Little White Lies’ new issue explores the sick, comic excess of Kinds of Kindness
- Text by David Jenkins
- Illustrations by Tom Humberstone
There’s no-one currently doing it like the Greek filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos. Way, way back in 2009, he seemed to arrive from out of the ether with his provocative, transgressive and ruthlessly intelligent feature, Dogtooth, which explored ideas of closed power structures, the limitations of language, and just the general daily freakiness of life on this humble rock.
Fast-forward to 2024, and we’re pleased to let you know that Lanthimos is still out there doing his thing, and is staunchly committed to the button-pushing intellectual template he proposed all those years ago. And that's even after a lenghty run-in with the Oscar set via his films The Favourite and Poor Things.
His new feature, Kinds of Kindness, comprises a group of characters who essentially live to be told what to do. Jesse Plemons, Emma Stone, Willem Dafoe, Hong Chao and more assume multiple roles in this triptych of terrible tall tales in which hapless people end up succumbing to some kind of violent self-destruction. It may sound cynical and depressing, but it’s actually hilarious, as Lanthimos remains a deployer pitch black humour in search of his bleak thesis.
Would you like to know more? If so, it’s worth mentioning that Little White Lies have dedicated an entire issue of the magazine to the film, which includes incisive interviews with the teams in front of and behind the camera, and there’s also a special compendium feature from LWLies contributors on the film scenes that have made them physically turn away from the cinema screen
The Kinds of Kindness issue front cover features illustrations from Tom Humberstone, and you can read more about his process here. The issue is available now from all good magazine stockists, but you can also snag a copy through our web shop, or you could make a mega saving by opting to subscribe. Or even better than that, you can get an inside view of the editorial action by signing up to Club LWLies. Anyway, thanks for listening, hope you enjoy the issue, and speak soon.
LWLies 103: The Kinds of Kindness issue is out now.
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