A family of oddball grifters living on the margins of Los Angeles begin to fracture after they befriend the comparatively normal Melanie (a magnetic Gina Rodriguez) during an attempted lost luggage scam. With its cosmically charged earthquakes and cast of lovable weirdos led by 26-year-old Old Dolio (Evan Rachel Wood), the third feature from multidisciplinary artist Miranda July is unlikely to convert those who find her idiosyncrasies affected rather than charming. A key location is a bubble factory that leaks glittery, cotton-candy sludge.
Yet on relationships, July remains as perceptive as ever. She has a gift with actors, locating humanity in unexpected places; Da’Vine Joy Randolph is inspired casting as a masseuse who hovers her hands above a skittish Old Dolio’s knotted back. Old Dolio, named after a homeless man who won the lottery, is a ticking timebomb of repression, masked by a low monotone and a curtain of hair. Old Dolio’s mother (Debra Winger) rations affection as she does money, insisting her daughter “doesn’t know anything about tender feelings”. And so Melanie tenderly takes it upon herself to introduce her new friend to pancakes, dancing, pet names and intimacy. The tremors that Old Dolio grits her teeth through suggest an internal shift is taking place.
