Michael’s Movie Grade: B+
This is the type of art film that will captivate some, while completely alienating others. However for most of it, I found my eyes glued to the screen.
After Yorgos Lanthimos‘s major mainstream success with last year’s Poor Things, he finds himself going back to his roots by making a movie that is made to polarize audiences. This film will at times puzzle, confound, disgust, entertain, engage and disengage, anyone watching. Sometimes there will be scenes that make you completely unsure how to feel about what you just watched. This was purposely made not to appeal to everyone. And depending on the person their mileage may vary with the arty weirdness.
Rather than telling one story this is an anthology film with three separate story segments connected only by a theme. I admit that I found myself fairly disengaged with the first story. I found the idea behind it to be often too simple and much of the dialogue to be too on the nose. Yet despite this I absolutely loved the second and third segments. The second segment was easily my favorite, this dark and complex segment takes a familiar horror movie trope (someone you love being replaced by someone who looks like them) and takes it in a whole other direction. This segment had me always guessing just what would happen next and constantly surprised me with each twist. It made me feel uncomfortable all the way through but in a way that was completely engaging. The third segment, while having a few pacing problems, was also incredibly engaging and complex.
These segments are tied together by an exploration and deconstruction of the very idea of kindness. As this film deconstructs this very familiar concept, we often see the absolute worst of humanity (especially in the third segment), perhaps implying that a human's capacity for kindness and for cruelty are not as far removed as we like to think.
Of course, all three segments benefit from an incredible cast that includes Emma Stone, Willem Dafoe, Jesse Plemons, Margaret Qualley and Hong Chau. They appear as various characters over the course of this movie and are perfect in each of their roles. Once again Yorgos Lanthimos brings out the best in Emma Stone showing that she is a much more diverse actress than often given credit for. I hope these two continue working together for a long time.
This film is definitely not for everyone. However, for two of the three segments, I found myself completely absorbed and fascinated by this great work of art. While I wish that the first segment was better the other two are completely brilliant and more than make up for this.
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