The latest from Miranda July (Me and You and Everyone We Know) is a delightfully off-kilter comedy. Kajillionaire resides on a brilliantly bizarre plane that wholeheartedly immerses the viewer in its madness in the absolute best of ways.
July has ensembled a Fab Four of titanic talent that goes deep with their portrayals—Evan Rachel Wood, Gina Rodriguez, Richard Jenkins, and Debra Winger. They immerse themselves in the most unique of LA stories that never loses its tonal focus, despite the most unexpected twists and turns. The story also is a familial fable that examines what it means to be a part of a family, a clan if you will—albeit one that is unlike any most of us grew up around!
Jenkins is Robert while Winger portrays Theresa, his wife. The couple has raised their daughter, Old Dolio—intensely inhabited by Wood—in a style that mirrors exactly who they are to the core. After spending mere seconds with Robert and Theresa in the opening minutes of the film, it is hardly a surprise that their child embodies that old phrase about apples falling far from trees.
As we meet the fam, they are outside a post office, readying for their go-to scam—looting of the post office boxes. Old Dolio waits for the postal worker to take her lunch, like clockwork at 11:30 a.m., and with her long arms opens their PO box and reaches around to empty the surrounding boxes. Yup, the family business is scamming in any way possible, and embodying every nuanced definition of that word.
The trio lives in an office park with discounted rent because they clean up the gallons upon gallons of spillover that flows like Niagara Falls from the bubble making plant next door. Everything about that description screams of July’s wickedly raw originality that makes it utterly hilarious and righteously raw.
There is nothing that this clan won’t try to scam, as they constantly skim off the top of everything that can be skimmed—from restaurant trash for food to travel insurance to cover lost luggage that doesn’t exist. The latter is how they meet Rodriguez’s Melanie. Old Dolio won a family trip to New York City that they only intend to use as a way to pull off the insurance scam. They land, turn around and catch the next flight home… claim lost luggage and collect a payday. Melanie has the good fortune of sitting next to Richard and Theresa on that return flight and instantly takes a liking to them. There’s something about their way of life that is appealing to Melanie. We never meet her mother, but her presence is huge via phone calls and texts. We see her apartment, it’s rather nice. There is nothing in the way that July has crafted this character that has us thinking she needs to be a part of these low-rent grifters.
Yet, the same thing that compels the viewer to be engulfed by their every move is what draws Melanie to this family. There’s also the friendship factor. She strikes up a kinship with Old Dolio, which the latter always looks at with a figurative and literal raised eyebrow. It’s a touching aspect of July’s film in that attention and friendly affection from Melanie is the polar opposite of everything about her upbringing. Hearing Melanie with her mother on the phone provides a window into a world where mother and daughter are connected by much more than roles to play in the latest con. Melanie also provides the trio an introduction to a whole new element of scamming, the old and lonely folks who frequent the optical store she works for at the mall.
The writer-director took a landscape audiences know impeccably—Los Angeles—and altered it in the most subtly strange ways that reflect how Theresa, Richard, and Old Dolio view the world. The production designer, Sam Lisenco, gave a city known (in part) for movie premieres and celebrity glamour, and made it over, bringing viewers further into the filmmaker’s rabbit hole. He and cinematographer Sebastian Winterø proved to be quite the tandem for July in establishing atmosphere, feel, and even playing into the humor. The hair and makeup team also deserves major props for their work with Wood and Winger. The latter is unrecognizable. The former is such a talented thespian, her work stands on its own. There is no doubt that the actress’ hair, makeup, and costumes (from Jennifer Johnson) pushed her characterization into an even fuller inhabitation.
Speaking of Wood… there is no arena where she doesn’t champion. Whether it’s singing and warming our hearts in Across the Universe or terrifying us with her command and drive as the robotic leader in Westworld, the young actress is a gift to every production she joins. She alters her cadence, the way she carries herself… to even how she uses her arms as extensions of her communication abilities with this turn. It is impossible to choose Wood’s “best” performance of her career—that is barely scratching the surface of possibilities—but Kajillionaire has to be right up there amongst her most riveting and endearing.
Jenkins and Winger are a match made in cinematic heaven. As Richard and Theresa, the veteran thespians are parents who blatantly see their child as a tool to take their work as con artists to another level. Jenkins is always a delight and effortlessly shifts from drama to comedy throughout his career. All that experience comes into play throughout the film as so often his delivery as Robert is written to be overly dramatic, but in fact, comes across as completely comedic. Winger, meanwhile, goes so deep as Theresa that—as I wrote earlier—is unrecognizable on so many levels. It is a revolutionary turn from an actress who is no stranger to pulling our heartstrings. That is why her cold indifference towards her daughter feels meanly irresponsible, even if it often produces uncomfortable laughs. That is firmly on purpose and another aspect of the triumph that is July with her latest.
Rodriguez (recently seen on the big screen in Miss Bala) is like a breath of fresh air coming through a smokey poker hall when she arrives on the scene. After that point, the tone may not alter, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel for Old Dolio that never before existed. The camera adores Rodriguez. That is smartly parlayed by July into her story in multiple ways. Not only is she a bright light amongst a dimly lit group of low-level crooks, but there literally a scene involving utter darkness and Old Dolio where the Jane the Virgin star serves as her light on a myriad of levels.
What is curious is where July goes from here. She has crafted a comedy that is as laugh out loud as it is a sly wink at her audience humor. Her writing is vivid and although it comes off as flippant in parts, that is on purpose. There isn’t a wasted word. The filmmaker brilliantly has an entire crew and cast firmly on the same page—something moviemakers with twice the experience as July have trouble accomplishing. It all adds up to a uniquely obtuse look at modern family and an economic system that has left many behind. The souls she has invented are so multidimensional that Kajillionaire is that comedy that is enhanced by repeated viewings. There aren’t punchlines that lessen the humor by knowing them. Her characters paint pictures with their utterances that all purposely play into this stew that July has cooked up. We want seconds.
Grade: A