Kajillionaire (2020)

After spending 26 years training their daughter to swindle, scam and steal at every given opportunity, things suddenly start to change for the two con artists when they invite a stranger to help with their next scam.

Related Titles: Me and You and Everyone We Know, The Future, Never Rarely Sometimes Always 

  

Rating: 10/10

By Leanne

Similarly to Rebecca, I find it hard to express how I feel about Kajillionaire, other than the fact that I absolutely loved it. It took two trips to the cinema for this to sink in. After my first watch, I just had so many questions; it took the second trip for me to fall in love with everything about this film. Miranda July's third feature is coating in pastel pink advertising and it's originality and comedy is tied together with an underlying loneliness right in the centre. 

The opening of this film introduces, three of the four leading characters: the Dynes; Evan Rachel Woods as awkward Old Dolio, Richard Jenkins and Debra Winger as her parents Richard and Theresa. It opens with a clearly, well-planned and played out scam of pinching mail from a local post office. This scam is the first of many that the family carry out to get by. Opening mail and keeping any useful items or matching any products to an inventory of receipts in an attempt to return or swap their stolen item to float them by. A conversation early on into the film introduces how proud the family are at getting by in life by just skimming from the surface; they are all proud that unlike the rest of the world they aren't interesting in becoming Kajillionaires. During a scam trip to New York the family meet Melanie (Gina Rodriguez) who turns out to be a very useful asset to their scamming plans and very useful in opening up the world for Old Dolio.

The cast in this film are fantastic. The real show stopper, however, has to be Even Rachel Wood as Old Dolio. Her performance is unreal. From her monotone voice, to her constantly awkward presence on screen, to the way she lets herself go when experiencing all these new things in the latter half of the film. I especially loved her scenes with Melanie in the seocnd half of the film. After Melanie emancipates her from her parents' control over her, Old Dolio begins to experience all new things - things that we take for granted on a daily basis - buying products in a store, dancing, eating pancakes and receiving birthday presents. 

There is so much to take from this film in terms of how much parents can control a life. Despite being 26 years old, Old Dolio has no concept of the real world and only knows the ways of life shown to her by her parents. Sharing everything in a 3-way split with her parents since she was old enough to remember and paying for everything given to her, like a drink at a friends house - something that most people would not second think. She has no concept of how to interact with others because her parents don't interact with others unless absolutely required. There are so many fantastic moments of this shown in the film where she assumes it's a totally normal way to behave - when really it's quite unusual. 

Early on into the film, Old Dolio's discomfort at any physical contact becomes very clearly. When she, unsuccessfully, tries to return a masseuse voucher she instead cashes in the voucher and is very clearly uncomfortable with the stranger being near her. This theme continues throughout the film, when Old Dolio attends a parent training class - as another way of scamming money - and they introduce her to the breast crawl and how this can have an affect on the connection that babies have with their mothers. Something that it is soon revealed that her parents don't care about, hinting that they only had her out of a need to run new scams. This progression continues through the film with Old Dolio beginning to realise how much she craves a 'normal' life and just wants to be treated with love and care like others. There is an especially touching scene where she is speaking about her fears within this baby parenting class and the realisation hits her that she perhaps craves this normality more than she knew. It is a poignant moment as the film goes silent and is a big moment for our main character. It further continues when she confronts her mother and father about their lack of, as they call them, 'tender feelings' towards her and their obsession with constantly looking out for and caring for Melanie over her. There is so much more to be said about this theme as it seems to tie together throughout the whole film and becomes a way of watching Old Dolio's character develop over time as she ever-so-slowly becomes more comfortable with physical contact from those around her.

