KINDS of KINDNESS

Kinds of Kindness (2024) directed by Yorgos Lanthimos. An anthology triptych film, with an ensemble cast playing different characters in each of the three stories. If you've seen other Lanthimos films then you'll encounter some of his "obsessions" here—twins, feet, animals as people (and vice versa). I think this is existential Gnostic body horror. It's definitely weird at times. Many of the characters are flat of affect, as relationships are constantly under threat, or hanging on by a (rather tenuous) thread. I really liked this, but many won't. 

The NPC who plays R.M.F. and provides the "thread" that ostensibly sews the three stories together: I think his initials stand for Real Mother Fucker, although neither Lanthimos nor any of the crew are talking.

 

Streaming on Hulu.

COWARDS

During the past couple of months, Squid released three singles from their third studio album Cowards. The first single, "Crispy Skins" (track 1) is about cannibalism and one of their most accessible songs. The second single, "Building 650" (track 2) is about evil things committed by Frank and the narrator. The third single, "Cro-Magnon Man" (track 6) is wild and jazzy and I'm not really sure what it's all about, but it is probably my favorite Squid track. I've listened to it every day since it dropped. Multiple times. So much so that one of my coworkers asked me about it.



The album was released on Friday, February 7, 2025. I should have pre-ordered it. Instead I called multiple record stores. They either hadn't received it yet or didn't know what I was talking about. So I picked up a week later from my favorite Tacoma record store, Hi-Voltage Records.

It went right into heavy rotation.



Cowards is a great marriage of its two predecessors—2021's Bright Green Field and 2023's O Monolith—while also feeling like a step forward. Squid's art rock with jazz leanings has also incorporated classical elements more so than in the past, so much so that each track includes the core quintet of Squid but also a string quartet. This collaboration grounds the entire album in the spirit of some of my favorite slower and stranger Squid tracks—"Siphon Song," "If You Had Seen the Bull's Swimming Attempts You Would Have Stayed Away," and "Boy Racers."

I'm glad to follow Squid on their musical journey, with each album serving as both landmark along the way and a souvenir to remember the movement.

BLOSSOM

"'In the mountains' means the blossoming of the whole world."
—Dōgen

"Reality is reborn with every flower that blooms."
—Norman Fischer

"The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad, the desert shall rejoice and blossom."
—Isaiah 35:1