Everything Everywhere All At Once
An inventive masterpiece that defies genre categorisation, Everything Everywhere All At Once combines absurdist humour, mind-bending sci-fi concepts, heartfelt emotional moments, philosophical questions about the nature of existence, and martial arts action scenes involving sex toys, to produce an entertaining and surprisingly uplifting film that’s unlike anything you’ve seen before.
Premise: Evelyn Wang (Michelle Yeoh) lives a nondescript life as she tries to save her failing laundromat business from being closed down by an overly-officious IRS auditor (Jamie Lee Curtis), while also struggling to look after her aging father (James Hong) and to connect emotionally with her husband Waymond (Ke Huy Quan) and their daughter Joy (Stephanie Hsu). But things become even more complicated for Evelyn when she learns that she may be the only person in the infinite multiverse able to stop an evil entity from destroying every possible alternative timeline in all of creation.
Review:
I should say from the outset that as amazing as Everything Everywhere All At Once is, it won’t be to everyone’s taste. Specifically, if you’re someone who struggled to follow the sci-fi concepts in films like Inception or Tenet, then you may find it difficult keeping up with this film’s explanations of parallel universes and alternative timelines. That said, just as with Christopher Nolan’s earlier films, you can always choose not to get too hung up on any particularly confusing details and to just go with the flow, as there’s plenty of other elements in Everything Everywhere All At Once to enjoy.
On one level, the film is a very funny surreal comedy, with plenty of absurd laugh-out-loud moments. I don’t want to give any of these away, but the publicity for this film has included shots of an alternative reality in the multiverse where humans have evolved fingers that look like hotdog sausages, so that gives you a flavour of the kind of bizarre ideas that this film plays around with. There’s also a running joke about the animated Pixar movie Ratatouille that is a particularly memorable comedic highlight.
“…balances the bone-crunching excitement of the fight choreography with moments of incongruous humour…”
But Everything Everywhere All At Once is so much more than “just” a comedy. After a slow build up, it has several impressive action sequences in which Michelle Yeoh gets to demonstrate why she’s rightly considered to be a legend of action cinema – but even then, the writer/directors Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (collectively known as “the Daniels”) expertly balance the bone-crunching excitement of the fight choreography with moments of incongruous humour, that shouldn’t work, but somehow do.
But the film isn’t “just” a sci-fi action/comedy either … it’s also got real heart and emotion too. Michelle Yeoh absolutely carries the film (she’s in every scene), and reminds audiences that she’s so much more than “just” an action star, as she brings countless layers and shades to Evelyn, and to Evelyn’s counterparts across the multiverse. But she’s not alone, and one of the key relationships in the film is between Evelyn and her husband Waymond, played by Ke Huy Quan, who’s best known for playing Short Round in Indiana Jones & The Temple of Doom and Data in The Goonies, and who came out of acting retirement for this film. The relationship between Evelyn and Waymond is complicated and nuanced, and amongst all of the grand sci-fi and fantasy concepts, it’s their relationship that keeps the film grounded and emotionally relatable.
“…the film has surprising depth & touches on some weighty themes…”
The other central relationship in the film is between Evelyn and her daughter Joy, played by Stephanie Hsu. I have to confess, I hadn’t seen Stephanie Hsu in anything before this, so her performance was a revelation for me. The early scenes suggest that this could be a fairly typical strained mother/daughter relationship, especially as Evelyn is clearly reluctant to tell her aging father (played by 93-year-old acting legend James Hong) that Joy is gay, despite her outward acceptance of her daughter’s sexual identity – but as the story progresses, their relationship is explored in far greater depth.
In fact, while there’s lots to enjoy on the “surface” layer of Everything Everywhere All At Once, the film also has surprising depth and touches on some weighty themes, ranging from depression, suicide and the meaninglessness of existence, to the idea that spreading kindness and finding happiness is the true meaning of life. The films has all that, while also including a fight scene in which someone is killed with a sex toy, and a bagel that might destroy the entire multiverse.
“…you’re unlikely to see a more original or inventive movie this year…”
None of the characters in this film are “just” any one thing, and even Jamie Lee Curtis gets to play a lot of different sides to her IRS auditor Deirdre, and her multiversal counterparts. Every member of the cast is able to deliver the comedy, the drama and the emotion when required, and this is a film that could genuinely make you laugh-out-loud one moment, and well up with emotion the next.
Everything Everywhere All At Once is not the kind of film that is even trying to appeal to everyone, but you’re unlikely to see a more original or inventive movie this year. In fact, this might be the best examination of existential despair told through the medium of a cross-dimensional kung-fu action/comedy that’s ever been made … at least in this timeline.
