Everything Everywhere All at Once. That is the name of the movie. It is also an accurate description of the movie. Truly, few modern films have embraced the limitlessness of the form, in ideas, in scope, and even in expression to the degree that this latest effort from directors Daniel Scheinert and Dan Kwan (collectively known simply as “Daniels”) does. It is deranged and it is beautiful, it is disturbing and it is entrancing, it is stupid and it is profound. It is indeed everything, everywhere, all at once -and it is one of the best high concept movies of the last several years.
Though nobody could’ve guessed the exact form it would take, it is the logical next step for Daniels, who got their start making absurd music videos (anyone remember “Turn Down for What”?), before breaking through into feature filmmaking with the equally bizarre Swiss Army Man in 2016 -a.k.a “the Daniel Radcliffe farting corpse movie”. That film also was stuffed with a good deal more meaning and affection than its’ dumb, infamous reputation would have you believe. These are a pair of filmmakers dedicated to the unapologetically weird, pushing cinematic convention for it, and extracting heart and pathos from it -and they are exceptionally good at that.
On this film all of that is nested within something extremely mundane: an audit. Everything Everywhere All at Once centres on Evelyn Wang (Michelle Yeoh), a Chinese-American immigrant who runs a laundromat with her family. She is emotionally distant from both her mild-mannered husband Waymond (Ke Huy Quan), who is secretly seeking a divorce, and lesbian daughter Joy (Stephanie Hsu), whose sexuality and relationship her mother can’t quite accept. Also living with them is Gong Gong (James Hong), Evelyn’s father recently brought over from China. It’s while at the IRS for some questionable marks on their tax returns that Evelyn is unexpectedly introduced to the multiverse and a threat coming to collapse it.
Basically the rules are that every personal choice creates a different universe and those in what’s called the ‘Alphaverse’ have mastered the ability to traverse the universes by hopping into their counterparts bodies and even gaining their experiences and abilities. This is how Evelyn first encounters it, through Alpha-Waymond, a highly competent, intelligent version of her husband who believes she is the key to saving the multiverse from the all-powerful Jobu Tupaki and a black hole she created in the shape of a bagel. It’s all pretty nuts and the logic may not always hold up but it doesn’t matter, because the commitment is immense from everyone involved and the films’ energy is so thrillingly intoxicating. Fairly swiftly it manages to cut through exposition and get involved in the wild action of the piece, much of it from Yeoh in a welcome return to her roots as a martial arts star.
This movie is in love with Yeoh, and shares the sentiment of many of her fans that she in her recent career often feels restrained from her full potential. Her screen presence still counts for a hell of a lot, but it does seem under-serving her capabilities to consistently cast her as the stern or wise Chinese matriarch in movies like Crazy Rich Asians or Shang-Chi. The Daniels allow her to play to every one of her considerable talents, from action to comedy to intense drama, and in a wide array of contexts, each of which she excels in. She’s just as good playing a famous singer as she is a high end performance chef or a kung fu champion or a middle-aged gay woman with hot dog fingers. It’s the greatest showcase she’s been afforded in a long-time and she absolutely earns it -and she’s not the only one. The whole cast is amazing, starting with Quan, formerly a child star best known for Temple of Doom and The Goonies, making his return to acting after a twenty year absence and utterly killing it as every iteration of Waymond, from hapless husband to badass rebel leader to suave Hong Kong executive. Hsu is a revelation, required to be both a source of tension and heart, playing each flawlessly. Jamie Lee Curtis, who plays the irate IRS agent Deirdre and her various villainous analogues, gets to do weird and exciting stuff like she’s never had the opportunity to even in a half dozen Halloween movies; and Hong, who’s always a delight, is given among his most significant (and one of his most fun) movie roles since Big Trouble in Little China!
That movies’ sense of the surreal can be found here, but Everything Everywhere All at Once goes the extra mile in just about every degree. The Daniels’ multiverse becomes a facet for all kinds of exhilarating filmmaking choices, bombastic stylish devices, and creative visual jokes. Because the conceit for exchanging bodies across the multiverse is facilitated through something akin to The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Galaxy’s Infinite Improbability -as in, doing something extremely weird or unexpected is necessary for transference- we’re treated to a cavalcade of strange (sometimes demented), but inspired imagery. You never know what exactly you’re going to see next, and the editing is so stupendous that the momentum never wanes. Paul Rogers deserves an Oscar for his work here, which is not only breathtaking in technical fortitude, but is stunningly, gracefully economic. The way context is set so well in mere seconds of perfect quickfire montage for any one of the alternate realities is astonishing. We may only see certain Evelyns in short bursts (and even more confined simply to one frame), but we get a perfect sense of their character and journey. Rogers and the Daniels get a kick out of finding out what all they can do with this idea, both in form and style -at one point even cutting all sound for a subtitled conversation between two rocks -it’s that wacky! And yet for as overwhelming as it is, it doesn’t cloud the movies’ earnest themes.
There is a tenderness and a real emotional core to the movie, baked into the central relationships. Evelyn’s whole importance lies in how unremarkable her life is compared to her multiversal counterparts. She’s the Evelyn who took the safe choices, didn’t necessarily follow her dreams, has had a very ordinary life as a result, full of silent regrets. Her coldness is a by-product of this, which has deteriorated her marriage and more severely has damaged Joy, whose lack of faith amid a desperation for understanding is rippled across the universes as a grave cosmic nihilism. And the ways the movie goes about unpacking these and other deep emotions with roots that are both all-encompassing and very culturally specific, is mesmerizing, heartbreaking, yet cathartic and even soulful. The silliest of threads become touching as family dysfunction, generational trauma, trust, and acceptance are articulated through an epic scale, each actor giving their all and each aesthetic choice bolstering the chemistry of grandness and intimacy that makes the resolution so beautiful. I in particular couldn’t get enough of one sequence splintered through the climax that looked and felt like a gorgeous Wong Kar-wai scene -one frequently cut against a bizarre Ratatouille homage. It doesn’t shake cohesion though, it never strains credulity even a little. All of it, everything, everywhere comes together in impossible harmony over something so simple and yet so enormously valuable.
Yet still I don’t imagine I fully understand this movie’s complexities, though I am determined to, however many times I need to watch it. That is not a chore -this is one of the most relentlessly entertaining movies in recent memory. It’s a cornucopia of odd and electrifying storytelling, themes, visuals, and humour -a work of brilliance that puts any other multiverse story we’ve seen from the bigger studios to shame. Because the Daniels are genuinely captivated by the idea rather than the allure of brand; they see it as a tool through which to test the limits of cinema, to expand their creativity and contend with the inordinate scope of unlimited reality in relation to the innately subjective -a human story, a family story- illustrated through such proportions. Everything Everywhere All at Once delivers on that promise, and you can bet it’s one hell of a movie!
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