Growing up a grifter in ‘Kajillionaire’

July’s film utterly sincere, little surreal

We’ve

been blessed, of late, with excellent movies about families of grifters. There was Hirokazu Kore-eda’s gloriously heartfelt “Shoplifters,” about a makeshift clan of small-time thieves whose familial bonds run at least as deep as DNA. Bong Joon Ho’s diabolical Oscar-winner, “Parasite,” gave us a nuclear family of con artists who hatch their schemes from their subterranean dwelling. And now comes Miranda July’s “Kajillionaire,” a portrait of a father-mother-daughter team of Los Angeles scavengers who subsist mainly on coupons and contest entries.

In their unique ways, the families of “Parasite” and “Shoplifters” were more harmonious bunches than the Dynes of “Kajillionaire.” They are Robert (Richard Jenkins), Theresa (Debra Winger) and their 26-year-old daughter, Old Dolio (Evan Rachel Wood). And while they’ve refined their system of getting by — bending low beneath a wall to avoid their landlord, memorizing the bus schedule, approaching a target like post office boxes as though they’re in a very poor man’s version of “Mission: Impossible” — they are emotionally far less cohesive. Bong and Kore-eda used theft and con to explore class divisions, but “Kajillionaire” is more about family dynamics. It’s a coming-of-age tale.

The Dynes live in a cramped apartment next to Bubbles Inc., a bubble-making factory of uncertain purpose. Just oddities abound in July’s gently absurdist films; you either roll with it or not. But when you give in, you go through them childlike, experiencing real and surreal together. The downside of the cheap digs (for which they can’t make their monthly rental payments) is a daily leak of pink suds that ooze down the back wall, which the Dynes dutifully mop up.

But if their hardscrabble existence has fairy tale notes, they live jittery lives (Jenkins, always terrific, is all anxiety and bus schedules) and Old Dolio has grown up a painfully stunted young woman. She’s never felt any intimacy or love from her mother (Winger, sadly distant from us, too), but she’s inherited her long, straight hair and monotone awkwardness. So unfamiliar with affection is she that when Old Dolio — after a plan to trade a coupon for money is foiled — lies for a massage she spasms so violently that the masseuse (Da’Vine Joy Randolph) can only hover her hands over Old Dolio’s back.

It’s a fine start but if “Kajillionaire” remained in the Dynes’ weird and warped bubble, the quirkiness would surely grow a little tiresome. But when another young woman, Melanie (Gina Rodriguez, sensational), joins in some of their hustles, July’s film comes alive. Rodriguez — spirited, confident, sensual — arrives like an alien into the world of the film. Her presence, and immediate connection with the Dynes’ daughter, prompt Old Dolio — already stirred by a parenting class she was forced to sit through — to question and challenge her unconventional upbringing. A sense of human connection (so often the yearning behind July’s films) begins to belatedly take root for Old Dolio. Something earnest and tender, like soap bubbles in the wall, emerges. And the whimsical, unpredictable artistry of “Kajillionaire” turns out to be no con, at all.

Fair-weather

July doesn’t seem to have fair-weather fans. There are those who are obsessed. And there are those who don’t know who she is. There is no in between.

Even after acclaimed films like “Me and You and Everyone We Know” and “The Future,” the author and director is still grateful when someone knows her work. It’s why she took note when Dede Gardner, the Oscar-winning producer of “Moonlight” and “12 Years a Slave,” wrote her a “beautiful” and “poetic” letter about her novel “The First Bad Man.”

“That’s not your average Hollywood producer,” July said. “I was like, huh, I guess when I finish this script, that may be the first person I send it to.”

The script in question was “Kajillionaire,” a story about a family of grifters in Los Angeles. It came to her one morning when in a half-conscious state she saw three characters, two women with long hair and a man. She was careful to not fall back asleep and instead to write her idea down.

Soon enough Gardner was over at July’s house agreeing to make her film. It was, July said, the first time she didn’t have to spend any time looking for money.

Like July’s other films, “Kajillionaire” is utterly sincere, a little surreal and quietly crushing. And, of course, it’s wholly original.

“I was like, oh my, give my number, give my address,” Rodriguez said. “I’ve never really had an auteur director be like, I was thinking of you when I wrote this.”

Wood had a particularly challenging role in Old Dolio, the heart of the film, who has only ever functioned as a part of her parents’ scams and is starting to realize there might be life outside. July wanted to be sure Wood understood the soul of the character before committing.

At dinner Wood told her that Old Dolio reminded her of Edward Scissorhands, one of her favorite characters.

“They’ve been completely removed from normal society for a large portion of their lives and probably very devoid of affection or unconditional love,” Wood said.

July was thrilled. Wood, she said, had just “showed her spiritual cards.”

She challenged her actor with exercises designed to “narrow her emotional bandwidth” but the unusual low voice was all Wood’s idea. July laughed that she would be “way too scared to ask an actor to do a different voice for a whole movie.”

“I actually have a low speaking voice but I don’t use it,” Wood said. A voice coach told her it could be harmful to her singing and advised her to break the habit and speak at a higher register.

Rodriguez wasn’t aware of Wood’s plan, though, so when she broke out the voice during a take, Wood remembered a look of shock and surprise.

“She didn’t know if it was a joke or if it was real,” Wood said. “After they yelled cut, she was like, ‘Are you really doing that?’ And I said, ‘Yeah that’s Old Dolio!’ She just started cracking up.”

Aside from the surprises, the experience was profound for Rodriguez who found July to be exacting and mystical.

“She’s just a quiet giant. A fragile champ. She has this dichotomy of two different energies. Her temperament is so calm but then she’s got this explosive art and that’s just surging through her,” Rodriguez said. “You just knew that you were in the hands of someone magical.”

The film got raves when it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, but the cast has also found it to be strangely reflective of the current moment too.

“So much of it is about intimacy and connection and being devoid of touch and isolation,” Wood said. “We’re all strange versions of Old Dolio right now.”

“Kajillionaire” is July’s first film in almost 10 years and the first since she had a child in 2012 (her spouse is director Mike Mills). And it’s significant to her.

“Kajillionaire,” a Focus Features release, is rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America for some sexual references/language. Running time: 106 minutes. Three stars out of four. (AP)