The experience of sitting down to watch Kinds of Kindness (2024) was something a tad unpleasant. Even as a Yorgos Lanthimos fan going back to Alps (2011), I was not responding to its strange wavelength that was actively tempting you to like it. The story is unpleasant and quixotic in ways that no reasonable filmmaker would make if they wanted “darling” attached to their name. Enfant terrible, maybe, but not someone whose three of the past four films garnered Oscar nominations including two Best Picture slots. Given that I was sitting in the third row, it was definitely a nauseous three hours of my Saturday.
But one thing became clear as I searched for some greater substance to latch onto. Somewhere in yet another film where Willem Dafoe plays lackey to a deranged auteur was a performance that I felt transfixed by. For as much as I dislike Kinds of Kindness and think it will be a black sheep in Lanthimos’ filmography, I can’t fault the actors for giving their all to make this hostile atmosphere into something palatable. And yet, sitting at the center like the core of the earth around her, there was one actress who convinced me that maybe, just maybe, she was the millennial movie star we deserve.
On the one hand, I believe that the traditional movie star has died. Even if I feel like we’re moving towards a post-franchise era where we’re less driven by brands, I’m unsure how we’ll define success going forward. I’m still someone who collects names. If I see you in a film and think you have promise, I will keep tabs in hopes of bigger and better things to come. The most recent example of that for me is Brigette Lundy-Paine from I Saw the TV Glow (2024). However, there is someone who has been killing it a lot lately. She has landed on my wavelength and her influence can also be seen behind the scenes as producer. Whereas a lot of people would stick to making conventional dramas, a movie star is someone who also takes risks and props up voices deserving of more attention. Given that my theater for Kinds of Kindness was at least 70% full, I would hedge a bet that she at least has that cross-section of appeal.
Emma Stone is a movie star, plain and simple. Given that she’s coming off of her second Oscar win, she’s in a golden age where she can do basically whatever she wants. Where most would consider taking it safe in an age where risqué cinema is being criminalized in social media discourse, Stone has actively embraced the surreal and erotic. She is taking risks on projects that in any other person’s hands would likely be classified as indie outsider art. However, her stature and 19 years in the business allows for the buzz to be a little buzzier. Everyone likely recognizes her from someplace different. Maybe it’s because she’s done seemingly every genre under the sun, but her future seems limitless.
While I’m confident that Kinds of Kindness will be a box office bomb, I don’t chalk that up to laziness. I chalk it up to an audacity that more films should be taking, even if it doesn’t always land. With companies like Pixar moving away from personal filmmaking, the future of auteurs on a scale like Lanthimos’ are more in question than ever. Who will stand up for the renegade filmmakers who are genuinely doing something bold and exciting? I know there are plenty of actors who are, but I’d like to make the argument that what Stone is doing is especially important to my admiration for her.
According to IMDb, she has produced nine projects. While there are some obvious picks, including Cruella (2021) and her TV series Maniac, the most recent two years are arguably where things start to get more thrilling. It’s clear that she wants to support artists who have something personal to say, and it’s there in repeat producer credits for the likes of Zombieland (2009) co-star Jesse Eisenberg, or the up and coming Julio Torres. While the latter may fall into more conventional character dramas, Torres’ Problemista (2024) and Fantasmas are presenting something profoundly esoteric. The latter is a comedy series known for abstract tangents that include a gay night club for rodents. It’s probably the most beguiling work on Stone’s producer sheet, but it likely gave Torres more of a chance to collaborate with some buzzy names. Also, on a very personal level, Stone gets my respect for producing the masterpiece I Saw the TV Glow, which truly feels like art that couldn’t be made without someone believing in Jane Schoenbrun’s greater potential.
Maybe it’s a fluke that Stone’s recent credits play like a hallucinatory extension of A24 and Neon. The necessity to make weird art seems to be her goal at the moment, and I am here for it. In a post-pandemic world, everything has felt more and more surreal, so it’s only right that artists latch onto something crazy and out there. Torres and Schoenbrun especially feel like they’re being mentored to usher in a new mentality around cinema. If you listen to The A24 Podcast’s recent episode with Stone and Torres, it’s clear how much affection she has for the young upstart. There is a desire to make something exciting and new. Whereas most would stop short at saying that, she now has the willpower to make it happen.
