Kajillionaire
Directed by: Miranda July
Written by: Miranda July
Starring: Evan Rachel Wood, Richard Jenkins, Debra Winger, Gina Rodriguez, Mark Ivanir
Crime/Drama - 106 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 23 Sep 2020
Written by: Miranda July
Starring: Evan Rachel Wood, Richard Jenkins, Debra Winger, Gina Rodriguez, Mark Ivanir
Crime/Drama - 106 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 23 Sep 2020
Writer/director Miranda July is interested in parenting – nature vs. nurture. A psychological case study nestled in a comedy framework, what if mom and dad opt not to parent their child, remove nurture from the equation, and establish them as an equal, a sort of work colleague, from birth? According to July, the resulting person wouldn’t be very much of a person at all. True feelings, to the extent they could even recognize them, remain buried lest the parents recognize the child’s instinctual need for comfort and at least a small desire for conformity and begin another round of mockery and acknowledgement that the child is weak enough to desire what everyone else on Earth seeks. Kajillionaire has its fair share of laughs and absurd situations to make the audience appreciate the quirk, but poke hard enough beneath those layers, and there is a very stunted and confused girl who has no idea how to interact with the world.
It's amazing Old Dolio (Evan Rachel Wood, Frozen II) isn’t a stoic serial killer incapable of empathy and unware of the suffering of others. Her parents never acknowledge the familial bond. They never hug her. They never even touch her. The family, in name only, are the smallest of small time hustlers and grifters. They expend so much effort to achieve so little, they mostly hustle themselves. They habitually shoot themselves in the foot in order to thumb their noses at a society they shun and intentionally operate outside of. They live in a deserted office on the other side of a wall from a bubble factory. The rent is so cheap because twice a day, they collect and dispose of all the bubbles which leak into the room and would immediately cause mold and decay.
It's amazing Old Dolio (Evan Rachel Wood, Frozen II) isn’t a stoic serial killer incapable of empathy and unware of the suffering of others. Her parents never acknowledge the familial bond. They never hug her. They never even touch her. The family, in name only, are the smallest of small time hustlers and grifters. They expend so much effort to achieve so little, they mostly hustle themselves. They habitually shoot themselves in the foot in order to thumb their noses at a society they shun and intentionally operate outside of. They live in a deserted office on the other side of a wall from a bubble factory. The rent is so cheap because twice a day, they collect and dispose of all the bubbles which leak into the room and would immediately cause mold and decay.
Even though the clan claims egalitarianism, some are more equal than others. Dad (Richard Jenkins, The Shape of Water) is a pack of irrational phobias and a possible schizophrenic whose mental illness masquerades as leadership. July is saying that when you peek through a particular lens, all families look like their own, distinct cult, but Old Dolio’s family may be the epitome of one. Mom (Debra Winger) dresses like a Los Angeles Mennonite might and is even more closed off as a parent than Dad. The family is always prepping for “the big one”. Every time there is a little earthquake or an aftershock, this may be the event they’ve been waiting for, when the big one strikes and spurs global collapse. Their little unit will succeed because they have no emotional or material attachments to miss when everyone loses everything.
The group’s daily routine takes a turn when Melanie (Gina Rodriguez, Deepwater Horizon) starts to spend time with them during one of their low-end fraud schemes. Melanie works a dead-end job in a glasses store and appears to latch onto the group because she’s either bored with her situation or she’s intrigued beyond measure with people unlike any others. I don’t fully believe the script’s motivation for Melanie and her newfound attachment. This oddball trio is obviously going nowhere and Melanie’s infatuation with them is unexplained. Melanie forms a rudimentary bond with Old Dolio. Friendship is too strong a word as Old Dolio wouldn’t know what to do with that, but Melanie is a sort of mentor, a challenging catalyst between Old Dolio and her parents.
How Old Dolio’s parents/cohorts react to and engage with the interloper reveal a phoniness about them they’ve been preaching against since Old Dolio was born. They’re the same as everybody else, just in their own, idiosyncratic way and perhaps Old Dolio was too close to see it. Miranda July is no stranger to quirky characters. Her off-the-wall 2005 debut, Me and You and Everyone We Know, was a hodgepodge of interconnected tales with a kid’s explanation of what love is you’ll never forget if you see it. Her 2011 film, The Future, observes a crumbling marriage through the eyes of a rescue cat. She makes the audience root for Old Dolio – we’re hoping she can break away and recognize there is a world out there full of people with feelings who could care about her. That is if the big one doesn’t kill us all first.
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