Kajillionaire is a drama film directed by Miranda July. The plot centres around a dysfunctional family of three that defy the rules of modern society and live outside of the system. However, one day an outsider comes into the family’s orbit and old festering wounds are opened and abuse is brought to light.
So, before I get into this review I want to talk about the central romance that I found to be deeply troublesome. So the central character Old Dolio (Evan Rachel Wood), has been neglected by her parents and ignored and is basically learning challenged and seems to have the mental age of a much younger person, and as the film goes on we see that she is craving maternal affection. This maternal affection comes in the form of Melanie (Gina Rodriguez), the outsider that takes Old Dolio away from her abusive parents. At first the friendship they have is sweet, but it is clear from early on that Melanie has sexual feeling towards Old Dolio, which later come to the forefront. Now my issue with this is that it feels very much like Melanie is taking advantage of Old Dolio, who is in a deeply troubled mental state, the romance feels icky and problematic. The choice to make it a romance rather than a friendship is my key issue here. Also the film makes Old Dolio an incredibly stereotypical butch lesbian, which again is also troublesome, it doesn’t bother to have any real nuance at all.
That aside, there were parts of the film that I enjoyed. I thought that Wood did a lot to make her character feel very rounded and warm. Her performance was both endearing and also heart-breaking at the same time.
I also enjoyed the film’s exploration of abuse and the many forms it can take. As it looked at how parents can sometimes be incredibly toxic and harmful towards their kids. I thought the parent child dynamic in this film is fascinating and well done, it raises many interesting questions that I was left thinking about after the credits rolled.
Overall, I could give this film a much higher score if it wasn’t for the hugely problematic romance that didn’t need to be the in the film, a very poor choice.
Pros.
Wood
The exploration of the parent child dynamic
Cons
The romance
The use of stereotypes without any nuance
The odd sense of humour really doesn’t fit with everything else
2/5
Reviewed by Luke
Another Millennial Reviewer 