Respond to these rapid questions in our Kajillionaire quiz and we will tell you which Kajillionaire character you are. Play it now.
At first glance, Miranda July’s unconventional stories and eccentric humor might appear to suggest otherwise, but at the heart of Miranda July’s work is always profoundly difficult material to deal with. “Me and You and Everyone We Know” is a rapturously funny film about our insatiable desire for meaningful connections, which is hidden beneath the quirky indie exterior. The idiosyncrasies of “The Future” are charged with existential notes on the yearning for meaning. And for further evidence into her primary creative concerns, one need only look no further than everything July has been doing virtually and on social media, particularly since the Covid-19 quarantine began in earnest back in the spring, as well as everything she has been doing in person. Because she has been allowing small groups of people to participate in her process, the fiercely original multi-disciplinary artist has been putting herself out there to investigate humankind’s consequential bonds—how individuals forge those ties in the absence of physical contact, what they might gain from them, and why we all rely on others like air and water.
“Kajillionaire,” the writer/best director’s and most mature work to date, is often hilarious and gradually heartbreaking in its exploration of the world of a twenty-something who has been consistently denied any form of genuine human touch and connection her entire life, almost recapitulating the above-mentioned experiential artistic interests. She is Old Dolio, a slouchy-shouldered Los Angeles resident played by Evan Rachel Wood, who dresses in baggy jackets and strange track suits, and wears her hair in a longer-than-necessary mid-parted style over her permanently sullen face and slouchy shoulders. Embedded in a vicious cycle of petty crime with her equally bizarre parents Theresa (Debra Winger) and Robert (Richard Jenkins)—of course they are bizarre, having named their child “Old Dolio” as if to punish her from birth—the helpless daughter cheats her way from one minor theft to the next, sharing all of the minor gains with her parents three-fold in exchange for not receiving a single intimate relationship or word of affection in return.
Throughout the film, July doesn’t drop any hints that will help us figure out when or why the grifter couple Theresa and Robert made the decision to live a life of defiance against the establishment or how they came to be so incapable of showing affection to their children, whom they appear to be heartlessly detached from. Instead, the filmmaker earns the viewer’s trust and consent right away through her assured sense of rhythm and assured handling of the world-building he or she is creating. As seen through Sebastian Winter’s fluid lens, July’s trio of characters move through, blend into, and interact with their surroundings in such a smooth and meticulously fabricated manner that we completely buy their unusual authenticity from the very beginning of the film, when the family launches into one of their routine post office heists, all the way through to the end of the film. He barges into the building, making hysterical movements such as somersaulting here and falling there (ostensibly to avoid security cameras), only to rob the mailboxes next door for items as insignificant as a tie, all in the name of pranking the security guards.
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In another location, their elastic motions keep them out of the sight of a desperate landlord, a weak-willed but kind man who gives his poor tenants the final deadline to pay their past-due rent in a few weeks. It’s not that the residence in question, which is severely lacking in natural light, is inhabitable by any means. With its location inside a factory-like space, the trio’s pink, soapy substance seeps through the walls on a regular basis, which they collect in buckets with such a sense of duty and normalcy that the entire scene appears to be a bizarre art installation that parodies the impossibility of urban living. (Notable production design by Sam Lisenco, who manages to make all of these oddities appear to be completely natural.) Nonetheless, with no intention of losing their low-cost accommodations, the family plans their next “big” con, in which they hope to defraud an airline of insurance money for misplaced luggage.
Kajillionaire Quiz
Then there’s Melanie (an effervescent Gina Rodriguez, who turns out to be the film’s secret weapon), a bubbly and curious personality who quickly becomes attracted to the trio’s unconventional ways in order to shake things up a little in her own square existence. “It’s a beautiful thing,” says the director of the film. Old Dolio is initially envious of Melanie because she is everything that she is not: well-groomed, assertively feminine, independent, and surrounded by warmth in her own family. Old Dolio then realizes how much she has been missing out on all the tender, emotionally reassuring, and even sexual sensations that Melanie has been missing out on all this time. Is it possible for Melanie to find someone who will validate her, such as a friend, sister, or perhaps even a lover? What if she could retroactively grant Old Dolio the maternal compassion that the poor recluse had previously witnessed at a parenting class that she had attended for the purpose of making a few extra dollars?
Also, you will find out which character are you in this Kajillionaire quiz.
You might be wrecked by where July takes the story, which goes in an overwhelmingly heartbreaking and unexpected direction, especially during these ongoing days of quarantine, when we’re all paying attention to what really matters in life: a hug, a passionate kiss, or even a sweet, simple word from a special someone. To be honest, July does Melanie a disservice a little bit; we feel a little cheated when the film’s most memorable character does not have a particularly satisfying journey of her own. In spite of this, the chemistry between Wood’s deep-voiced, reluctant outcast and Rodriguez’s scrappy, vivacious go-getter is so divine that their shared passage is ultimately what sells and counts in “Kajillionaire.” By the time it’s over, it all feels like life-affirming material.
For more personality quizzes check this: Color Out Of Space Quiz.
