It’s not the easiest thing in the world to do, deciphering one’s scribbled notes in the dark taken while watching a film.

But the words “DO NOT WANT” cover a page in the middle of what I noted about the new film from Yorgos Lanthimos. A critical darling since “Dogtooth,” “The Lobster” and “The Killing of a Sacred Deer,” he reverts to his pre-“The Favorite/Poor Things” form for his latest.

“Kinds of Kindness” is an obscurant, indulgent wank — two hours and forty-five minutes of cryptic cruelty, messianic fervor, cannibalism and perhaps a metaphoric peek at the futility of faith, the limits of dogma and the eagerness of the indoctrinated to be exploited.

Or not.

Emma Stone collected her second Oscar for her “fearless” and “courageous” — aka “sexually out there” turn in “Poor Things.” But perhaps this, her third turn for Lanthimos, will make her question that.

Jesse Plemons, Willem Dafoe, Margaret Qualley, Joe Alwyn and Mamadou Athie join her for three Lanthimos stories/vignettes (co-written with Efthimis Filippou) that dabble in belief, surrendering control of your life to others and the limits of what ordinary people will do, tolerate and fear from those pulling their strings.

In “The Death of R.M.F.,” Plemons plays Robert Fletcher, a caricature of a businessman whose entire life is run by his smiling, smothering boss (Dafoe), Raymond. Raymond helped scheme Robert into a marriage, and then ordered him not to have children with Sarah (Hong Chau).

Raymond limits Robert’s wardrobe, directs his weight — “Skinny men are the most ridiculous thing there ever is!” — and caters to his every need, “correcting” those needs at will.

“I didn’t pour you a vodka. I think a whisky is better here.”

Robert’s end of the bargain includes driving his Ford Bronco into a stranger’s blue BMW, at Raymond’s order. When Robert only hospitalizes that perhaps hapless stranger (Yorgos Stefanakos), he refuses to repeat the “accident” to greater effect. Raymond often re-directs Robert, making him repeat their “scenes” to a performance more to his liking, sometimes in front of his slinky, barefoot moll (Margaret Qualley).

This refusal to repeat that accident creates a rift that utterly derails Robert’s life. Perhaps a pretty, short-skirted stranger (Stone) can save him.

It’s not like the “R.M.F.” of the story’s title is “Robert M. Fletcher.” No, R.M.F. is the stranger Robert is meant to kill.

“R.M.F. is Flying” has Plemons playing an increasingly off-center cop whose marine biologist wife (Stone) disappeared in a research vessel shipwreck. His partner (Mamadou Athie) is concerned, and he and his wife (Qualley) try to comfort Daniel the cop by coming over to dinner and watching old home videos.

The videos are of the couples’ group sex activities.

When the missing “wife” Liz returns, Daniel starts to wonder if she is an imposter.

And in “R.M.F. Eats a Sandwich,” Emily (Stone) and Andrew (Plemons) are a team on the hunt for a woman, a surviving twin, who has the ability to bring the dead back to life. They select and “test” assorted women on behalf of their rich cult leader (Dafoe) and his minions.

Emily has a husband (Alwyn) and daughter she’s abandoned, but whose house she sometimes secretly visits, sprinkling her daughter’s bed in some sort of holy water, perhaps in the hopes of making her special, or insulating her from the cult her estranged mom is all-in on.

The stories overlap and tie-in together enough to make you wonder if there’s meaning to the meandering madness.  Perhaps not.

Some of the bit players cast as medical or police professionals and others are amateurs, not actors. No, you won’t have trouble spotting who they are. The inane dialogue that fills the script doesn’t just let down the pros and the Oscar winner. It exposes non actor’s colorless line readings.

“R.M.F.” doesn’t have any meaning, Lanthimos has admitted in interviews. Greater New Orleans is the setting, but isn’t named. Cannibalism is hinted at and ritualistic suicide underscores one story the way “swinging” does another.

The clever bits in the trailer — Stone recklessly driving a Hellcat Dodge Challenger and dancing with athletic abandon — don’t denote anything and thus provide none of their promised “off the wall” entertainment value.

Perhaps the most amusing thing about “Kinds of Kindness,” whose title is a lie, is in reading reviews of folks turning themselves into pretzels to find something to embrace about it. Lanthimos may very well be the person laughing the loudest at this.

As for me, I think “DO NOT WANT” pretty much covers it.

Rating: R, gruesome violence, explicit sex, nudity, profanity

Cast: Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons, Willem Dafoe, Hong Chau, Joe Alwyn, Margaret Qualley and Mamoudou Athie.

Credits: Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, scripted by Yorgos Lanthimos and Efthimis Filippou. A Searchlight release.

Running time: 2:44