Kajillionaire 2020 123movies

There are few movies quite like Miranda July’s _Kajillionaire_. What begins as a movie about grifters and scam artists turns into one of the most achingly honest portrayals of loneliness ever made. Led by Evan Rachel Wood’s transformative performance of Old Dolio, _Kajillionaire_’s focus is on the scamming Dyne family. Parents Robert (Richard Jenkins) and Theresa (Debra Winger) have raised Old Dolio in a life of petty theft. They even named their daughter Old Dolio in an attempt to get money from a homeless man named Old Dolio, who won the lottery. Their get-rich-quick lifestyle meant more to them than providing a loving and thoughtful name for their child. For some reason, they thought the homeless person would leave any money that was left when he died to his namesake. Old Dolio’s life has been filled with lying, stealing, and scamming since the day she was born.

Theresa (Debra Winger) and Robert (Richard Jenkins) are life-long grifters. They’ve trained their only daughter, Old Dolio (Evan Rachel Wood), well. The trio are well-versed in every scam, swindle, and opportunity for thievery, from lifting mail from adjacent post office boxes to demanding a reward for finding “lost” jewelry. While on a mission to defraud a travel insurance company, they meet kind stranger Melanie (Gina Rodriguez), who is intrigued by the family. Melanie casually mentions that she has a crackerjack idea to trick her elderly customers into gifting her valuable antiques, which she can subsequently sell for cash. Desperate for rent money, the family invites Melanie to join them on their next heist, which turns Old Dolio’s world upside down.

The story is original, touching, very funny, and it goes places you won’t expect. Wood is fantastic as Old Dolio, a stoic, lonely, and strange young woman who is obsessed with the fact that she was never held as a baby. She longs to be shown affection, and it’s a heartbreaking character that Wood wholly embodies. All of the performances are fantastic, but she stands out.

The dry, wry humor is an acquired taste, but if you appreciate July’s previous work, you’ll likely love this. There are moments of greatness (including a beautiful scene about loneliness that takes place in a dying man’s apartment), and heavy themes about learning to love yourself and the joys of friendship and salvation are laid out in non-conventionally delicate but effective ways. I adored every single moment of this film.

The story turns from a generic tale of grifters into a lively portrait of self discovery, and it’s beautiful when Old Dolio begins to experience a true connection with Melanie as they devise a plan to free her from a life of petty crime.

“Kajillionaire” is uplifting and charming, and has a lot of original, insightful things to say about the world we all live in.

And it is not the easiest job. She has to walk quite the fine line. Her character is not really likeable! But she is quirky and weird … and while she (but her parents even more so) does things that could be described as despicable … we know it is her situation that motivates her. For that, she still seems to have a moral compass … of sorts. Again very weird and crazy character.

She will clash with a “newcomer”, which we can predict … and also were this will lead to … still the drama is well played and well acted (no pun intended).