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Kajillionaire
USA 2020
produced by Dede Gardner, Youree Henley, Jeremy Kleiner, Megan Ellison (executive), Sarah Esberg (executive), Jillian Longnecker (executive), Brad Pitt (executive) for Annapurna Pictures, Plan B Entertainment
directed by Miranda July
starring Evan Rachel Wood, Debra Winger, Gina Rodriguez, Richard Jenkins, Mark Ivanir, Diana Maria Riva, Patricia Belcher, Da'Vine Joy Randolph, Rachel Redleaf, Ian Casselberry, Kim Estes, Michael Twaine, Randy Ryan, Susan Berger, Ben Konigsberg, Challen Cates, David Ury, Nikki Castillo, Tabitha Brownstone, Brandon Morales, Samantha Cardona, Andrew Hawkes, Matthew Downs, Micah Cohen, Jeffrey Nicholas Brown, Jason Catron, Zachary Barton, Zena Leigh, Adam Bartley, Matthew Foster, Steve Park, Elena Campbell-Martinez, Wylie Small, Trent Walker, Madeleine Coghlan, Rebecca Lee, Ethan Josh Lee, Betsy Baker, Michelle Gillette, Venessa Verdugo
written by Miranda July, music by Emile Mosseri
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Old Dolio (Evan Rachel Wood) and her parents Theresa (Debra Winger) and
Robert (Richard Jenkins) are living on petty theft and small fry scams,
trying to convince themselves that they're doing alright while they can't
even pay the ridiculously low rent for their run-down place, a former
office with a leaking wall. Then one of their raids wins them a trip to
New York and back, and they figure they could scam the airline into paying
them enough insurance money for three months rent by accusing them of
losing their luggage - and it works too, only the payment isn't processed
right away. But other than that, on the flight they also meet bubbly,
attractive Melanie (Gina Rodriguez), who charms Theresa and Robert with
her love for life so much that they let her into their crew - not that she
needs the money, she just finds their way of life exciting. And this new
addition to the team goes much to the dismay of Old Dolio, because Melanie
becomes more and more her parents center of attention, while she, who has
always tried to suppress her emotions, feels side-tracked. Eventually, Old
Dolio finds the check from the airline in the mail and runs away - only
she doesn't know where to run to and eventually ends up at Melanie's. And
it doesn't take Melanie long to figure out what's wrong with Old Dolio,
she has just never received any emotional bond with her parents or anyone
else, so Melanie offers to be an ersatz-parent for her - in return for the
check from the airline. Old Dolio accepts - but at first, Melanie's
success is but limited ... until an earthquake hits town, and Old Dolio
thinks it's the big one and when she survives she believes she has had a
near death experience (even though she comes out of it completely
unscathed), and what's more, her parents believe the same, and shower her
with all the birthday gifts they've never given her, just to win back her
love - well, maybe to win back her love, but maybe it's just another scam
... Parts of Kajillionaire are really good, from
the premise to the acting to the quirky humour that permeates the first
half. But unfortunately, ultimately the film just tries to achieve too
much, it really tries hard to convince everyone it has a heart - and it
does have a heart, so it doesn't have to drive that home with a
sledgehammer -, it puts too much mock psychology into things, and
ironically because of that leaves some character motivations
underdeveloped, and frankly, it just goes on a good half hour too long to
do its premise proper justice. All that said, it's actually still an
enjoyable movie, it just would have been so much better were things scaled
back a bit.
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