RMF is a silent, bearded man identified by the monogram on his shirt.
In the first story, he arrives at a Georgian mansion to take delivery of an envelope.
It may contain money.
‘Kinds of Kindness’Searchlight Pictures
RMF is about to become the target of a series of planned car crashes.
We wont find that out either.
All three stories do, however, reflect Lanthimos recurrent motifs: control, cruelty and erotomania.
It isnt about an isolated quirk, like the imprisoned family inDogtooth.
That makes it their gloomiest film yet.
Of course, it is also very funny.
The first story follows Robert, a corporate dweeb played byJesse Plemons.
Lanthimos seems to have made it his lifes purpose to get Dafoe to go full Voldemort.
As in so many other aspects of his gloriously excessive filmmaking, he has now wholly succeeded.
There is no discussion of the cults other beliefs.
You get the picture?
Yes, we see.
Liz responds to his hostility with a deluge of endearments and abject willingness to obey his every demand.
He has obviously gone mad what kind of man demands his wife cooks her own fingers for his dinner?
but it is true that the woman in his kitchen doesnt seem much like an intrepid adventurer.
Strange things happen, but this isnt a ghost story.
Lanthimos could give David Cronenberg a run for his money on murkily-purposed institutions.
What is this teasingly unfathomable filmmaker telling us?
We may never know, any more than we will find out why RMF is a marked man.
That in itself is more than enough food for thought.
