“NIGHTMARE ALLEY IS ALL AROUND BRILLIANCE” – Jazz Tangcay, Variety
Academy Award Best Picture Nominee Nightmare Alley Appears on Digital March 8 and 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray and DVD on March 22
From the imaginative filmmaker Guillermo del Toro and Searchlight Pictures arrives an electrifying film noir,Nightmare Alley. Available on Digital March 8 and on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray and DVD on March 22.
The suspenseful psychological thriller is nominated for 4 Academy Awards® including Best Picture, 8 Critics’ Choice Awards, a Screen Actors’ Guild Award for Supporting Actress for Cate Blanchett, and BAFTA, SDSA, MPSE, ADG, CDG, VES, and WGA Awards.
NA_02045.ARW
When charismatic but down-on-his-luck Stanton Carlisle (Bradley Cooper) endears himself to clairvoyant Zeena (Toni Collette) and her has-been mentalist husband Pete (David Strathairn) at a traveling carnival, he crafts a golden ticket to success, using this newly acquired knowledge to grift the wealthy elite of 1940s New York society. With the virtuous Molly (Rooney Mara) loyally by his side, Stanton plots to con a dangerous tycoon (Richard Jenkins) with the aid of a mysterious psychiatrist (Cate Blanchett) who might be his most formidable opponent yet.
Del Toro co-wrote the enthralling film with Kim Morgan, based on William Lindsay Gresham’s novel.
Bonus Features*
Del Toro’s Neo Noir – Writer-director Guillermo del Toro and his standout cast decipher the dark, complicated world of Nightmare Alley. The filmmaker reveals how his take on noir is rooted in classic cinema but offers an accessible, modern narrative.
Beneath the Tarp – Production designer Tamara Deverell and her talented team skillfully delivered both a decaying traveling carnival world and a gilded Art Deco high society with striking visuals. We explore how this design supported del Toro’s genre-bending filmmaking.
What Exists in the Fringe – Costume designer Luis Sequeira unravels his collaboration with Guillermo del Toro and reveals the symbolism that’s constantly at play in the film’s carefully crafted wardrobe’s design.
“Step right up and behold one of the unexplained mysteries of the universe! Is he a man or beast? “
A 35mm print of the Black and White Version of Guillermo del Toro’s NIGHTMARE ALLEY called NIGHTMARE ALLEY: VISION IN DARKNESS AND LIGHT is currently showing at The Plaza Frontenac (1701 South Lindbergh Boulevard # 210 PLAZA, Frontenac). It is showing daily at 3:40pm and will be carried over through next week. The Frontenac’s site can be found HERE
Experience NIGHTMARE ALLEY in the classic film noir style of black and white for a limited time. Guillermo del Toro’s NIGHTMARE ALLEY follows charismatic but down-on-his-luck Stanton Carlisle (Bradley Cooper) who endears himself to clairvoyant Zeena (Toni Collette) and her has-been mentalist husband Pete (David Strathairn) at a traveling carnival, he crafts a golden ticket to success, using this newly acquired knowledge to grift the wealthy elite of 1940s New York Society. With the virtuous Molly (Rooney Mara) loyally by his side, Stanton plots to con a dangerous tycoon (Richard Jenkins) with the aid of a mysterious psychiatrist (Cate Blanchett) who might be his most formidable opponent yet.
“Although we shot Nightmare Alley in color, we lit it as if it were black and white,” del Toro said. “You can see exactly the same level of design, and we wanted to give viewers this special vantage as a take of the classic noir genre that the film is part of.”
“Step right up and behold one of the unexplained mysteries of the universe! Is he a man or beast? “
A Black and White Version of Guillermo del Toro’s NIGHTMARE ALLEY called NIGHTMARE ALLEY: VISION IN DARKNESS AND LIGHT opens in St. Louis Theaters Friday January 28th. It will be showing at The Marcus Ronnies and Plaza Frontenac.
