Kinds of Kindness

There are seven actors who appear in more than one segment and have something specific to do in the stories. The main four are two White men (Jesse Plemons and Willem Dafoe) and two White women (Emma Stone and Margaret Qualley). The women seem strong and appear to have some kind of agency, but it's also clear that they're cogs in a machine who are caught up in a greater system. The remaining three key characters include another White man (Joe Alwyn) and two actors of color. Black actor Mamoudou Athie has a fairly sizable part in the second segment as a police officer but has an almost background role in the other stories. And Vietnamese American actor Hong Chau plays a few supporting characters who don't have too much to do.

Lots of bloody wounds. A character is found lying on the floor with their wrists slashed and liver sliced out; huge puddles of blood. A woman is given a knockout drug and raped; her head and shoulders are shown moving under a man's off-screen thrusts. A character dumps an injured person in a parking lot and runs him over with a vehicle more than once. Character chops off own thumb (lots of blood); the thumb is then served cooked, on a plate. Someone crashes through a windshield in a car accident. Suggestion of domestic abuse: Woman has a black eye and bruises on her face. Guns used to threaten and shoot; one person is shot in the hand, with lots of blood (some is then licked from the hand). Someone falls into an empty swimming pool; graphic injury and blood. Character deliberately slices dog's leg with a blade (dog yelps in pain). Dialogue about miscarriages and abortions; blood seen in toilet bowl. Slapping, smacking. Character deliberately injures his foot by kicking a wall. Injection knocks someone out. Character eats raw, bloody steak. Dialogue about gory injuries. Suggestion that a character might have eaten a human leg to survive on a desert island. Dead body in morgue is said to have been killed by a gunshot wound. One character playfully whacks another with a billy club. Brief image of a dog seemingly hanging by its neck. A character has a dream of being trapped at the bottom of a pool. Characters pass out from extreme heat in a sauna. Vomiting.

Brief images of a graphic sex video show four characters having sex together, with men thrusting from behind, partial naked breasts, implied oral sex, moaning, grinding, etc. Several additional scenes of topless women, some of them quite long. Naked man on bed, penis partially seen. Woman lies on couch without any clothes on below her waist; partial pubic hair visible. Brief image of woman masturbating, her hand down the front of her underwear. Extreme close-up of tongue-kissing. Sex-related dialogue and noises. Woman wears a revealing robe. Brief image of dogs humping.

Occasional language includes several uses of "f--k," a use of "c--k," and a use of "crap."

A woman is given a knockout drug in whiskey. Brief sequence of teen drinking. Characters drink whiskey in bars and at home. Character is said to have had a lot to drink at dinner. Wine with dinner. Cigarette smoking. Vaping.