Yorgos Lanthimos went from a buzzy name to a household one after his 2023 hit Poor Things. A year later, he’s getting ready to release another highly-anticipated film featuring more than a few of his favorite muses.
The official teaser for Kinds of Kindness instantly got film fans talking. After a couple of absurdist period pieces directed from Tony McNamara scripts, Lanthimos is going back to modern settings and partnering back up with his faithful Greek collaborator Efthimis Filippou, with whom he made his first hits Dogtooth, The Lobster, and Killing of a Sacred Deer.
What is Kinds of Kindness about?
Described as a “triptych fable” in Searchlight’s official synopsis of the film, Kinds of Kindness is an anthology made out of three segments about “a man without choice who tries to take control of his life,” “a policeman who is alarmed that his wife who was missing at sea has returned and seems to be a different person” and “a woman who is determined to find a specific someone destined to become a prodigious spiritual leader.”
Who stars in Kinds of Kindness?
Yorgos Lanthimos’ upcoming film boasts a star-studded ensemble cast. The director’s Oscar-winning muse Emma Stone is back along with Poor Things cast mates Willem Dafoe, Margaret Qualley, and Mamoudou Athie.
Joe Alwyn, who starred with Stone in Lanthimos’ 2018 film The Favourite, is also joining Kinds of Kindness, as well as The Whale‘s Hong Chau, Euphoria‘s Hunter Schafer, and Jesse Plemons (whose filmography is so rich it’s hard to name just one film, so we’ll name a few: Civil War, The Power of the Dog, Killers of the Flower Moon, plus many more).
From the film’s official synopsis as well as the promotional materials released so far, we’ll bet that Dafoe, Chau, Qualley, and Plemons will be headlining the guru storyline, while Stone and Alwyn take the lead on another one of the film’s segments. Athie appears to be playing the cop in the third storyline. It also looks like most of the actors will play a part in all three sections.
When is Kinds of Kindness coming out?
Kinds of Kindness is making its debut in competition at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival in May, before heading to theaters worldwide a month later.
Searchlight Pictures is distributing the film in the United States, where it will be released on June 21, 2024. A week later, on June 28, it’ll make its way to theaters across the United Kingdom and Ireland. Its Greek release will happen earlier, on Mary 30.
Is there a trailer for Kinds of Kindness?
There are two one-minute-long trailers for Kinds of Kindness teasing the roles of each of the cast members in what looks like another Lanthimos banger. The director is famous for his outrageous black humor and provocative visual style.
The music choices for each are definite highlights and a good preview of the film’s seemingly offbeat tone: Eurythmics, Annie Lennox, and Dave Stewart’s “Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This),” and Cobrah’s “Brand New Bitch.” Take a look at the movie poster, below.
Kinds of Kindness, whose script was initially titled And, was filmed in New Orleans from October 24 to December 16, 2022, and has a runtime of 2 hours and 44 minutes, making it the longest film in Yorgos Lanthimos’ filmography.