Experience NIGHTMARE ALLEY in the classic film noir style of black and white for a limited time. Guillermo del Toro’s NIGHTMARE ALLEY follows charismatic but down-on-his-luck Stanton Carlisle (Bradley Cooper) who endears himself to clairvoyant Zeena (Toni Collette) and her has-been mentalist husband Pete (David Strathairn) at a traveling carnival, he crafts a golden ticket to success, using this newly acquired knowledge to grift the wealthy elite of 1940s New York Society. With the virtuous Molly (Rooney Mara) loyally by his side, Stanton plots to con a dangerous tycoon (Richard Jenkins) with the aid of a mysterious psychiatrist (Cate Blanchett) who might be his most formidable opponent yet.
“Although we shot Nightmare Alley in color, we lit it as if it were black and white,” del Toro said. “You can see exactly the same level of design, and we wanted to give viewers this special vantage as a take of the classic noir genre that the film is part of.”
WAMG’s Jim Batts says in his review that NIGHTMARE ALLEY is “a truly wild, and wonderful, walk on the “wild side”.
Win tickets to see Guillermo del Toro’s NIGHTMARE ALLEY.
In NIGHTMARE ALLEY, an ambitious carny (Bradley Cooper) with a talent for manipulating people with a few well-chosen words hooks up with a female psychiatrist (Cate Blanchett) who is even more dangerous than he is. The film also stars Toni Collette, Willem Dafoe, Richard Jenkins, Rooney Mara, Ron Perlman and David Strathairn.
Step right up, folks. Even though the temps are dipping (in most states), the fine folks in “Tinsel-Town’ want you to take in the wonders of a traveling carnival. Oh, you’ll also have to take a long trip back in the past, when these operations drew in the rubes…er..crowds. Say around 85 years or so ago. So besides the usual oddities of nature and games of chance, there’s plenty of duplicities, fraud, and even a murder or two. And just who’s running this group of startling attractions? Why it’s none other than an Oscar-winning director. He’ll be making sure you get your ticket for a stroll down NIGHTMARE ALLEY. If you dare….
But first, we’re introduced to the story’s protagonist (I almost said “hero”). Stanton “Stan” Carlisle (Bradley Cooper) is “hoofing it” on the rural backroads of 1930’s Depression-era America. He stumbles upon a traveling carnival trying to pack up the tents before a big storm hits. The show’s ” big boss” Clem (Willam Dafoe) promises Stan a “hot meal’ if he’ll join the “rousters”. Later the duo teams up to track down and capture the escaped “geek”, an animal-like drunkard who bites the heads off of live chickens to earn a bottle of “hooch”. An impressed Clem decides to “take on” Stan. But he needs to get the “road grime” washed off. Luckily the next “set-up” is nearby the cabin of boozy Pete (David Strathairn) and his wife Zeena (Toni Collette) who offer their bathtub for a “dime a dip”. As Pete “sleeps one off”, Zeena makes sure that Stan is “thoroughly clean” (if ya get my drift). As he becomes a frequent houseguest, Stan learns that the couple once had a phony “psychic’ act, one that involves Zeena using “code words” to get the proper response from Pete. The ambitious Stan decides that he’ll help them “revive” the bit after ‘selling” it to Clem. But that’s not the end of Stan’s interests. He starts pursuing the lovely young Molly (Rooney Mara) who pretends to take on thousands of volts as the “Electric Girl”. Deciding the carnival’s not big enough, Stan swipes the prized psychic act “codebook” and takes the “grift” on the road with Molly as his aide. Eventually they’re the big deal at nightclubs, with Stan looking suave in spats and tails. So sharp that he attracts the attention of the psychiatrist to the “swells”, Dr. Lilith Ritter (Cate Blanchett). She knows he’s a “phony”, but still enlists him to “con” several of her wealthy “patients”. After he hooks a grieving couple, the duo set out to “hook a whale”, ultra-rich Ezra Grindle (Richard Jenkins). But Lilith warns him that this fish “bites back”. Can the former “carny'” bamboozle him? Or, is it possible that Stan can actually contact ‘the great beyond”?
