Film Review: Kajillionaire
by Mary Nyiri

Miranda July, USA 2020

Old Dolio (Evan Rachel Wood) is named after a homeless man who won the lottery. She lives with her parents Theresa (Debra Winger) and Robert (Richard Jenkins) in an industrial building where they must regularly use trash cans to catch suds seeping through the ceiling. They are avoiding their landlord since they are way behind on rent. They are all artists – con, that is, and a family that is dysfunctional to the extreme. Old Dolio steals mail from postal boxes. The family flies to New York on free tickets just to lose luggage so they can collect on travel insurance. On the flight they meet Melanie (Gina Rodriquez), a wannabe scammer. Melanie has a real job and a mom who sounds nice but for some inexplicable reason is thrilled to be taken into the bosom of the con family. Perhaps Melanie finds Old Dolio attractive. Maybe Theresa and Robert find Melanie attractive. Sitting together in an empty hot tub in the store they warm to each other. Earthquake tremors intermittently shake things up. As another tremor hits, Robert opines, “If you’re lucky you’ll get crushed and then just die…” Not lucky I sat through the entire film unmoved. Not funny to me, it was just a stupid con.