Review: Miranda July hits the heartstrings in 'Kajillionaire,' an eccentric ode to parents and their rebel children
One cannot choose their parents, but the eccentric polymath Miranda July makes the point in her unique way in the whimsical and wise “Kajillionaire” that one can choose how to live with them.
July’s story centers on one family in Los Angeles — the parents, Robert (Richard Jenkins) and Theresa (Debra Winger), and their adult daughter, Old Dolio (Evan Rachel Wood). They spend most of their days engaged in small-time scams, like stealing packages from people’s post-office boxes or trying to get cash refunds for non-cash gift certificates.
The family spends a lot of time doing these kind of hustles, trying to scrounge up enough money to pay their landlord, Mr. Stovik (Mark Ivanir). The rent is already cheap, because of the unusual living arrangement: The space is an office, the family sleeps on the floor amid the cubicles, and one of their daily chores is removing the pink foam that seeps through the back wall from Mr. Stovik’s bubble factory next door. The pink ooze is a fitting symbol for a Miranda July film: Light and frothy, but also menacing and potentially overwhelming.
To pay their back rent, Old Dolio comes up with a bigger-than-usual con. The three of them fly to New York (tickets provided by a sweepstakes reward they stole in the mail), then fly back to L.A. pretending to be strangers. Robert and Theresa will “steal” Old Dolio’s suitcase off the luggage carousel, and Old Dolio will collect $1,575 in travel insurance.
On the flight back, Robert and Theresa confide this plan to their seatmate, Melanie (Gina Rodriguez), who’s excited about meeting people who live on the edge of life, and wants to join in the con. Old Dolio becomes jealous that Robert and Theresa show Melanie the sort of parental affection they’s always denied Old Dolio, which Theresa says was an insult to her intelligence.
Equally distressing, though, is that Old Dolio — whose sexual orientation seems a mystery, especially to herself — finds herself attracted to Melanie, and wondering whether a life with her would be preferable to the one she has her parents.
July — whose “Me and You and Everyone We Know” (2005) remains one of the singular masterpieces ever to come out of the Sundance Film Festival — has always been fascinated with notions of self-identity in contrast to the image we show others, and the breaking point between how people embrace the former and disregard the latter. Old Dolio (whose very name, it’s explained, is residue of a long-ago con) is a perfect vessel for July’s thoughts on identity, and Wood captures the character’s confusion and awkward attempts at liberation with soul and spunk. (About Old Dolio’s oddly deep voice: In interviews, July has said that’s Wood’s natural voice, and she uses a higher register for roles like the robot in “Westwood.”)
“Kajillionaire” is chockablock with July’s idiosyncratic touches, and there are moments where a viewer might wonder if the point of the movie is getting lost in the weirdness. July is building up to an emotionally resonant finish, where a seemingly mundane act dissolves into a moment of transcendent, heartbreaking beauty. Hold on for that moment; it’s one for the ages.
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‘Kajillionaire’
★★★★
Opening Friday, September 25, in Megaplex Legacy Crossing (Centerville), Megaplex Jordan Commons (Sandy), Megaplex at The District (South Jordan), and Megaplex Thanksgiving Point (Lehi). Rated R for some sexual references/language. Running time: 104 minutes.