Everything Everywhere All At Once Review
Everything Everywhere All At Once is absolute incredible insanity. If you’re familiar with Daniels’ work, you’d expect nothing less. Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (both Emerson alums shoutout) have made one of the best and most original films of the past decade. It’s the next Matrix. This movie will blow your mind.
I am going to try not to spoil the film here, but I definitely recommend going in blind. I cannot stress enough how many layers there are to this movie. Quite literally everything happens everywhere in the span of three hours. It is very hard to put into words, but I’m going to do my best.
The film follows Evelyn (Michelle Yeoh), a middle aged laundromat owner being audited by the IRS. She has a strained relationship with her disapproving father (James Hong) as well as her queer daughter (Stephanie Hsu). Her world starts to crumble when her husband begins acting strange. He gives her bluetooth headphones that force her into another universe. Jobu Tupaki, an evil being that has mastered the ability to travel between universes, is tracking Evelyn down and trying to destroy every universe in the process. Evelyn is the only one that can stop Jobu and save the multiverse.
Everything Everywhere follows the multiverse theory. This is the theory that there are an infinite amount of universes out there with an infinite amount of versions of you. There’s a universe where you’re a viking, where you have naturally green hair, or where you have hot dogs for fingers. The characters in the film use special technology to shift their consciousnesses from one universe to the other. If you need to know martial arts you would shift to a universe where you’re a professional martial artist. You would then return to your original reality with that knowledge, so you could fight in your world. While this might sound crazy, this is an actual theory of quantum physics that many believe. Daniels handle this theory with the absurd genius they do all of their work. Utilizing this idea allows Daniels to put pretty much whatever they want in this film, and they totally take advantage of that. In order to shift herself into these other realities Evelyn must do a weird thing that she would never do in her own reality. This gives the movie a hilariously strange disposition, allowing it to have something for everyone.
Michelle Yeoh is a powerhouse as Evelyn. She perfectly balances playing thirty different versions of herself, some at the same time. Watching her struggle while her world quite literally falls apart is heartbreaking. She has to be everything for everyone all at once: a mother, wife, daughter, and business owner. Her character development throughout the film is beautiful. Ke Huy Qwan is incredible as Evelyn’s lovable husband Waymond. He goes from an intense action hero to a delightful goofball. Stephanie Hsu absolutely kills it as the nihilistic depressed daughter. Jamie Lee Curtis is horrifying in this film as an IRS auditor. Jobu Tupaki is one of the most entertaining villains ever portrayed on screen and has probably the greatest wardrobe in cinematic history. Every performance in this movie is gorgeously layered and complex.
Everything Everywhere All At Once is a really special film. We so rarely get to see stories about older women, especially women of color. Watching a woman in her fifties be a badass action star was so refreshing. This film gracefully blends an array of genres and styles in a way that shouldn’t work, but somehow absolutely does. It’s a credit to the genius of Daniels and the incredible cast and crew. They made a truly impossible movie possible.
The heart of Everything Everywhere All At Once is its true triumph, though. It’s a beautiful story about leading with love and accepting yourself for all your flaws. Evelyn is confronted with all the “what ifs” in her life. What if she hadn’t immigrated to America? What if she hadn’t married Waymond? What if she was a rock instead of a human? She sees versions of herself that are much more happy and fulfilled than she is in her own universe. In saving the universe, Evelyn has to discover the things in her universe that make her life meaningful. She has to forgive herself and the people around her for everything. This movie will force you to examine the way you treat the people around you, and it’s absolutely what we all need right now. Words cannot describe how much I adored this film. I cannot recommend it enough.
P.S.: I always recommend wearing masks in theatres (and everywhere else), but especially for this movie. I laughed, I cried, and I screamed at the top of my lungs watching this one. Everything Everywhere All At Once is a wild movie full of the unexpected, people in the theatre will likely be yelling. Stay Safe! :)
SPOILERS—
I knew that trophy was suspiciously shaped.
