What filmmaking techniques does Kinds of Kindness use?

CineCode breaks down 5 techniques in Kinds of Kindness (2024): Three-Role Performance, Deadpan Absurdism, Cult Structure as Social Horror, Black-and-White Flashback Grammar and Three-Part Structure.

Who directed Kinds of Kindness?

Yorgos Lanthimos directed Kinds of Kindness, released in 2024. CineCode also covers Dogtooth (2009), The Lobster (2015), The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017), The Favourite (2018), Poor Things (2023), Bugonia (2025).

What films are similar to Kinds of Kindness?

Films that share techniques with Kinds of Kindness include Dogtooth (2009), Suspiria (2018), Bugonia (2025), 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (2026).

Comedy · Drama

Kinds of Kindness

Yorgos Lanthimos, 2024

Three separate stories show people who will do almost anything to please someone with power over them. A man obeys his boss, a policeman doubts his wife, and a cult member searches for a miracle. The same actors play different characters in each. Watch how that casting links the stories.

3 Narrative 1 Psychology 1 Cinematography

At a glance

Kinds of Kindness is a 2024 comedy and drama film directed by Yorgos Lanthimos. This breakdown covers 5 techniques (3 narrative, 1 psychology and 1 cinematography), each with the scene where you can see it. If you like how it is made, Dogtooth uses several of the same techniques.

Narrative

Three-Role Performance

Casting one actor in 3 different roles in the same film. You stay aware of the acting, which stops you sinking into any one character and reminds you that social roles are performances too.

How this film uses it

Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons, Willem Dafoe, Margaret Qualley and Hong Chau each play a different character in each of the 3 stories. You recognize the faces and see them in new roles of power and weakness. On one reading, it suggests the same patterns of control repeat whoever is playing them.

Where to see it

The three stories: Jesse Plemons plays Robert, then Daniel, then Andrew, and Willem Dafoe plays Raymond, George and Omi.

Narrative

Deadpan Absurdism

Showing extreme, violent or surreal events while the characters react as if nothing unusual is happening. That mismatch is funny and unsettling at the same time.

How this film uses it

People calmly accept shocking demands, including murder and self-harm, with flat voices and little visible emotion. The calm makes the cruelty funnier and harder to bear.

Where to see it

Daniel and Liz's reunion: Daniel decides his wife is an imposter, and he calmly orders her to cut out her liver.

Psychology

Cult Structure as Social Horror

Using a cult or closed community, with its ranks, rituals and pressure to obey, as the source of horror. The threat is belonging to the group, with no single monster.

How this film uses it

In the third story, Emily and Andrew belong to a group led by Omi and Aka. Members follow its rules, and Emily is expelled for contamination. You see how badly belonging to the group matters to her.

Where to see it

The cult: Emily is expelled for contamination and then tries to find the woman who can revive the dead.

Cinematography

Black-and-White Flashback Grammar

Shooting the past in black and white and the present in color. You always know which time you are in, and the past feels distant, like old archive footage.

How this film uses it

According to Kodak, the dream sequence and brief flashbacks were shot on black-and-white 35mm stock. The change in look tells you when the story leaves the present. It also makes those moments feel more remote than the color scenes around them.

Where to see it

The dream and flashback scenes: they switch from color to black and white.

Narrative

Three-Part Structure

Dividing the film into three distinct parts or chapters that echo each other, so the pattern itself delivers the meaning or the twist.

How this film uses it

The stories are called "The Death of R.M.F.", "R.M.F. Is Flying" and "R.M.F. Eats a Sandwich". A man named R.M.F. appears in each. Lanthimos has said the initials do not refer to anything, so you are left to find your own meaning.

Where to see it

The three titled chapters: each one has its own plot, and a character named R.M.F. appears in all three.

Questions

Kinds of Kindness: quick answers

What filmmaking techniques does Kinds of Kindness use?: CineCode breaks down 5 techniques in Kinds of Kindness (2024): Three-Role Performance, Deadpan Absurdism, Cult Structure as Social Horror, Black-and-White Flashback Grammar and Three-Part Structure.
Who directed Kinds of Kindness?: Yorgos Lanthimos directed Kinds of Kindness, released in 2024. CineCode also covers Dogtooth (2009), The Lobster (2015), The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017), The Favourite (2018), Poor Things (2023), Bugonia (2025).
What films are similar to Kinds of Kindness?: Films that share techniques with Kinds of Kindness include Dogtooth (2009), Suspiria (2018), Bugonia (2025), 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (2026).

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