The Monotonous Miseries of “Kinds of Kindness”

To wit: “Kinds of Kindness,” which runs nearly three hours and unfurls three dark fables about control, abjection, and the delusion of free will. The stories, written by Lanthimos and his regular collaborator Efthimis Filippou, are self-enclosed narratives, up to a point. The same performers—chiefly Jesse Plemons and Emma Stone, but also Willem Dafoe, Margaret Qualley, Hong Chau, Mamoudou Athie, and Joe Alwyn—appear in all three tales, each time playing different characters. Sometimes the variations are mainly sartorial; Dafoe starts off in a suit and winds up in a Speedo. He’s essentially playing the harsh authoritarian three ways, and in knowingly stark contrast to the more benevolent father figure he gave us in “Poor Things.” That man was called Godwin, or God, for short; this time, Dafoe dances with the devil.