The genius of Yorgos Lanthimos is not lost on me. I loved The Lobster and The Favourite. I admire his weirdness and dark sense of humor. I understood the appeal of Poor Things, even though I personally didn’t like it and found it offensive to persons with disabilities. But it was gorgeous and well-acted. So I wasn’t sure how Kinds of Kindness would sit with me.

And honestly, after sitting through it, I’m sorry to say, this one may have been the straw to break the camel’s back in terms of determining my preference for Lanthimos films.

Kinds of Kindness is an anthology film. It’s divided into three vignettes, with Lanthimos mainstays like Emma Stone, Willem Dafoe, Margaret Qualley, and veteran actors like Jesse Plemons and Hong Chau playing multiple roles. The first story (“The Death of R.M.F”) centers on Plemons doing everything he can to please his boss in a twisted scenario. The second (“R.M.F is Flying”) centers on Plemons and Stone as a married couple, in which the husband suspects his wife has been replaced with a doppelganger. The third (“R.M.F Eats a Sandwich”) is about two cult members looking for a woman who can potentially resurrect the dead.

I suppose this constitutes a “me problem,” but I really didn’t understand this movie. To be perfectly frank I found myself dull and disgusted, as I sat through scene after tedious scene of pretentiousness and pointlessness in this almost three hour nothing burger of a movie. What do the titles mean? Who is R.M.F? What do these stories have to do with one another? Frankly it’s anyone’s guess. And I half wonder if anyone out there who claims they get this movie actually does.

Thematically, yes, each is about the dangers of an over-eagerness to please someone in power. But so what? What was this all for? For a director whose trademark move is making audiences uncomfortable, this may be the one to take the cake, but what am I supposed to get from it?

This is a really mean-spirited movie. I found myself unamused at the depths of cruelty on display here. From cannibalism and self-mutilation, to animal cruelty and murder, it was really too much for my tolerance. And all of it felt gratuitous to me. I suppose it’s a Lanthimos trademark to buck convention and go for edgy. But at what point does it feel like a filmmaker is trying too hard, to the point that it feels artificial? That’s what I took out of Kinds of Kindness. It prioritizes the shock value over any sort of really compelling storytelling.

Lanthimos is giving it his all to try and push the envelope “in the name of art,” ironically becoming over-eager himself to impress the audience of cinephiles that’ll pay to see this, and will likely leave saying it was a “transformative experience.” It’s just a shame the characters don’t work, and the movie is abstract to the point of ignoring answers to basic questions: chief among them, why do I need to watch this?

I’m all in favor of giving a unique storyteller like Lanthimos a platform to say whatever he needs to say and tell his original stories. But this movie drags horribly. I spent each vignette hoping that the story would progress or anything new would be revealed about any of the characters that would move the stories forward. But they each end up treading water and repeating beats from one segment to another.

The first repeats beats of Plemons stalking his old boss and groveling to be let back into his good graces. The second repeats beats of Stone trying and failing to feed her husband. And the third repeats beats of Stone visiting and re-visiting her previous family. None of the stories need to be as long as they are, let alone this movie being as long as it is. But no. Lanthimos must beat you over the head with the situation in a matter that leaves you scratching your head and shuffling in your seat.

At the very least, though, you get some terrific performances from Plemons and Stone. Plemons, in particular, gives each segment a subdued sense of tension and malice. He’s incredibly good at playing disturbed and creepy characters (especially ones who question Frito-Lay deals). And the three characters he inherits here fit that mold perfectly. Stone is also given three very distinct characters, showcasing her range. She’s also given the honor of performing the awkward-Lanthimos dance in this film.

The supporting cast is good as well. Chau is able to navigate between characters that are kind or twisted in a manner of minutes. We’ve seen her do so throughout her career and honing those skills to play a multitude of characters pays off wonderfully here. Dafoe is also terrific, particularly in the first segment, when you’re left questioning what exactly it is about his character that draws you to him. And Qualley also plays four(!) distinct characters — each of varying appeal. It’s an exercise in versatility, and all three actors, along with the leads, pass with flying colors.

Visually there’s also some nice moments in the film. Naturally it’s not as arresting as Poor Things, but that was meant to be an epic of sorts, versus a more grounded film like this. Still Lanthimos’ segments pop with interesting color palettes and framed shots courtesy of Poor Things DP Robbie Ryan. The costume choices are also really fun and interesting, down to Plemons rocking a vibrant pink turtleneck at one point, or Dafoe rocking shorts and long black socks. The details in the costume design really do give flourishes to the characters that I feel the writing doesn’t. So combined with the performances, things feel a bit more memorable, even if the characters are deplorable.

But unfortunately, the visuals and strong performances aren’t enough to get me to enjoy this bizarre and unfulfilling, rambling movie that borders on incoherent at times. I found myself just wondering what the hell I was watching and why multiple times through the course of the film. I suppose many will see the beauty in Kinds of Kindness. And perhaps in the gleefully sick sense of humor in its ironic title; probably folks more sophisticated than myself. But I personally just saw it as an exercise in pointless shock value with no real merit in having sat through a nearly three hour movie about, frankly, not much at all. But, to each their own.

Overall Score: D