Title: Everything Everywhere All At Once
Rating: 5 Stars
Sometimes I feel like I’ve seen so many films that I’ve become jaded. Sure, I can find some small independent films that will surprise me, but mainstream films seem to follow pretty predictable paths.
And then there are films like this one.
The overarching theme is pretty well trod. There’s the multi-generational family at odds with each other. Michelle Yeoh plays Evelyn, the woman in the middle. She, with her husband Waymond (Ke Huy Quan), somewhat frantically run a laundromat on the verge of being shut down due to IRS troubles. Tired of being ignored, Waymond is planning to divorce Evelyn. Her father Gong Gong (James Hong) disowned her because of her marriage to Waymond and even now, all of these years later, sits in judgment and finds her lacking. Evelyn’s daughter Joy (Stephanie Hsu) has a fragile relationship with her mom, not helped by the fact that she’s gay, a fact that Evelyn keeps from Gong Gong.
So far we have a pretty conventional family drama. Will Evelyn ever slow down to appreciate the gentle loving Waymond? Will Evelyn come to terms with the different path that Joy is taking? Will Evelyn finally realize that she’s good enough even if she doesn’t receive her father’s approval?
And then things take a turn.
As they are on their way to an appointment to meet their IRS auditor (Jamie Lee Curtis is nearly unrecognizable here), Waymond suddenly changes. He’s still the same guy but he’s now way more confident and competent. He explains that he is from a different universe. In fact, there are many parallel universes.
The universe that Waymond is from has created technology that allows people to jump across universes. His universe is the Alphaverse. He’s making these jumps because there is a malevolent force named Jobu Tupaki that was actually the Joy in his Alphaverse. The Evelyn in his Alphaverse worked Joy so hard in universe jumping that her mind splintered and Tupaki can now see all of the multiverses at once. Tupaki is taking all of the matter from all of the multiverses and is using it to create an everything bagel, thus endangering all existence.
The Alpha Waymond has been jumping all around the many multiverses looking for the Evelyn that will be able to take on Tupaki. He chooses Evelyn because she has been such a failure in her current universe. Since she has been the greatest failure of all of the Evelyns, she has the capacity to be the most powerful of them.
Got all of that?
Once Evelyn masters universe jumping, we see all kinds of different versions of Evelyn, Waymond, and Joy. In one, she’s an action hero movie star (much like Michelle Yeoh herself). In another, she’s a chef in an Asian steakhouse. And then it gets weird. There’s a universe where all members of it have hot dog fingers. There’s another where she and Joy are just two rocks. In another, they appear to be pinatas. Even the apparently normal universes contain oddities. In the steakhouse universe, her co-worker is being manipulated in a manner similar to the Pixar film Ratatouille, except that in this case it’s a raccoon that is the chef (ie Raccacoonie). In each of these universes, Evelyn is able to use the skills of that particular Evelyn in her fight against Tupaki.
What started as an Asian multi-generational family drama morphs into a martial arts film which morphs into a Matrix-like alternative reality film which morphs into a nihilistic philosophical film (what’s the point of anything if you have everything?) which morphs into an absurdist comedy of people walking around with hotdog weiners instead of fingers which morphs, of course, back to the Asian multi-generational family drama.
It’s all pretty wonderful, creative, amusing, and amazing. It’s from the same people (Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, known collectively as the Daniels) that made Swiss Army Man (which, if you haven’t seen, you must, starring Paul Dano as a suicidal man marooned on an island and Daniel Radcliffe as a farting corpse that has washed up on the beach (and no, I’m not making that up)). I can hardly wait for what they’ll come up with next. The Daniels have the potential to become their generation’s Charles Kaufman.
Since the pandemic, I haven’t made much of an effort to watch new films. Even so, I have to say that this film and RRR have proven that fun, challenging, and innovative films are still being made in 2022.
dorkenstein 