Mark Reviews Movies: KAJILLIONAIRE

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Review by Mark Dujsik | September 24, 2020

Even the origin of her name was an attempted scam. That's what we learn about Old Dolio (Evan Rachel Wood), the adult daughter of a couple of professional thieves and con artists, whose odd moniker was inspired by a homeless man who lucked out and won the lottery. It wasn't meant to be an inspiration for luck or an unexpected rise in economic position, though. Her parents named her that in the hope that the lottery winner would leave some of that money to her in his will.

It didn't happen, of course, because of course it didn't. What was the thinking there, anyway? Did the parents believe this man would be touched by or get a laugh out of or feel some previously unknown kinship to this complete stranger? It was just another long shot in lives founded upon a long shot—that one can fully live by his or her own rules, dismiss every rule of society (unless going along with one could result in a payday), and cheat and steal one's way through every obstacle and toward every financial gain.

At some point, this way of life probably felt like some unobtainable dream to Old Dolio's parents Robert (Richard Jenkins) and Theresa (Debra Winger), who once had ordinary lives with steady jobs and some sense of responsibility. Now, though, they more or less live off the grid, out of an empty office in a soap factory that floods with bright pink bubbles twice a weekday (three times on Wednesdays), and live scheme to scheme.

They don't look back on the successes, because money "earned" is spent right away on the next scam, or the failures, because their daughter is still called Old Dolio. The name would have been easy enough to change, either officially or unofficially. The fact that the parents did neither tells us two things: 1.) They didn't think their daughter was worth the time to fill out the paperwork or the cost of a processing fee, and 2.) they never really expected that their daughter would be or would want to be part of a society that might find her name incredibly, stunningly odd.

At first, we don't know quite what to make of the characters in writer/director Miranda July's Kajillionaire. Their existence is so foreign to us, not only because of how they live, but also because of the way they look at society as some alien civilization, filled with entities who are either too brainwashed or too dumb to live the way they do.

There's an air of superiority to the parents that makes them great fodder for comedy. They're certain it's everyone else who is strange, so it's easy and satisfying to laugh at how very odd they are. Just watch how the family walks home, angling and contorting their bodies in such a way that the factory boss, their landlord, won't see them over the chest-high partition blocking the sidewalk from his field of view. When a woman says she has a way for them to make a quick 20 bucks, note the way Robert walks backwards toward her, as if he's intrigued but won't expend the extra energy required to turn around to face the woman's direction. His frugality of movement says as much about the father as any critical words he might have about society.

In other words, there's rhyme and meaning to be found in July's curious story about a group of eccentrics. Here, July isn't just trying to make us laugh at and be confounded by these people, although we certainly do and are.

There's such specificity to these characters—through words and movement and attitude—that we can understand them—their behavior and their ways of thinking. We get it, as strange and unlikely as this way of life may be, and we eventually get them, as quirky and outlandish as these characters may seem. As we get closer to the core of their existence, July also begins to show us the emotional consequences of these people, this lifestyle, and the selfish philosophy behind them.

The unfolding story, which follows the family on a series of scams, is seen from the perspective of Old Dolio, who has a few revelations about what her life is and what it could be. While earning that $20 by attending a parenting workshop, she learns that a mother is typically meant to have a deep, intense emotional bond to her child, but there's nothing like between her and Theresa.

While on a flight back to Los Angeles from New York City (as part of a scheme to get an insurance check for missing luggage), the parents meet and eventually reveal their work to Melanie (Gina Rodriguez), who thinks being a con artist could be exciting. The parents take this stranger under their wing, and poor Old Dolio watches as Robert lavishes Melanie with compliments of admiration when she comes up with a way to steal from elderly people.

Beneath the humor and oddness of these characters and this story, there is a sense of longing, loneliness, and sadness that grounds the film's more eccentric touches. That feeling is epitomized during one scene, in which the family and Melanie, preparing to steal from an old man, end up granting him some peace and a sense of domesticity in his dying moments. It's all part of the scam, though. That might be the final straw for Old Dolio.

The real foundation of the story, then, is watching the daughter's gradual awakening to a life apart from the only one she has ever known. Kajillionaire has its undeniable quirks in terms of story and character, but its melancholy but hopeful heart beats louder.

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