Even seasoned fans of the absurdist filmmaking of Yorgos Lanthimos may find this a tough nut to crack and its structure – three short stories to make one long film – adds to the complexity. To further suggest links that may or may not be there, Lanthimos uses the actors in different roles, with credits on screen as each section ends.

It is a total departure from Poor Things (2023), which won a host of Oscars including best director and best picture. The delightful whimsy that carried Bella Baxter through her strange and empowering odyssey has fled. Nor is there evidence of the beautifully observed farce of The Favourite (2018).

This is more of a return to early Lanthimos where he takes liberties with what is real while seeking truth in the way people behave. There are moments of acid humour but these people are not very nice.

The core actors are Lanthimos favourites old and new; Emma Stone, Willem Dafoe and Margaret Qualley are all from Poor Things, Jesse Plemons (Civil War) is a new recruit and an increasingly nuanced actor whose characters often throw off an air of bewildered desperation, and Joe Alwyn (from Stars at Noon, which he made with Qualley) was in The Favourite.

Coming off the first story in which Plemons plays Robert, a man who physically hurts himself then whines for attention, Plemons becomes Daniel, a spaced-out and unstable policeman whose wife, Liz (Emma Stone), is missing at sea. He despairs of her coming back yet by a miracle, she is found. Only her shoes no longer fit, the cat hisses at her, and she loves chocolate when she used to hate it. After a hunger strike gets boring, Robert sullenly decides to test her love in increasingly macabre ways.

It warms up as we go along and in the final story Dafoe is hilariously resplendent in orange budgie smugglers and a beach robe as the guru, Omi, who Emily (Stone again) has left her family for. Behind the gates of the luxurious compound, where free love requires bookings and spiritual cleanliness checks, the acolytes gather to watch Omi and his wife Aka (Hong Chau) cry purifying tears into the sacred water that gets them through the day.

Emily and Andrew (Plemons, looking gaunt, with a shaved head and baggy linen suit) are on a mission to find a spiritual healer who can raise the dead, so they can deliver her to Omi and win his love. They test one potential healer on a body in the morgue, but she is a dud. Then they come across twins, Ruth and Rebecca (Qualley), one of whom has the gift. So, they lay plans to bring her in.

The flourishes given to some of the characters are colourful and funny – Emily and Andrew inexplicably do donuts in their purple muscle car – and there are some beautiful interior and exterior shots displaying different versions of luxury. It is all faultlessly and confidently executed.

What it is remains an entertaining mystery. There are identifiable threads of faith, belief and efforts to take control that link the stories together, and Lanthimos has an abiding interest in trust between people, and the emptiness of the conventions that bind us.

It is an earnest affair full of red herrings and absurdist distractions that will be too surreal for some. Adventurous filmgoers will find rewards in its masterful execution, the pitch-black humour and the unnerving aftertaste left by each of the stories. See it, but prepare to be baffled.

Kinds of Kindness is in cinemas now.

This article is republished from InReview under a Creative Commons licence. Read the original article. InReview is an open access, non-profit arts and culture journalism project. Readers can support our work with a donation. Subscribe to InReview’s free weekly newsletter here.