are. She suggests that her twin sister, Ruth, would be a perfect candidate. Andrew brushes this off, saying that one of the requirements—that the candidate's twin must be deceased—was not met.

During a visit to her old home, Emily runs into Joseph and their daughter as she is leaving, and Joseph invites Emily to visit them again. She does, only for Joseph to drug her drinks and rape her while she is unconscious. Emily is then kicked out of the cult after being found to be "contaminated." As part of a plan to return to the cult, she decides to see Ruth. Before leaving, she visits Rebecca, who called earlier to say that she would be able to meet one of the requirements. Rebecca kills herself by diving into an empty pool during Emily's visit. After visiting Ruth's veterinarian practice and witnessing the spontaneous healing of a dog she examined, Emily knocks her out and brings her to the morgue, where she orders Ruth to bring R.M.F.'s body back to life. Ruth is able to do so, and Emily dances energetically outside her car in celebration. Speeding to get to the cult's headquarters, Emily crashes the car, killing Ruth.

In a mid-credits scene, the revived R.M.F. eats a sandwich and spills ketchup on his shirt.

Production
The film's original title was R.M.F. The title was later changed to And, and then was changed again to Kinds of Kindness in December 2023. The initials R.M.F are not in reference to anything, according to Yorgos Lanthimos, who co-wrote the script with Efthimis Filippou. The film marks the fifth collaboration between Lanthimos and Filippou, following Dogtooth (2009), Alps (2011), The Lobster (2015), and The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017). In September 2022, Searchlight Pictures agreed to distribute the film, which Lanthimos would direct under development with Element Pictures and Film4. Cast members were revealed soon after, including Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons, Willem Dafoe, Margaret Qualley, Hong Chau, Joe Alwyn, and Mamoudou Athie. Hunter Schafer had a cameo in the film.

Filming was scheduled to take place in New Orleans, Louisiana, from October 24 to December 16, 2022. The three stories in the triptych were filmed back to back and each story took three weeks to be completed.

Release
Kinds of Kindness had its world premiere at the 77th Cannes Film Festival in-competition on May 17, 2024. It had a limited theatrical release in the United States by Searchlight Pictures on June 21, 2024, before expanding nationwide and to Ireland and the United Kingdom on June 28.

Box office
, Kinds of Kindness has grossed $5 million in the United States and Canada, and $6.3 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $11.3 million.

In the United States and Canada, the film made $377,289 in its opening weekend from five theaters in New York and Los Angeles; its average of $75,457 per screen was the best of 2024. Expanding to 490 theaters the following weekend, the film made $1.5 million, finishing in 10th.

Critical response
Brian Tallerico, from RogerEbert.com, praised Plemons' acting, stating: "Plemons giving not just one but at least two and maybe three of the year's best performances goes a long way to holding Kinds of Kindness together."