Whew, talk about an “all-star” cast, as they’d tout in Hollywood’s “heyday”. Ah, but first and foremost, driving the tale is Cooper as the man with a dark past whose morality careens towards utter blackness rather than the light. And all in pursuit of the almighty “buck”. We see him almost literally stumbling along until the carnival gives him purpose. He becomes more confident, as Cooper clears up his “Oakie” mumblings in order to sell his new “skills”. He has a shot at redemption with the somewhat innocent Molly, but she’s just another way to get to the top. No amount of fancy tuxedos can hide his devious ambitious nature. But he almost meets his match in Blanchett’s Lilith, a classic film femme fatale, wrapped up in a scholarly guise. Her silky seductive line delivery spins a tempting web of high-style heresy. And she knows she can make Stan jump for her “bait”. Mara, as Molly, seems to be the only character capable of escaping “the life”, as her misplaced love for the smooth-talking Stan pushes her into repugnant duplicity. Mara shows us how that light in Molly’s eye slowly dims as they go for the “brass ring”. Zeena, played by a sultry Collette, has given up on that ring until the hunky young Stan flashes his eager smile making her take down her “guard”. Jenkins gives the “mark” Ezra an interesting duality. Grief has him obsessively clinging to a chance to correct his past, but his seething cruelty overrides any empathetic feeling toward the lonely tycoon. Dafoe is full of energetic bluster as the blowhard barker, scoring with a terrific monologue on how to “groom a geek”. Strathairn makes Pete a sad confused sotted cuckold, while Ron Perlman is an intimidating physical menace as the over-protective (of Molly) sideshow strongman.
Just for fun here’s the poster for the first version of the story…
Oh, the Oscar winner “pulling the strings” behind the camera is the modern master of movie macabre, Guillermo del Toro, in a quite different follow-up to that “swoony” fantasy love story/monster fable THE SHAPE OF WATER. There’s little romance in this stylized “fever-dream” full of lust and avarice. Ah, but what style is to be savored. The story’s almost slashed in half, with the opening carnival sequence showing the “low”, sleazy squalor, while the second half bathes in rich colors and textures as the actions shift to “high” gear in plush offices (Lillth’s “den of debauchery”), the flashy nightclubs, and the fortress-like mansion of Ezra, all accented by the swirling soundtrack by Nathan Johnson. And if the story sounds a touch familiar, then you’ve been a fan of the old “late, late film shows”, or more recently TCM or the Fox Movie Channel. While there’s an excellent black and white film from 1947 (worth seeking), del Toro insists that this isn’t a “remake”, but rather a different take on the celebrated novel by William Lindsay Gresham. (this version ends more honestly than the censors then would allow) The screenplay shifts the actions from the 1920s to the still economically desperate mid-1930s (rumbling of unrest in Germany), and del Toro (who co-wrote it with Kim Morgan) really plunges into the twisted nature of the main characters. All the while, exploring the fascinations of “seedy show biz”, especially in the traveling carnival. The attractions lure in the “rubes’ with promises of sex and, oddly, death (the Electric Girl could be “fried to a crisp’, but. wow, she’s almost in her “undies”). Though the pace bogs down a bit in the third act, the expert art direction, incredible costumes, and the superb cast makes this a truly wild, and wonderful, walk on the “wild side” via a jaunt through NIGHTMARE ALLEY. Now, move along folks…the exit is right this way…
3 Out of 4
NIGHTMARE ALLEY is now playing everywhere including the Hi-Pointe Theatre in St. Louis, MO
“Step right up and behold one of the unexplained mysteries of the universe! Is he a man or beast? “
The Hi-Pointe Theater (1005 McCausland Ave in St. Louis), the best place in St. Louis to see movies! The Hi-Pointe has the best popcorn, the biggest screen, and a great beer selection! No reservations required at The Hi-Pointe. Just show up! uillermo del Toro’s NIGHTMARE ALLEYopens this Friday December 17th at The Hi-Pointe. They will be hosting advance screenings of NIGHTMARE ALLEYWednesda ythe 15th and Thursday the 16th at 7pm. The Hi-Pointe’s site can be found HERE
NIGHTMARE ALLEY tells the story of an ambitious carny with a talent for manipulating people with a few well-chosen words who hooks up with a female psychiatrist who is even more dangerous than he is. Guillermo del Toro’s NIGHTMARE ALLEY is a remake of a classic 1947 Film Noir that starred Tyrone Power and Joan Blondell.
