Review: Kajillionaire

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 What's your share?


Old Dolio (Evan Rachel Wood) and her parents, Robert (Richard Jenkins) and Theresa (Debra Winger) have been scammers as long as she can remember. Stealing, haggling, trying to get by on the cheapest thing possible. That's their life. While doing an elaborate scam to get some insurance money, they happen across Melanie (Gina Rodriguez) who happily joins them on what she thinks will be a light hearted way to earn extra cash. But when Robert and Theresa start treating her very differently, Old Dolio starts to realize just how much love she's missed out on over the years.

Director Miranda July is a very interesting filmmaker. I loved her first feature, Me And You And Everyone We Know, but was far less impressed with her last, The Future. I'm happy to say that Kajillionaire is more in line with her first. I'm not even sure I'd call this "quirky" July's filmmaking is a bit beyond that. It's meticulously weird, but in a way that works. She showcases awkwardness in many different forms. 

Evan Rachel Wood is wonderful here. Many of her biggest acting moments are her simply observing and she says so much with her eyes. She speaks in a much lower register in this film than she naturally does, and it never sounds phony. Jenkins, Winger and Rodriguez are good as well. Normally I can get easily annoyed with characters who have a debt to pay, then frivolously spend on something else instead of paying said debt (which is 100% on me and just being careful with money) but I didn't feel that way here. The feel of this film was different enough to let it slide.

I will say, there is one thing that happens towards the end of the film, and I completely get WHY it happened. It's a great visual, but it was so illogical that both me and my husband were completely thrown off by it. I just could not suspend my disbelief enough for that to work. It reminded me a bit of how I felt about The Trial of the Chicago 7 honestly. One single scene I just hated in an otherwise great movie. It's not worth skipping because of it, but it might make you scratch your head.

Recommended: Yes

Grade: A-

Memorable Quote: "This is it. It's the big one." - Old Dolio (Evan Rachel Wood)

Comments

  1. Candice FrederickNovember 17, 2020 at 8:19 AM

    lol i think i know what scene you're talking about, but i love this movie

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Brittani BurnhamNovember 18, 2020 at 7:12 AM

      I feel like everyone who has seen this knows exactly what I'm talking about lol. Nope, don't buy it. love the movie, but nope.

      Delete
  2. Often Off TopicNovember 17, 2020 at 8:25 AM

    I've been looking forward to your review! So glad you enjoyed it and I've added Me and You and Everyone We Know to my watchlist now. I know the scene you're talking about and I definitely agree. It wasn't enough to ruin my vibe but it was odd!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Brittani BurnhamNovember 18, 2020 at 7:11 AM

      Exactly, not enough to ruin it, but enough to make me be like "...no, that wouldn't happen."

      Me and You is VERY weird, but there' something about it I just really like, even though parts are very uncomfortable.

      Delete
  3. thevoid99November 17, 2020 at 6:21 PM

    I have this film in my hard drive as I hope to watch this film before the end of the year. It's good to know that it's not The Future... I FUCKING HATED THAT FILM!!! Reading from your Twitter scrolls, I too have no interesting in watching films about the fucking coronavirus.

    Michael Bay and Shia making jokes about swine flu, I missed that when I saw some of that piece of shit film. Can we just kill them both please? Bay is the worst and Shia is just a pretentious douche.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Brittani BurnhamNovember 18, 2020 at 7:11 AM

      The Future was awful, I had completely forgotten I watched it for a while, then when I looked July's filmography it all came crashing back to me.

      I think I made a mistake in my tweet, and it's Transformers II, but you can tell it's ADR. It's when they're walking down the stairs, and the camera isn't on Shia but he says "swine flu" and you know that wasn't happening when they were filming it. It was so obvious.

      Delete
  4. Sonia CercaDecember 1, 2020 at 10:35 AM

    Your review has certainly piqued my interest. I'm adding both this and Me And You And Everyone We Know to my watchlist.

    ReplyDelete

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