They stopped trying to make sense of it all

CANNES - In the new Yorgos Lanthimos film "Kinds of Kindness," a character played by Emma Stone recounts a dream in which she was the denizen of a bizarre world. "There, dogs were in charge," she murmurs. "People were animals, animals were people." But being brought to heel by their canine masters wasn't as bad as it sounds, she says: "I must admit, they treated us pretty well."

Compared with how the human beings treat each other in "Kinds of Kindness," a dark new comedy that just premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and is in theaters June 21, the dogs would surely be an improvement.

Comprised of three separate stories with the cast members recurring in different roles, "Kinds of Kindness" begins with the tale of Robert (Jesse Plemons), a corporate underling whose every interaction in life - including what to eat, how to speak or even who to marry - is controlled by...