Searchlight Pictures has released the brand-new trailer for director Guillermo del Toro’s NIGHTMARE ALLEY.
When charismatic but down-on-his-luck Stanton Carlisle (Bradley Cooper) endears himself to clairvoyant Zeena (Toni Collette) and her has-been mentalist husband Pete (David Strathairn) at a traveling carnival, he crafts a golden ticket to success, using this newly acquired knowledge to grift the wealthy elite of 1940s New York society. With the virtuous Molly (Rooney Mara) loyally by his side, Stanton plots to con a dangerous tycoon (Richard Jenkins) with the aid of a mysterious psychiatrist (Cate Blanchett) who might be his most formidable opponent yet.
Good night nurse, what a cast Del Toro has put together. The filmmaker is best known for Hellboy, Pacific Rim and Crimson Peak as well as his Academy Award-winning fantasy films Pan’s Labyrinth and The Shape of Water. He won Oscars for Best Director and Best Picture in 2018 for The Shape of Water at the 90th Academy Awards. The fantasy film received 13 nominations.
The screenplay for NIGHTMARE ALLEY is by Guillermo del Toro and Kim Morgan and based on the novel by William Lindsay Gresham. The film’s score is from Nathan Johnson who was recently nominated for an Hollywood Music in Media Award.
Guillermo del Toro’s NIGHTMARE ALLEY Starring Bradley Cooper and Cate Blanchett will arrive in US cinemas on December 17th. Toni Collette, Willem Dafoe, Richard Jenkins, Rooney Mara, Ron Perlman, David Strathairn, Clifton Collins Jr., Tim Blake Nelson and Mary Steenburgen all co-star. Here’s the new trailer:
NIGHTMARE ALLEY tells the story of an ambitious carny with a talent for manipulating people with a few well-chosen words who hooks up with a female psychiatrist who is even more dangerous than he is. Guillermo del Toro’s NIGHTMARE ALLEY is a remake of a classic 1947 Film Noir that starred Tyrone Power and Joan Blondell.
Look for more coverage of NIGHTMARE ALLEY here at We Are Movie Geeks.
Over the course of last year, I found myself consumed by the work of Paul Thomas Anderson. Early in the year, The Master, became my favorite film. Later, I did a rewatch of all of his films. I was a voracious consumer of Paul Thomas Anderson content. On my travels, I came across “Punch-Drunk Love: A Delegate Speaks,” a rather incredible essay written by Miranda July for the Criterion Collection copy of Anderson’s 2002 film.Not only was it extremely funny, but it brought a level of personal inspiration into the conversation. Here was a filmmaker who not only understood the film, but seemed inspired by it. Searching through July’s work, I looked for that inspiration…but couldn’t find it. The acidic nature of Me, You, and Everyone We Know and The Future both seemed to strangle their tenderness. Then I saw Kajillionaire.
To get the easy part of this out of the way, Kajillionaire is the second best film of 2020 (only barely falling to Kelly Recheirdt’s astounding masterpiece First Cow). It follows Old Dolio (Evan Rachel Wood) as she navigates her slow separation from her con-man parents (Debra Winger and Richard Jenkins) and self-actualization, after spending much of her life in financial cahoots with them (2). It is a film that analyzes class, masculinity, femininity in the modern age, and our relationship with our parents. Much like First Cow (and the film I’ll be comparing it to today), Kajillionaire is a film of momentous heart. It loves its characters and expects you too. If you do not, you might as well be a cold bastard.
