Everything Everywhere All at OnceSome people ask "is everything okay?" when they mean to ask "is something wrong?" But both of these questions mean the same thing; they just come from differing points of view. So it is for each person in life, and it represents how each of us views reality through his or her own lens, molded by a series of choices each of us makes throughout each of our lives. Are you the kind of person who asks this question in the former way or the latter, and why? For Evelyn Wang (Michelle Yeoh), everything is not okay and something is wrong, as her perception of reality is forever altered due to a multiversal intervention happening under the most unlikely of circumstances.
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Everything Everywhere All at Once is a movie that defies easy classification. It begins as a down-to-earth story of a Chinese immigrant family headed by Evelyn, who juggles family life and managing a laundromat which her nebbish husband, Waymond (Ke Huy Quan), talked her into when they left China for the United States decades ago. She is preparing to celebrate the birthday of her old-fashioned father--known as "Gong Gong" (James Hong)--and the new year with a party that evening by inviting regular customers to attend and sing karaoke. Simultaneously, Evelyn is dealing with an IRS audit overseen by a passive-aggressive, power hungry bureaucrat in a beige vest and orange turtleneck named (yes, it does rhyme) "Deirdre Beaubeirdra" (Jaime Lee Curtis), while trying to conceal from her father that her daughter, Joy (Stephanie Hsu), is a lesbian. Evelyn is overwhelmed by a life that has spiraled out of control, and it would be totally understandable if her reaction was to have a nervous breakdown. But this is where the movie takes this mania and explodes it into a bizarre mix of science fiction, martial arts, and black comedy. As Evelyn and Waymond take the elevator up to their audit--with Gong Gong in tow--her husband suddenly removes his glasses, unfurls an umbrella to block the CCTV camera watching them, and tells Evelyn that she has "two choices" ahead of her: either to go Deirdre's desk as expected, or go into the janitor's closet. The confused Evelyn proceeds with business as normal, but follows a series of written instructions he gives her--on the back of the divorce papers she has yet to serve to Waymond--instructing her, among other things, to put her shoes on the wrong feet. This is but the first of many idiosyncratic moments that suggest that unorthodox choices can essentially "rewire" our reality with another. The "Alpha Waymond" tells Evelyn that he is from a reality where Evelyn was murdered and that they were quantum scientists experimenting with multiple "verses" or realities in the collective "multiverse". He tells Evelyn that she has an important mission ahead of her, as she is the only hope of stopping a powerful entity seeking to destroy the multiverse (or something like that) called "Jobu Tobacky". Evelyn is, unsurprisingly, not convinced. But as Evelyn's reality starts to break down under the weight of everything--her stress, Alpha Waymond's mission, and so on--she begins to doubt her hold on her senses, all while being forced to reevaluate her role as the Wang family matriarch.
Everything Everywhere All at Once is written and directed by Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (collectively known as "Daniels"), who are no strangers to merging the absurd with the melodramatic, as evidenced by their prior film, Swiss Army Man. But Everything Everywhere All at Once is a (comparatively) more grounded work because of the very identifiable relationships between the family unit, despite the massive cosmological chaos that follows. The movie remains wildly irreverent, but doesn't do so at the expense of meaningful familial bonding. The biggest conflict on pretty much every level is between Evelyn and her daughter, Joy. Relatively soon into the film, it is revealed that "Alpha Joy" was driven too far by her mother ("Alpha Evelyn") and broke under the pressure to explore the multiverse. What emerged instead was a new personality, which became Jobu Tobacky. Jobu Tobacky is essentially the embodiment of nihilism, having experienced everything that the multiverse has to offer and come away feeling that none of it mattered. In a way, Joy's youthful angst has been amplified to the nth degree. Presented as an antagonist in the movie, it becomes clear that deep down she really only wants to be understood and accepted. This parallels Evelyn's relationship with "her" Joy, which has become tense and difficult, not just because of her sexual orientation. As Evelyn revisits her past to see what alternate realities would have led her to different choices, she begins to identify with her daughter on a fundamental level. She recalls when she left China with Waymond despite her father's protests and she regrets that his stubbornness led to what must have been a long lasting rift between them. Evelyn begins to appreciate that as she has become older, she has begun to turn into her father, judging Amy for her choices instead of being an accepting parent. This is equally felt with Waymond; Evelyn initially wishes to dissolve their marriage because deep down she resents what she sees as a life wasted with him. She finds herself intrigued by alternate versions of her husband like Alpha Waymond, who seems brave and skillful by comparison. But in one of the film's most touching scenes, this universe's Waymond tells Evelyn that although he may not be as brave or skillful as others, he still loves and accepts her no matter what. This message is the true foundation of love and acceptance, and inspires Evelyn to walk the right path to resolve the widening gyre of chaos threatening to consume everything and everyone she loves.
Recommended for: Fans of an offbeat yet touching movie that moves at breakneck speed while still managing to endear the audience to its characters...and all while juggling large and complex topics and themes like multiple universes and just accepting our loved ones for who they are. Everything Everywhere All at Once is also a laugh riot that occasionally resorts to off-color humor, making it something like a weirdo cross between "Quantum Leap" and "South Park".
Everything Everywhere All at Once is written and directed by Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (collectively known as "Daniels"), who are no strangers to merging the absurd with the melodramatic, as evidenced by their prior film, Swiss Army Man. But Everything Everywhere All at Once is a (comparatively) more grounded work because of the very identifiable relationships between the family unit, despite the massive cosmological chaos that follows. The movie remains wildly irreverent, but doesn't do so at the expense of meaningful familial bonding. The biggest conflict on pretty much every level is between Evelyn and her daughter, Joy. Relatively soon into the film, it is revealed that "Alpha Joy" was driven too far by her mother ("Alpha Evelyn") and broke under the pressure to explore the multiverse. What emerged instead was a new personality, which became Jobu Tobacky. Jobu Tobacky is essentially the embodiment of nihilism, having experienced everything that the multiverse has to offer and come away feeling that none of it mattered. In a way, Joy's youthful angst has been amplified to the nth degree. Presented as an antagonist in the movie, it becomes clear that deep down she really only wants to be understood and accepted. This parallels Evelyn's relationship with "her" Joy, which has become tense and difficult, not just because of her sexual orientation. As Evelyn revisits her past to see what alternate realities would have led her to different choices, she begins to identify with her daughter on a fundamental level. She recalls when she left China with Waymond despite her father's protests and she regrets that his stubbornness led to what must have been a long lasting rift between them. Evelyn begins to appreciate that as she has become older, she has begun to turn into her father, judging Amy for her choices instead of being an accepting parent. This is equally felt with Waymond; Evelyn initially wishes to dissolve their marriage because deep down she resents what she sees as a life wasted with him. She finds herself intrigued by alternate versions of her husband like Alpha Waymond, who seems brave and skillful by comparison. But in one of the film's most touching scenes, this universe's Waymond tells Evelyn that although he may not be as brave or skillful as others, he still loves and accepts her no matter what. This message is the true foundation of love and acceptance, and inspires Evelyn to walk the right path to resolve the widening gyre of chaos threatening to consume everything and everyone she loves.
Recommended for: Fans of an offbeat yet touching movie that moves at breakneck speed while still managing to endear the audience to its characters...and all while juggling large and complex topics and themes like multiple universes and just accepting our loved ones for who they are. Everything Everywhere All at Once is also a laugh riot that occasionally resorts to off-color humor, making it something like a weirdo cross between "Quantum Leap" and "South Park".