REVIEW

Brilliantly Offbeat ‘KAJILLIONAIRE’ A Singular Work of Weirdo Wonder

Name: Kajillionaire review
Item: Kajillionaire
Rating: 4.3
Author: Matt Oakes

By Matt Oakes · September 21, 2020

Brilliantly Offbeat ‘KAJILLIONAIRE’ A Singular Work of Weirdo Wonder

Where to watch: Streaming on Peacock, or rent or buy on digital (updated October 2026)Watch on Peacock · Rent or buy on Amazon · Buy on Blu-ray/4KAs an Amazon Associate, Silver Screen Riot earns from qualifying purchases.

Everyone wants to be a kajillionaire but not Robert (Richard Jenkins), Theresa (Debra Winger) and Old Dolio (Evan Rachel Woods). They just want to skim enough off the top to make ends meet. And skim they do. From mail theft to check forgery, stealing bottles of Voss from the First Class section to hawking free massage coupons, this nuclear trio of grifters is always on the scent of their next scam. But with the clock ticking on a $1,500 debt, the criminal parents turn to a new recruit, taking an outsider under their wing to one-up their grifts, much to the chagrin of the socially awkward Old Dolio.

Like parasitic leeches, the trio live in an abandoned and sudsy office park, tending to the nightly cascade of pink foam leaking in from the bubble factory next door. Each to their own cubicle, their comforts are limited to the free things in life and items they haven’t yet been able to hawk. The line between this family and homelessness is razor thin, if existent at all, and begs questions about the indignities one will suffer to avoid the even tougher indignity of homelessness. (July’s script is filled with subtle thought-provoking inquiries into the demarcation between what is and is not acceptable in our national script.) Old Dolio (named, aptly, after a dying homeless man, in a scheme to earn a place within his will) dials up a phone queue to take in the calming hold music as she drifts off to sleep. Alone. Always alone.

Kajillionaire movie still

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Old Dolio suffers this loneliness quietly. Her isolated outsider status is given physical shape by Woods’ hunched posture, which paired with a hand-me-down track suit and an unkept rats nest of hair makes her look like a 90s Norwegian metal guitarist. She is a severely broken person in a severely broken family battling to stay afloat in a severely broken society. Robert and Theresa are withholding with their affection, their way of hardening Old Dolio to the rigors of the outside world but that hardness has taken a toll. With Melanie (Gina Rodriguez) joining their grift, the warmth her parents extend the newbie brings old insecurities bubbling to the surface, leaving Old Dolio clamoring for the tenderness so often denied her.

Blending the treacherous class subjugation of Parasite with the offbeat anti-cool of Napoleon Dynamite, Kajillionaire peddles in social alienation; the journey of Old Dolio’s finding herself and seeking meaningful connection working to spell out an oddly affecting and quirkily charming work of serio-comedy.

Writer-director Miranda July has never shied away from humanity’s eccentricity and her characters here are as brazenly one-off and crusty as they’ve ever been. Each of the players in the family could be beamed in from another planet, aliens each to “normal society”, but they still shine with rich inner feelings and humanity. No matter how odd and outcast they might be, they still feel real and firmly grounded, battling the rat race habitat that is America.

The cast, from the always-reliable Richard Jenkins to a never-better Gina Rodriguez to the cold-and-quietly-tragic turn from Debra Winger, performs handily. But it’s Evan Rachel Woods super-flexing her inner-weirdo, that steals the show. Her misfitted anomaly of a character is performed with powerful, deep-throated gusto, Woods bravely giving voice to a girl terrified of speaking up. Though July has starred in all her previous films, she does not make an appearance here and, frankly, it’s for the best. The cast, and their chemistry with one another, truly shines here.

“Most happiness comes from dumb things,” Kajillionaire posits, a firm reminder that just because something is strange, does not also make it meaningful. On the surface, Kajillionaire may be a goofy lark but smuggles in deep, meaningful themes and championing the power of relationships. July explores the process of broken people healing through touching and often hysterical avenues, allowing the film to move audiences as well as jolt them with laughs. Be it in July’s stunning moments of absolute silence or the quiet little breakthroughs of her characters, Kajillionaire seeks to entertain but pulls off the ultimate heist of stealing your heart.

CONCLUSION: Miranda July’s oddball opus ‘Kajillionaire’ uses quirk to speak to the distancing of humanity from itself, creating a weirdly tender and wholly otherworldly dramedy that’s lit up by great performances.