There’s actor/director pairings so strong that they come to define the core of both’s filmographies: Alfred Hitchcock and Cary Grant, Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro, Tim Burton and Johnny Depp, and now Emma Stone and Yorgos Lanthimos.
Sure, the Greek director was on the rise before collaborating with Stone, having earned international critical acclaim for 2009’s Dogtooth, and his first Oscar nomination (for Best Screenplay) for the Colin Farrell-fronted The Lobster. But it was when Lanthimos teamed up with Emma Stone for The Favourite that something changed. That bawdy sapphic comedy not only earned 10 Oscar nominations but also a win for leading lady Olivia Colman. Stone and Lanthimos’ follow-up, Poor Things, did even better while getting much wilder, combining the racy humor of The Favourite with the gut-churning science fiction of Frankenstein. Critical praise led to box office success, as well as 11 Oscar nominations and four wins, including Best Actress and Best Picture.
Despite its sex, violence, dark humor, and gore (or perhaps because of it), Poor Things became the pair’s most popular movie to date. Props to them for challenging their audience with what would come next. Kinds of Kindness offered a collection of uncomfortable and unconventional vignettes, involving a husband suspicious of his wife, a peculiar sex cult, and an unusual business arrangement. Critics were mixed and audiences didn’t turn out. So what’s next for this daring duo?
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