
Movie review
May 30, 2024 · 164 min · R
Woke Score
Lower is better
Breakdown
These are the editorial factors and ratings behind our score for Kinds of Kindness.
Woke representation / casting
Brief cameo by trans actress Hunter Schafer in a minor female role and supporting appearances by Asian-American actress Hong Chau add incidental LGBTQ+ and ethnic visibility; however, no audience-visible emphasis, quotas, or story-driven identity signaling occurs in casting or marketing.
Woke political dialogue
Dialogue stays absurdist and personal, focused on control, devotion, and paranoia with zero activist, identity-based, or political content.
Identity-driven story themes
Core ideas center on universal human struggles with autonomy and authority in fable form; no race, gender ideology, or social-justice plotlines drive any segment.
Western institutional / cultural critique
Mild satire appears in corporate boss control and cult dynamics, but it stays personal and absurdist rather than modern activist framing of capitalism, patriarchy, or institutions.
Review
Kinds of Kindness is a 2024 absurdist black comedy directed by Yorgos Lanthimos. It presents three loosely linked stories about people trapped in extreme situations of control, suspicion, and cult-like devotion, with the same actors playing different roles in each segment. The film explores dark themes of personal autonomy and twisted human connections through surreal, often cruel humor with no visible emphasis on identity politics, representation quotas, or activist messaging.
Woke character or canon changes
fully original stories with no established characters, source material, or historical figures altered for ideological reasons.
Anti-woke backlash and complaints
No anti-woke or right-leaning criticism exists; public debate ignores politics entirely and targets only the film’s weirdness and tone.
Creator track record context
Lanthimos and Filippou maintain low-to-moderate patterns of absurdist, non-activist work; other crew show professional or low profiles with no recurring identity-driven or DEI focus.
Production