This latest film by Yorgos Lanthimos is an anthology of three darkly comic short films. Each told its own bizarre stand-alone story about people who have lost control of their lives and were trying to recover it. Basically the same cast of character actors and Emma Stone play the various roles. However, there was one common male character only known by the initials R.M.F. in all three segments, played by one actor, Yorgos Stefanakos.
#1 "The Death of R.M.F." was about a man Robert Fletcher (Jesse Plemons) whose every move and decision in life, including marrying his wife Sarah (Hong Chau), was done in obedience of orders from his boss Raymond (Willem Dafoe). However, Robert balked when Raymond asked him to crash into the car of a man identified as R.M.F. This defiance caused Robert to be fired which eventually broke his life apart.
#2 "R.M.F. Is Flying" was about a police officer Daniel (Plemons) whose marine biologist wife Liz (Emma Stone) went missing at sea. One day, Liz was found and rescued by a pilot R.M.F. and was soon reunited with her husband. However, Daniel began to notice strange things about Liz behaving differently from how she was before. This caused Daniel to experience extreme paranoia which cost him his job and sanity.
#3 "R.M.F. Eats a Sandwich" was about Emily (Stone) and Andrew (Plemons), members of a sex cult led by Omi (Dafoe) and Aka (Chau). They were tasked to look for a certain woman who possessed the ability to bring a dead person like R.M.F. back to life. When Emily was sexually violated, she was considered contaminated and was banished from the cult. Emily went on her own to look for the mystery woman to prove herself worthy.
This was not exactly an easy watch, all 164 minutes of it. #2 was the shortest at around 46 minutes, while #3 was the longest at around 66 minutes. The subject matters of all three segments were bizarre and disturbing, made more queasy by strange scenes of sex and violence. This was definitely not for everyone, not even those who liked Lanthimos's recent Oscar-winning works "The Favourite" (2018) and "Poor Things" (2023).
Jesse Plemons gave strong lead performances in #1 and #2, which led to him winning the Best Actor award in the last Cannes Filmfest 2024 where this film had its world premiere. Emma Stone dominated the screen whenever she was on whether her character was lead (in #2 and #3) or supporting (in #1). Willem Dafoe's juiciest role was in #1, while Chau, Margaret Qualley (in a dual role) and Joe Alwyn (as Emily's husband) had most to do in #3.
This so-called "tryptich fable" was done in signature Lanthimos' arthouse style. While the topic of #1 about someone totally surrendering control to another person was very weird, but this one was the most accessible for me. #2 went into very dark places and had a couple of the film's most appalling scenes, but the ending was unexpectedly sweet. With a sex cult and miraculous twins in its plot, #3 was the most outlandish and absurd. Ironically, despite the title, I never saw any kindness at all. 5/10
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