KAJILLIONAIRE

US, 2020, 104 minutes, Colour.
Evan Rachel Wood, Richard Jenkins, Debra Winger, Gina Rodriguez.
Directed by Miranda July.

Kajillionaire is not your everyday word, not your everyday amount of money. Most of us might be well satisfied with a billion or so!

This is a school story of scam artists. Actually, this family is not so much artist as opportunist. They have been at this for over a quarter of a century – very little to show for it except an addiction to continuing on with scams, no matter what.

It is the father of the family, Robert (the always reliable Richard Jenkins) who actually uses the word. However, this family is way below kajillionaire status, in fact, way below millions. The mother is a hard case, Theresa (an unrecognisable Debra Winger – and a reminder that An Officer and a Gentleman is almost 40 years Old Dolio). But, the centre of attention for the film is their daughter who is burdened with the name Old Dolio. Old Dolio later explains how she acquired this name – a scam that went wrong, an old man, Old Dolio, who is dying and seemed to about to leave his money to the family. But didn’t. Which means then that the daughter’s name denotes a negative experience. Evan Rachel Wood gives a striking performance.

And negative experiences are what she has experienced throughout her whole life, now aged 26. We first see the family at a bus stop, outside a post office, when Old Dolio suddenly does some acrobatics, enters the post office, has a key, opens a box but moves her arm around to adjacent boxes seeking what she might steal. As it turns out, not very satisfactory. Then Old Dolio is told to go to get a refund on a ticket for a massage. This episode reveals how sensitive Old Dolio is, unwilling to have a massage, dreading the masseuse touching her.

And this is life for the family, bedding down in an adjacent area to a bubbles’ factory, scooping up the overflow bubbles each evening before they settle down. And they owe $1500 to the landlord, always stooping as they pass the open fence where he could be observing them. Old Dolio comes up with a scam, their flying to New York (with Robert so terrified of turbulence that he chatters, uncontrolled, to neighbours, especially Puerto Rico and woman, Melanie (Gina Rodriguez) to whom he explains everything. The scam is for the parents to take away all the luggage, Old Dolio to report the loss of luggage the company – only to find that it might take six weeks for the cheque to come through (in fact comes through fairly quickly).

So far, so drab life, so far some ironic comic touches. But it is Melanie who changes everything, especially when the mother speaks to her affectionately, something she has never done with Old Dolio. Which leads to something of a breaking point for Old Dolio, always seen in formless drab clothes, somewhat robotic in her action and speech. But she realises that her parents have done nothing for her – reinforced when she goes in place of another mother, to a parent training session and sees a baby calling on its mother’s chest and breast. It stirs her.

Actually, some redemption is possible for Old Dolio, especially with Melanie taking up her cause, making a list of what has been absent in Old Dolio’s life, taking her home, speaking affectionately, making pancakes.

In fact, there seems to be a reconciliation. The parents buy a range of birthday presents for their daughter, up to 18th birthday. They invite her to a meal in a top restaurant. They see her home. But, you might guess what they are up to.

There is some kind of resolution for Old Dolio. Melanie does facilitate some change of awareness – with Old Dolio realising that she has no affection for anyone and discovers affection for Melanie. And that is it – we might have to imagine the sequel.

The screenplay was written and directed by Miranda July (short story writer, performance artist, her films Me and You and Everyone We Know, The Future). Idiosyncratic to say the least.


1. The title? Robert’s comment about scams, making money, kajillionaires? The tone of the title, the importance of money? The importance of getting money?

2. The Los Angeles setting, the city, bright sunshine, the bus stop, the post office, shops, massage centre, the bottle factory, the temporary accommodation and the suds on the wall, flights and airports, Melanie’s house, the house of the dying man? The musical score? Mr Lonely?

3. The family of scam-artists? Opportunists rather than artists? A life devoted to scams? Robert and Theresa and their age, the long experience? From hand to mouth? In debt? Yet cheerful and surviving? Long spiels to justify themselves, to the landlord?

4. Old Dolio, such a name for their daughter, her later explaining that the name came from an old man and a failed scam? At 26? Her whole life lived like this? Seeing her going into the post office, the acrobatics, the key, stealing from the post delivery holes, the family examining the contents? Her appearance, drab clothes, moving like an automaton? Participating in all the scams for such a long time, the effect on her, her parents taking her for granted? And dividing all the gains into three parts?

5. The pressure on the family from the proprietor, to pay the rent, to get the money for the rent, going to their accommodation, bending low so that they would not be seen? Mopping up the suds? The makeshift beds? Peeking out their existence?

6. Old Dolio and her going to get a refund the massage, the massage woman and her bewilderment, insisting on the massage, and her dread being touched, the drabness of her life?

7. The need for $1500, the plan to fly to New York, lose the luggage? Robert and his fear of the turbulence on the plane, wanting to talk to people, meeting Melanie, talking to her, explaining everything to her, their scavenging all the food from the plane and having a picnic? Robert and his phobia of the quake tremors in Los Angeles? Old Dolio reporting the luggage as the lost, the delay? The fact that the cheque came through so quickly?

8. Old Dolio going to the birth lessons for the mother, being paid? Her learning about babies, the video, the baby on the mother? Her fascination? Her return, the role plays, the facilitator asking questions, observing, Old Dolio and her response?

9. Melanie, from Puerto Rico, her character, chatting on the plane, becoming involved, sharing in the scams? Theresa and her referring to Melanie as ‘hon’? The effect on Old Dolio, her mother defending herself, not showing any affection towards her daughter? The question about being a baby and crawling on her mother?

10. Old Dolio and her outburst with her mother, her bewildered father? Melanie and her response, understanding the situation, taking Old Dolio to her house, the puzzle of the gift of presents for the birthdays up to 18? Opening them? The range of gifts? The message for the 18th birthday – the invitation to go to a restaurant? Melanie dressing up Old Dolio, their going to the restaurant?

11. The meal, the cheerful parents, the talk? The return to the house?

12. Melanie, her character, contact with her mother, writing the list of Old Dolio’s needs, calling her sweetheart, the gifts, making pancakes in the morning and Old Dolio eating one, ticking off the list and the effect on Old Dolio?

13. Old Dolio and her reawakening, emotions, going to the toilet at the service station, the quake and its effect, Old Dolio and her transformation, her cheerful behaviour in the shop?

14. Waking up in the morning, the house stripped, the parents and their expecting Old Dolio to have set up robbing Melanie? Dismay? Melanie’s response? Returning the gifts to the store, $525?

15. The impact on Old Dolio, at 26 some emotional awakening, her dependence on Melanie, the final sequence, kissing in the store? Speculation about the future?