But what deepened my appreciation for Kajillionaire further is the way it is informed by the 2002 work by Paul Thomas Anderson, Punch-Drunk Love. Please realize that I do not hope to minimize the achievements of Miranda July in writing this piece, but rather to expand the appreciation of her work through an exploration of techniques and ideas that she has adopted from the work of Paul Thomas Anderson.
To start, I’d like to examine the thematic similarities of the films and then expand this exploration into the way filmic techniques are used to express these similarities. The first similarity is found in the way both films explore the concept of love as a changing force in their protagonist’s lives. Barry Eagan (Adam Sandler) starts Punch-Drunk Love as an irritated and self-hating man, who following the advent of his romance with Lena (Emily Watson) is able to take steps towards self-actualization (3). One could be critical of the way that Lena only exists to spur on Barry’s self-actualization, but the moral complexity of whether or not Barry changes or just takes a step towards changing (again explored by Anderson in The Master, Inherent Vice and most viciously sweet in Phantom Thread) irons out any tonal problems that this could present. “God, how I wish you could just leave the tyranny of worry and self-loathing at some shitty mattress store in Utah,” (1) July writes in her essay. Similarly, Old Dolio’s self-actualization is kicked off by her encounter with Melanie (Gina Rodriguez), a young woman who Old Dolio starts to fall in love with. Menlanie and Lena hold a level of similarity in that they actively assert themselves into their respective protagonist’s lives. “…Lena [stalks] Barry a little…” (1) inserting herself into his life at his lonely garage. Melanie decides to take part in one of Old Dolio’s family’s schemes and eventually, through a rather selfish but loving act, takes money to call Old Dolio, “hun,” (2).
This love needs to contrast with something and in both films it contrasts both family and the outside anxieties of the protagonists. Barry spends the entirety of Punch-Drunk Love being pestered by his seven sisters who refuse to leave him alone and do not respect his privacy. He also encounters a phone sex line worker and her boss (Philip Seymour Hoffman) who refuse to respect him. Old Dolio spends the entirety of Kajillionaire in conflict with parents that can only see her human value through the material value of both themselves and Old Dolio.
Material value is a HUGE aspect of both films as well. Much of Punch-Drunk Love takes place at Barry’s job, a garage that he sells novelty items out of. Furthermore, Barry finds a loophole to exploit a frequent flyer miles program for all it is worth. The antagonists are also looking to exploit Barry. Similarly, the antagonists of Kajillionaire, Old Dolio’s parents, are looking to exploit her. Throughout Kajillionaire, Old Dolio’s parents are unable to show appreciation to her through any means other than the value of money, a factor that leads Old Dolio away from them.
All of these thematic ideas need to be conveyed visually and audibly. It is through the different filmic techniques that the films truly start to resemble each other. The most obvious filmmaking similarity is both films use of the 2.39:1 Widescreen Anamorphic Format. The wider frame not only requires that the films be staged as ensemble pieces (the framing of a 2.39:1 frame often incentivises the framing of multiple interacting characters on screen), but also the vertical crampedness of the frame and the distortions that come with the use of the Anamorphic format better display the character’s internal life. In Punch-Drunk Love this Anamorphic framing allows for the evocation of the grounded, but loose, ensembles of Anderson’s mentor and inspiration, Robert Altman. In Kajillionaire, the Anamorphic framing allows for the evocation of Anderson. Punch-Drunk Love and Kajillionaire understand that the Anamorphic format, no matter how naturalistic the lighting may be, creates a dizziness. The stretched bocha and lens artifacts create a world that is not of our eyes and yet all the while the wider frame consumes our periphery. Through this wide frame, both filmmakers realize the broadness of their stories. This is not the tall, conquering ratio that Anderson utilizes for The Master or Inherent Vice, but rather the broad view of both Barry and Old Dolio’s newly awoken eyes.
