General [SPOILER ALERT], it’s best going into Everything Everywhere All At Once cold.
I remember I was bored, at home, on a Saturday evening. My friends had told me about this movie I “had to see.” Being a teenager, I was immediately skeptical of The Matrix when I popped it into the DVD player. 2 hours and 16 minutes later, my mind was blown, dazzled by the action and insane world building/creativity the Wachowskis put onscreen. Every generation needs a movie like The Matrix to remind them of the possibilities of movies and storytelling: to have their mind blown. Everything Everywhere All At Once (EEAAO) is this generation’s Matrix, a perspective altering movie experience that only comes along once a generation, but is destined to live on generations in the future, with teenagers telling their friends “Yo, you gotta see this!”
Everything Everywhere All At Once is about Evelyn Wang (Michelle Yeoh), a frazzled laundromat owner in some nondescript strip mall. It’s a pretty miserable time in Evelyn’s pretty mediocre life: her husband Waymond (Ke Huy Quan) is at his breaking point, about to serve her divorce papers; she can’t connect with her daughter Joy (Stephanie Hsu), who’s growing sadder by the day, and Evelyn’s father Gong Gong (James Hong) has just arrived from China. On top of all that, Evelyn’s being audited. Fate intervenes right before the IRS meeting with auditor Deirdre (Jamie Lee Curtis), where Waymond suddenly transforms personalities, and starts Evelyn down a journey where she, and the audience, experiences what the title suggests.
Most of Everything Everywhere All At Once takes place in a nameless laundromat or corporate high rise, a seemingly lame ass setting for one of the most mind blowing movies in a generation right? Well, Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (Daniels as they are called), the writers/directors of this movie, made the most elaborate fart joke in movie history, so opening the multiverse is just another day’s work. By design for Daniels, the high rise is gray and mediocre: a recognizable kinda sad reality the audience can use as their home base. However, it also has lots of rooms and space, and objects in people’s cubicles, important for their story. From these simple, benign beginnings the Dannies sprawl the story out in ingenious, truly mind altering ways. Similar to the Matrix (which the movie homages), we get little seemingly bizarre actions by characters through Michelle Yeoh’s eyes that throw her world off kilter at first. Then we get some small glimpses of the multiverse, where some rules are established, but more chances for creativity, ingenuity, and especially more questions open up. This general pattern escalates over the course of EEAAO’s runtime, allowing the already creative Daniels essentially carte blanche on creative sets/costumes/action sequences, you name it. Unlike the deadly serious Wachowski’s, Daniels are super funny, so the movie becomes a one-upping sight gag game of epic proportions, ranging from hilarious uses of mundane office items like fanny packs, IRS auditing awards, and corporate board room breakfast spreads, to unhinged audacity like insane references to Ratatouille, the creation of life, and hot dogs. The joy and electricity of not knowing what you’re going to see minute to minute is something only truly rare, special movies like Everything Everywhere All At Once can generate for there audiences.
But all of this amazing creativity loses people if the crazy concept mires the story into plot dumps. I’ve personally grown tired of multiverse moviemaking thanks to the superhero genre, completely enamored with it at the moment. Daniels smartly boils down this multiverse story into something completely simple, emotionally grounded, and understandable like the Matrix did (“the world is not real”). The directors’ premise is this: each choice you make spins off into a different universe, creating endless “what if” life scenarios Michelle Yeoh can now have access to. Who hasn’t second guessed a big decision in their life right? Well, EEAAO allows you to access those alternate paths! Once you do, those existential questions start accelerating, questions like if you can access these lives, does anything really matter anymore? Not only does Evelyn go through these questions, but everyone with access to the multiverse does, including Waymond and Joy. This puts the family through the existential ringer, pushing them to their emotional breaking points. And in those moments EEAAO grounds all the chaos in this emotionally alienated family, trying to understand one another and why they continue to remain a family despite the endless opportunities to move on. It’s complex, but powerful stuff, which Daniels wrangles together with their brilliant direction, and the spectacular acting of Michelle Yeoh, Jamie Lee Curtis, Stephanie Hsu, and Ke Huy Quan to deliver all the feels, top to bottom.
Everything Everywhere All At Once was a welcome return to big screen movie experiences, like Spiderman: No Way Home. It’s a welcome return for Daniels, who took 6 years to make their brilliant 2nd feature. Welcome to the big time Stephanie Hsu, being in Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, then a Marvel Movie, and finally this movie marvel. Jamie Lee Curtis says “well,” I’ll “come” by for a bit, continuing her slaying of heat check supporting performances. Michelle Yeoh welcomes us all to see all her talents on fully display here: drama, comedy, action, suspense: there’s nothing she can’t do. And thankfully, welcome back Ke Huy Quan! It’s unfair Hollywood wasn’t ready for you after your adorable kid roles, but I’m excited that the multiverse has brought you back to us, and you’ve lost none of your charm and passion to delight and entertain! Finally, to all those kids ready to have their mind blown by something they’ve never seen before, Everything Everywhere All At Once is here to say, you’re welcome! Spread the word!