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Rating: 4.25 out of 5
I had plenty of time to watch a movie on my long flight from LAX to Paris. I flipped through the massive collection of films and saw that Everything Everywhere All at Once was one of the films to watch. I was interested in watching it because it swept almost every category at the Academy Awards. Also, I wanted to see how Jamie Lee Curtis beat out Queen Mother Angela Bassett for the Best Supporting Actress award. I heard the film was one of the best multiverse films ever, as that theme has been the hot new thing in Hollywood and storytelling. My expectations were high, and I must say that this film is CRAZY but entertaining. It did make most of my flight go by pretty quickly.
Written and directed by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, Everything Everywhere All at Once, as its title states, has everything you can almost think of in a film. Evelyn Quan Wang (Yeoh) is a middle-aged Chinese American immigrant who runs a laundromat with her husband, Waymond (Quan). Evelyn and Waymond ran off together twenty years earlier against her demanding father, Gong Gong (Hong). The pair was madly in love, ventured to the United States, married, and had a daughter named Joy (Hsu). In the present day, Evelyn has lost interest in life as she goes through the motions of life trying to achieve some sort of fulfillment, but everything she has ever attempted in life, she never achieved anything from it. The stress of the IRS breathing down the family’s throat with an audit causes Evelyn more stress than she needs. Even with the audit, Evelyn has no idea that Waymond has papers drawn to divorce her. He feels unfulfilled and uses it as an extreme last resort to maybe improve their relationship. Evelyn is also dealing with her wheelchair-bound father, who she felt never loved and appreciated her. Finally, Evelyn has a strained relationship with Joy as Evelyn is reluctant to accept Joy’s lesbian relationship with her white girlfriend, Becky. Evelyn’s life could’ve been entirely different if she had made different choices at specific points in her life and followed through with any of the things she started. Oh, the family is going through a significant IRS audit led by hard-ass Deirdre Beaubeirdre (Curtis). As Evelyn and Waymond go to their crucial meeting with Deirdre, Evelyn’s entire world, mentally, physically, and everything else you can think of, will change as she is tasked with defeating the ultimate evil who is on a quest to destroy all multiverses. Will Evelyn make the right decisions or stay in the world she has now?
I’ve spoken to a few people who hated this film. I, on the other hand, really enjoyed this film. I have some issues with certain scenes, but overall, this film is fun and entertaining to watch. The central premise of the storyline is what could’ve been. When Waymond has Evelyn “jump” from life to life, she sees she could’ve been a famous actress if she didn’t run off with Waymond. Even though she would’ve been rich and famous, she met up with Waymond to feel lost love. The film shows greatly that each decision we make profoundly affects what we could’ve been in life. The film showed that Evelyn could’ve done many different things and had many different lives. I loved how each version of Evelyn was different from the others.
The film explores the sense of acceptance. Evelyn and Joy are at odds with each other regarding sexuality and freedom. The main villain is Jobu Tupaki, aka Alpha-Joy, whose mind was splintered after Alpha-Evelyn pushed her to verse-jump beyond her capabilities. This causes Jobu to experience everything all at once and manipulate matter at will. She is a living god. She has created a black hole-like “Everything Bagel” topped with everything to destroy the multiverse. The acceptance of this character was shown towards the end when Evelyn gave up on herself but accepted her life and wanted to make it better. The whole rock scene was funny to watch as they came closer together. In the end, Evelyn and Joy seemed to find common ground with each other.
The one strange scene was the whole hot dog fingers scene. I am still trying to understand why that was in the film. It was probably in the movie because it showed that there are multiple versions of ourselves. The film could’ve gone into more universes, as it only seemed to stop around two. I wanted to see some crazy scenes. Did this take away from the whole film? No, not at all, because it was already fun and crazy to watch.
The entire cast did a PHENOMENAL job in this film. I was thrilled to see Michelle Yeoh get the accolades and honors she truly deserved in her long career. As Evelyn, she showed herself as a dissatisfied and overwhelmed laundromat owner and when she meets alternative Waymond, she revealed that she wished for a better life. She did have some crazy scenes as she jumped from verse to verse.
Out of the whole film, Stephanie Hsu would’ve been the far more appropriate winner of the Best Supporting Actress award. As Joy Wang but more importantly Jobu Tupaki, she was the far more interesting character to watch. She brought craziness with her powers and was far more entertaining.
Let’s give a BIG UP to Ke Huy Quan!! Homeboy was out of the industry and couldn’t find a role. I remember him as Short Round from Indiana Jones. Hearing Quan’s story about how he couldn’t find a job, gave up, and went to do other things is inspiring because you never know what the future holds. As Waymond, he was funny as the meek and goofy husband. As in the different versions, he was a fighting master or charming person. I loved him in this role and see big things from him in the future.
The one that is probably the most controversial is Jamie Lee Curtis as Deirdre Beaubeirdre. Don’t get me wrong, she was funny and intense as the IRS inspector. Did she deserve to win the Academy Award for this role? HELL NAW!! She wasn’t in the film that long, and to beat out Queen Mother is a travesty.
Everything Everywhere All at Once is a delightful movie. It is another twist on the whole multiverse times we live in right now. The story is enjoyable, with many crazy and fun scenes. When you see the raccoon, you know you hit a new level. The cast did a fantastic job, with Yeoh and Quan deserving much of the praise. Watch this film with the other endless numbers of multiverse films and realize the center of the bagel.