As it stands, I’m still surprised that Poor Things (2023) resonated with audiences as much as it did. Even The Oscars, which I took to be a prudish bunch of coconuts, willingly gave her the Best Actress statue. It’s very much deserved, but it comes with the awareness that I’ve long felt that the winners were often more conservative and less, ahem, sexual. Stone throws herself so much into the role that I assumed it would be more divisive. Then again, the way she evolves throughout the film is so ingenious that I’m glad it didn’t go unnoticed. It’s a full-bodied performance that I don’t think a lot of women – let alone with that level of agency – are often seen as having. It feels radical and new.
Maybe that’s what came with teaming up with Lanthimos for The Favourite (2018). Compared to what would follow, it was a fairly conventional period piece with some spiced up language and dark humor. Even then, it was enough to lead to a fruitful partnership that, in six years, has lead to three films (with another on the way) and a shorter project. Something about their partnership feels special, and I think it’s because (to quote modern lingo) they matched each other’s freak. Something has opened Stone up to take risks that have led to some of her most exciting or off-putting work in her entire career. Again, nobody can doubt that anyone with a nearly two decade career in the industry would want to mix it up once in a while. However, I don’t know that many would necessarily make Kinds of Kindness where she is sometimes less a person and more a sack of organs. It takes a certain freedom to want to do a quarter of the things Lanthimos asks her to do in this film.
This can also be seen in her Nathan Field collaboration The Curse, which gained attention for an especially absurd finale where, to avoid spoilers, the world fell into magical realism. There is something playful about Stone’s acting decisions between all of these projects, and I love seeing a performer who is game for every decision. It’s the type of off the wall decision that suggests she can’t be pinned down. For as much as I dislike Kinds of Kindness, I watched her navigate this world for three hours and I tried to imagine other performers getting away with such derangement and still have a respectable place in Hollywood. In all honesty, the answer is probably… not many. Even if Jesse Plemons, Margaret Qualley, and Hong Chau rachet up tension, I don’t think they’d be able to carry the film without her and have the same level of recognition. As someone who saw Drive-Away Dolls (2024) in theaters, I can attest.
The fact is that Stone is on her own level right now. She hasn’t fallen into the self-parody absurdism of somebody like Nicolas Cage yet. She still has this footing both in playful nonsense and prestige in such a way that makes me excited to see where her future goes. Will there be another full-on musical like La La Land (2016) in her future? I sure hope so.
I want to believe the next decade will be her solidifying herself as the quintessential millennial movie star. Maybe there will be some who make more conventionally attractive celluloid, but I haven’t seen many performers have the versatility that she has had. If a movie star is judged by how far reaching their potential can go, then I don’t think many fit into the same box. Given that her next few credits include work with Ari Aster and Lathimos, I’m confident her experimental phase is not over anytime soon. I also hope that carries over into the producer realm and that she props up even more unique voices of the future.
I’m unsure if this is the start of a new era for Stone or, like her La La Land co-star Ryan Gosling in the early 2010s, a simple detour. Even then, I will remain grateful to have lived in a time where filmmaking gets to be challenged so thoroughly and make me hope for the medium’s future. For as much as Kinds of Kindness didn’t gel with me, it still has Stone being a giant weirdo. Her dancing over the credits is hypnotic and, for upset as everything before it made me, I couldn’t help but smile at the image. She’s magnetic. You could watch her do anything and, after those three hours, I felt like I did.
My question now is where does she go from here? I mean that not only in front of the camera, but also behind. I want to know who else she collaborates with. Will there be more work with Lanthimos, Eisenberg, Schoenbrun, Torres, and Aster down the line? Will that line-up grow into something less commercial? More than anything, I’m thrilled that there’s someone taking risks and supporting artists who otherwise would be doomed to the back pages of Netflix. If nothing else, she’s produced enough singular work to make one write endless articles about how versatile and different each role is. At the end of the day, a movie star is someone who revitalizes the art form. If we just go with that, then I think she deserves serious candidacy for that honor.
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