As a family of scammers, costume design plays a key role. The family are constantly seen repeating many outfits and sharing different pieces of clothing between them. There is also a big element of thrifty-ness that is shown through their costume design, everything feels slightly out of trend and disconnected from the latest fashion. Everything is worn because it is practical rather than a fashion statement. There is also a mirroring of the character's themselves in the clothes - despite his pretence at being a professional grifter, Richard is not very good at what he does and this is mirrored in his always slightly dishevelled look, from the askew tie to the untucked shirt. I also thought that Old Dolio's baggy, plain tracksuit was interesting, as like her character is constantly trying to do, the often monochrome colours blends in making her almost blend into the background. This is flipped when it comes to the character of Melanie. She is everything that the Dynes are not. A young woman who is very conscious of her body and the latest fashion trends. Her pastel coloured wardrobe completely opposes Old Dolio's usually darker palette. 

What I think I love most about this film is that it's really unlike anything I've seen before. Every scene was something new and it really kept me on my toes thinking about what could happen next. I also loved that it was like an in depth character study of Old Dolio and I loved watching how much her character developed over time. There are so many little things to catch that have a tiny affects on her behaviour and they all piece together throughout the film to create a bigger change. 

There is so much I haven't touched on, like the fantastic music that accompanies this film. From the score to the tinny phone line hold music that Old Dolio loves and dances to. The touching scene where she finally realises that she desires to live a normal life when they are mid scam pretending to be that normal family. The underlying earthquakes and tremors that appear throughout the film and lead to Old Dolio's eventual awakening to the world. Or the final devastating moment that, spoiler, her parents were just scamming her all along and had no intention of treated her the way she so desperately wanted. 

I don't think this film will be for everyone because it is very unusual and has an abrupt ending that leaves you questioning what will happen next in her new awakened life and is genuinely a very bizarre film!

Rating - 7/10

By Rebecca

I am finding is hard to express how I feel about Kajillionaire. I was a very bizarre film, yet it still flowed well and I was still kind of invested into these kind of weird characters. Set in California, we follow Old Dolio and her family. Old Dolio is a 26 year old woman who is entirely dependent on her family and knows very little other that what her mum and dad have shown her. The family literally just about get by, by scamming and stealing from other people. It is clear that they really aren't very good at it and this is why their living situation is so poor. They live in the basement of a laundry factory and at a certain time of the day, every day, the ceiling will seep with soap bubbles, and the whole family has to hustle to clear them away before there whole 'living space' is covered. This is the only kind of routine Old Dolio has in her life. Things change when Old Dolio's parents start talking to Melanie on a flight back from New York. The family had won a competition to go to New York and they were using this as an opportunity to pull off a luggage scam and get compensation to pay their rent. Melanie was super chill when the parents revealed that they scam for a living, and even offered a scamming opportunity with her own work. 

Melanie and the family started scamming together and this is where Melanie and Old Dolio started to develop a relationship. Before this point, Old Dolio didn't have any influences other than her parents, and now having someone like Melanie in her life it was a real shock to the system. To suddenly be opened up to the 'real world', Old Dolio had a lot of catching up to do and was starting to realise that her life of crime may not be the way she wants to live her life. Things really take a turn when the parents buy a hot tub and try to lure Melanie in for a threesome. We see Old Dolio's mum call Melanie 'hon'. This is something that Old Dolio has not experienced before. She did not receive any affection from her parents, no presents or outward gestures of love. 

Old Dolio as a character was so so interesting to me. To portray an individual who has little to no influence from anything external must have been so challenging and Evan Rachel Wood was just sublime. Everything from body posture and movement to her voice work was spectacular. The way there were subtle changes to Old Dolio throughout the movie and Wood was able to execute them perfectly. From first glance you can tell that Old Dolio is not your average person and the was that was translated over the screen was very enjoyable. I guess as well this movie symbolises how one person can simply turn your world upside down. That's what Melanie did for Old Dolio and it was intriguing to see how Old Dolio slowly opened up to Melanie and her perspective on life. 

While Kajillionaire didn't change my world, it was still a great watch with a lot of thinking to come from it. It was a really unique story with some strange characters but it worked. The small cast worked well together and they were able to pull of this unconventional narrative.