When Miranda July started writing Kajillionaire in 2016, she had no idea how topical it would become. The movie follows an eccentric Los Angeles family mother Theresa (Debra Winger), father Robert (Richard Jenkins) and 26-year-old daughter Old Dolio (Evan Rachel Wood) who survive off low-rent scams. By the time July was shooting the film in the summer of 2018, scammers were all over the news. It was the year of the grift , from Elizabeth Holmes well-documented Theranos fallout to the con queen impersonating Hollywood producers . Sometimes movies arrive as if willed by serendipity, and Kajillionaire is one of them.

Its also one of 2020s best. At once whimsical and humane, Kajillionaire asks how someone might come of age without parental affection or the conventions of capitalism. Theresa and Robert treat Old Dolio more like a partner in crime than a daughter, feeding her false ideas about how the world operates and stunting her self-actualization. When the three attempt to pull off a scam involving airport luggage, they recruit a cheerful Oceans 11 enthusiast (Gina Rodriguez) to help, after which Old Dolio begins to realize just how off-kilter her upbringing has been.

Julys first two movies 2005s Me and You and Everyone We Know (newly available through the prestigious Criterion Collection ) and 2011s The Future capitalized on her background as a DIY multidisciplinarian who got her artistic start in Portland, Oregons riot grrrl scene. She has since published short stories and a novel and created a number of idiosyncratic theater pieces. Her brand of quirk isnt for everyone. In fact, a New York Times Magazine profile of July from 2011 focused heavily on how many people detest her sensibilities. (Precious, light, and twee all describe conventionally feminine qualities, and all have been tossed Julys way as insults, the story reads.) Whether Kajillionaire, which opens in select theaters Friday and premieres on video-on-demand platforms Oct. 16, will win her new fans is questionable, but it is Julys most grounded and accessible outing to date.

Earlier this month, I got on the phone with July to discuss the new movie, scams, why she finds herself drawn to stories about money and how the deep voice that Wood uses in Kajillionaire originated.

This is probably not the landscape in which you expected to be promoting this film. How are you feeling about it entering the world at this specific moment?

Great. I mean, yes, I was definitely disappointed, as we all were, that my well-laid plans were basically smashed to pieces. But I have to say, in the last month, as Ive been talking to people whove seen the movie within the pandemic, Ive begun to own the idea that I made this movie for us now. The reality is that there is always some moment when a movie enters the world. Its part of the alchemy of what actually makes that movie. People keep calling things to my attention, these uncanny resonances. The most recent one someone pointed out that I hadnt thought of was the post office, [which] was, until recently, this neutral symbol. And now its not . The United States post office is what the movie opens on. I mean, not that Im like a prophet, right?