The hazy lens flares of both movies also suggest this. Also a product of the Anamorphic format, the lens flares in both films (though more specifically in Punch-Drunk Love) are used to represent the distorted (if for the better) view of the characters. When you are forced to self-actualize, the process does not feel concrete, but gleefully dissociated. Both films strive to capture that feeling.
This gleeful dissociation reaches its pitch in the form of abstraction. Again, this is much more forward in Punch-Drunk Love, which explodes into the sugary spurts of Jeremy Blake’s digital artwork everytime the emotions of the film cannot be contained by the vibrant 35mm frame. The flurry of colors blinks over the mix of Jon Brion’s woozy score and Shelley Duval’s performance of “He Needs Me,” from Popeye, (3).In Kajillionaire, this abstraction is much more contained and pointed. While early images of the film, such as a pink foam trailing down a wall, hint towards surrealism, the film only specifically breaks into this once during an earthquake that Old Dolio experiences with Melanie. As they stand in a dark bathroom, the pitch black of the bathroom becomes the universe. It expands as Old Dolio’s world expands, becoming suddenly solid, as Old Dolio realizes that she too is solid (2).
The similar thematic and filmic techniques on display circle back around and inform each other as I watch both of these films today. The focus on value that Kajillionaire foregrounds makes the disparity and sadness of the value in Punch-Drunk Love all the more effective. The feeling of elation and love represented in the utilization of Blake’s artwork and Brion’s score circles around to inform the great, dissociated, joy of the earthquake sequence in Kajillionaire.
Miranda July writes of Anderson’s use of, “He Needs Me,” in Punch-Drunk Love, “An open theft is joyful; it implies that these two men, Altman and Anderson, were so confident that they could share a song,” (1). As the widescreen beauty and great tenderness of Kajillionaire played out on screen, I saw that same joy. Two filmmakers confident enough to share, just like Barry and Old Dolio desperately need to.
July, Miranda. “Punch-Drunk Love: A Delegate Speaks.” The Criterion Collection, 16 Nov. 2016, www.criterion.com/current/posts/4302-punch-drunk-love-a-delegate-speaks.
July, Miranda, director. Kajillionaire. Plan B Entertainment, 2020.
Anderson, Paul Thomas. Punch-Drunk Love. Columbia Pictures, 2002.
As if this movie year wasn’t odd enough, here’s yet another film all about a family dealing with money, but aside from the “dinero” element, they couldn’t be more different. In last week’s THE NEST, it was about how economics become a wedge between a married couple while causing chaos for their uprooted kids. With this week’s family trio there’s no big dissent (at least for the first act), because they’re a united team, operating with their own synchronized actions and often speaking in a “shorthand” code. And there’s no estates, furs, and high-profile positions. There’s really no jobs at all as these folks get by on the margins of society by hook and (certainly) crook. This is a family of grifters, scammers, con-artists (insert your own “low-end” criminal term) who occupy most of their days plotting and cheating folks out of their hard-earned moola. Ah, but their “leader”, the Papa, does have his own twisted ethics. He states his disdain for the “norms’, although, like them, he secretly dreams of becoming a KAJILLIONAIRE.
When we first meet the “family unit”, they’ve started their “workday”. While dad Robert (Richard Jenkins) and mom Theresa (Debra Winger) play the “bystander lookouts”, twenty-something daughter Old Dolio (Evan Rachel Wood) deftly slithers (evading those security cameras) into a neighborhood post office. Using a key, she opens up a P.O. box, reaches through (making sure none of the staff is watching), and grabs a package from the adjoining box. They open their “gift” while bending down below the “fence”eye level to avoid their landlord. But their home is pretty “unrentable”. It’s the office space next to the landlord’s small factory. At a specific time each day, a wave of pink foam oozes from the back ceiling and down the wall as the trio uses bits of tile and wood to scoop the suds into plastic waste cans. They then settle into their “bedrooms” which are tight office cubicles (they sleep on the floor). However OD (named after a lottery in winner hopes he’d put her in his will) is using the phone (a forgotten landline) for the next big ‘con”. They’ve gotten a complimentary flight to NYC from LA (perhaps a “resort share” promo), which gives her a great plan. They will fly out as a family, then, ASAP, they’ll hop back on a return flight, but as a couple and a stranger. The duo will grab all the bags so OD can file a lost luggage claim from the airline and collect a $1500 settlement. Of course, things don’t go as smoothly as she plans. On the way back home Robert and Theresa befriend the young bubbly woman sharing their three-seat row, Melanie (Gina Rodriguez). Later, at a nearby saloon, OD is shocked that her folks have brought Melanie in on the scam (a big “no-no” to her). Melanie seems to get a “rush’ from the petty thievery. This change threatens the socially awkward OD, who sees no need for a “new sister”. Could these bust up the “family team”?
