The second film of Day One and, given that this one used the words “offbeat” and Deadpan” in the listing on the BFI site, it was pretty much right in my wheelhouse*.
Kajillionaire
Dir. Miranda July / Dur. 104 mins
Strand:- Laugh
In A Nutshell:- Low levels grifters Richard and Theresa live a hand to mouth life with their adult daughter Old Dolio. During an elaborate luggage scam, that arrival of someone new into their lives starts to chance things…
The Good:- This is director Miranda July and oddly her previous two films seem to have passed me by, even though they seem like the sort of thing I’d enjoy. She has a way of imbuing odd characters with distinctive voices that’s very appealing and definitely a gift for the right actors. As emotionally stunted couple Richard and Theresa, Richard Jenkins and Debra Winger are on fine form. Both of them are strong screen presences that don’t seem to get enough attention. The film largely belongs to Evan Rachel Wood’s equally emotionally stifled Old Dolio but it;s the interplay between her and Gina Rodriguez’s Mel that really sells the film. There’s also a nice line in weirdness that runs throughout - the office they live n which leaks with bubbles, the landlord with no emotional filter, the ducking walk they all do to avoid him, a stylistic moment that plays around with darkness - all of these things along with the performance combine to sweep you past the fact that actually there’s a fairly narratively conventional film lurking in the heart of it.
The Bad:- I honestly can't think of anything that I didn’t enjoy about this. I was swept along by it and didn't notice the running time - always a good sign, especially when trying to recreate the cinema experience in a distraction filled home environment.
The Verdict:- A thoroughly enjoyable mixture of weird and offbeat, silly and heartfelt, tragic and uplifting in which the four main leads effectively give us a four-hander character study. Two films in and suspect that this may be one of the highlights of the fest (early days though…).
The Venue/TechTalk:- Whatever teething troubles I had with the first film were absent for this one - streamed fine all the way through, no buffering. Looks like the BaldyFella Home PictureHouse is a go...
*Phrases are weird. This another one of those phrases where nobody seems quite sure where it originated. One possible theory is that, a wheelhouse is a part of a paddle steamer where, if anything were to fall into it, it would be struck with great force. It was used in baseball to describe the area where a batter could strike something with great force and then evolved into a saying meaning anything that fell within one’s area of expertise. Apparently. Then again, maybe not. Phrases, eh?
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