Film offers up lots of giggles — and heartbreaking scenes
If you visit imdb.com you'll find Kajillionaire described thusly: “A woman's life is turned upside down when her criminal parents invite an outsider to join them on a major heist they're planning.”
And I'm here to tell you that's wrong. Nothing about the lives of Robert and Theresa is major. They're the most minor of grifters, rolling from one scam to the next, sometimes with a plan, often on a whim, usually just to scrape together rent on their — well, I guess you'd call it an apartment but it's just an abandoned office that leaks soap bubbles three times a day.
“It leaks on a schedule,” their landlord notes defensively.
They're like the family in Parasite, minus the killer instinct and the negotiating skills. They travel the streets of Los Angeles by bus.
“Take the two,” Theresa says, plotting out their next sting. “It goes there from here.” And then, tiredly: “We got time.”
Theresa is played by Debra Winger, and Robert is Richard Jenkins, whom you can also see this week in the new release The Last Shift. But the standout performance here is Evan Rachel Wood, almost unrecognizable under waistlength blond hair and a voice she seems to have stolen from Timothée Chalamet. She's their daughter, Old Dolio, although when you hear the story of how she got her name you'll know they won't be winning any parenting awards.
Like a Dickens' street urchin, Old Dolio always seems to be the one doing the drudgework, whether it's craftily stealing other people's post office box deliveries, or returning lost items in the hopes of garnering a reward. When they win a trip to New York, she suggests a family vacation. Her parents counter with a con whereby they'll fly there and back and then “lose” a suitcase and claim damages.
Plans change when they meet Melanie (Gina Rodriguez), on the return flight, and enlist her help in that lost luggage “major heist.” She gets a taste for it and starts suggesting additional swindles. Robert and Theresa are thrilled to have her on board — Robert a little too thrilled if you know what I mean — while Old Dolio feels threatened by this exuberant, feminine rival.
Kajillionaire is the latest from writer/director Miranda July, who between her essay writing, performance art and life in general can't be counted on to release movies frequently — this is just her third feature, after the excellent 2005 romantic comedy Me and You and Everyone We Know, and the somewhat more scattershot 2011 “emotional
sci-fi” The Future.
She can, however, be counted on to stuff her work with quirky details, whether it's the constant earth tremors that everyone around our protagonists seems to ignore, or their Ukrainian landlord who is constantly on the verge of tears.
Scratch the surface, however, and you'll come away with more than bubbles on your nails. July's movies (all three of them now), have always dealt with the difficulty of human connection, coupled with the absurdity of 21st-century consumerism.
So while there are plenty of giggles in this oddball tale, there are also scenes to break your heart.
Fans of July's earlier work will doubtless enjoy the filmmaker's latest wonky take on modern life.