From the film’s opening moments it becomes clear that the story’s main focus is Old Dolio, played by Wood as the antithesis of so many of the glamorous characters she portrayed in film and TV over the last couple of decades. Earlier I mentioned that OD was socially awkward, a true understatement as she keeps her gaze pointed at the ground during most of her painful verbal exchanges. Dressed in form-less tracksuits, her Crystal Gayle-length hair leaving only a sliver of face, walking with a short-step shuffle while twitching and swaying, Wood sometimes goes a tad over the top with the physical “busyness” (and vocally as she sounds like a combo of napoleon Dynamite and Spongebob’s BFF Patrick) but eventually draws us into OD’s closed-off world, which includes the acrobatic skills of Keaton, Lloyd, and other “silent clowns”. What appears to be “on the spectrum” is really an incomplete young woman, denied the most basic nurturing as she was trained to join in on the “jobs” from near-infancy. When is finally able to connect, Wood conveys almost a new being breaking out of a smothering cocoon. She’s truly taking her talents into a new level. Plus she gets great support from two polished screen vets. Jenkins, who almost stole THE SHAPE OF WATER, makes Robert a stern taskmaster, a “mastermind” who likes to disparage humanity, but really wants to lord over the masses. And he almost has a gleeful smile as he contemplates pulling off a new scheme against “the man”. He saves his real passions for his partner Theresa, played by an almost unrecognizable Winger, peering under a grey Lady Godiva wig, who dutifully limps (could that be the result of a botched scam) while improvising in each new situation thrown at her, effortlessly “bobbing and weaving” like a boxer. The real “wild card’ tossed into this unit is the effervescent Melanie played by TV vet Rodriguez as a mix of wide-eyed schoolgirl and mercenary vamp. Initially we see how cheating the airline gives her an electric charge (walking, or really skipping, on the “wild side”), but as her new “crew” takes on the lonely old folks she’s targeted, we see her panic as their prey now has a face. She pleads to Robert to “call it off”, but there’s no abort switch on their greed. She can’t control this “pack”, though she has a break-through as she learns to really emotionally connect with another person. This film’s talented main quartet is its biggest asset.
They are certainly needed to move along the whimsical, often too precious original story from Miranda July, who also directed. Sometimes the quirks feel forced. The landlord says he has “no filter”, so he cries, rather than bellows with fury when threatening Robert over the rent. Ditto with the numerous shots of the “bubble waves” in the office/home. Scenes at a parenting class may be intended to awaken OD to her poor upbringing, but they slow down the film’s pacing. Plus the behavior of some characters switches with a near whiplash impact. Robert buys a hot tub which leads to the movie’s most disturbing sequence, really earning that “R” rating (real ugliness from an engaging duo). When the story slides into its confusing final act, the parents almost disappear as they do a “family catch-up” that feels as out of place as the intensifying friendship between OD and Melanie. This connection doesn’t feel authentic but rather a hasty attempt at a sentimental final fade-out. And despite my affection for the actors, I wanted at least one of the characters brought to justice for the two nauseating “daylight” home “invasions”. The cast’s skills are almost criminal, but the meandering quirky script makes KAJILLIONAIRE an unrewarding investment. Beware of scam artists’ movies, cause they all can’t be THE STING.
