July transcends all of those comparisons, however, by never letting her film slip into unhinged flights of fancy or detached hipsterism. Instead, Kajillionaire<\/em> is remarkably empathetic, and balances its wacky comedy with a tender love story. Part of July\u2019s unique way of pulling off this tonal juggling act is engendering empathy for her characters. Lifelong con artists Robert (Richard Jenkins), Theresa (Debra Winger), and their daughter, Old Dolio (Evan Rachel Wood), are wacky right from the first minute of the film, ripping off mail from a post office like they\u2019re executing an Ocean’s Eleven<\/em>-style heist and speaking in their own bizarre, paranoid patter. As July introduces more of their world, however, it\u2019s revealed to be just as skewed as they are: The family lives in what used to be an office space beneath a bubble factory that keeps leaking, parenting seminars involve adults role playing as babies, and virtually no one behaves in an average, \u201cnormal\u201d way.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n The cast is uniformly fantastic, as each actor portrays a character that fits neatly into the film\u2019s world yet is delineated enough to be individually unique. As Theresa and Robert, Winger and Jenkins are hilariously cold and calloused as they care more about making a quick and easy buck than their own daughter, while Wood\u2019s Old Dolio is emotionally stunted and shy \u2014 she finds it hard to express and assert herself, while her parents seem to not have a filter. The trio has a chance meeting with Melanie (Gina Rodriguez), who at first seems to be an average L.A. woman who can act as the audience\u2019s proxy, but even she gleefully follows the grifter family into their odd universe \u2014 in large part due to her romantic interest in Old Dolio. As Melanie eventually introduces Old Dolio to her normal apartment, it\u2019s like watching a quirky comedic version of Jodie Foster in Nell<\/em> (1994). If even this woman can like \u2014 let alone love \u2014 these weirdos, July seems to say, we can, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kajillionaire<\/em>, being a character-based movie, is one of the rare films about con artists that\u2019s not intricately plotted. This isn\u2019t a movie where the grifters prepare an elaborate scheme, or seek to escape the law, or some such device. Instead, the movie follows its central quartet as they float from opportunity to opportunity, taking on increasingly odd ways to cheat someone out of their money that continually puts them in the hands (sometimes literally) of another human being, forcing them to reconnect to the human race they initially seem to have left behind. Thanks to these encounters, the criminals who see everyone as either a potential asset or mark rediscover (or discover for the first time, in Old Dolio\u2019s case) what it means to be a feeling, caring person. In presenting their world to be one where everyone is unhappy with their economic status, July makes this transition a moving one, and firmly places the movie in the present day rather than the \u201890s. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Ultimately, the film is the next sentence in a conversation America and its art have been having recently about capitalism and class, and how deadening those institutions can be. Robert and Theresa think that, in their closing themselves off from affection and refusal to play by anyone else\u2019s rules but their own, they\u2019ve gamed the system, while Old Dolio and Melanie are trapped by their statuses and yearn for love and a better life. Money and material goods aren\u2019t of real importance \u2014 \u201cit doesn\u2019t matter,\u201d repeats Melanie during a climactic scene. The big score everyone is looking for is right in front of them, and it turns out to be each other. Not everyone can appreciate that gift, and not everyone will vibe on July\u2019s wavelength \u2014 her style is admittedly unique enough to alienate some on its oddity alone. If you can accept those surface quirks and look beneath, however, you just might strike it rich.\u00a0 (Screened at the Sundance Film Festival)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n A<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Kajillionaire is writer-director Miranda July\u2019s first feature film in nine years, and while it\u2019s set in the present day, you\u2019d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":459,"featured_media":13281,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1416,1381,340],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-festivals","category-movies","category-movie-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/459"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13278"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13278\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/crookedc-01.svg\")
<\/p>\n\n\n\n1 hr., 46 min.; not yet rated<\/em><\/h5>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nJoin our \u00a0<\/em>mailing list<\/a>! Follow us on \u00a0<\/em>Twitter<\/a>! <\/em>Write<\/a>\u00a0for us!<\/em><\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"