Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022)

 


Genre: Adventure/Sc-fi       Time: 2h 20mins      Directors: Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert


Quick Summary: A Chinese immigrant gets unwillingly embroiled in an epic adventure where she must connect different versions of herself in the parallel universe to stop someone who intends to harm the multiverse.


 It is brilliant, fabulous, exhilarating, and heartbreaking. It's truly incredible! It has so many themes and ideas, layers and layers together, it's so clever. This is one of the most unique, exciting and outright insane films I've seen, packed with incredible action, yet underpinned by an intensely emotional story.


 It throws realism out the window, replacing it instead with playful silliness. The screenplay is smart and keeps the viewer on their toes though even though there has to be some explaining to do for the rules of the story world, it’s brushed upon in just the right moments through the characters’ reactions and dialogue, making it fairly easy to understand while also expanding upon the concept itself and keeping the pacing at top speed.

The great pleasures of this film come from the bizarre imagination with which the writer-director team of Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert has to bring this set-up to life. The alternative worlds here range from not-so-different to insanely weird and the embrace of absurdity is part of cosmology’s “verse-jumping” methodology. It’s a wild tonal ride, from cartoonish ultraviolence to plaintive whimsy. For all the goofily surprising, high-octane action, this is at heart a character piece. The Main character's family’s life is ordinarily cluttered, demanding and disappointing, fraught with intergenerational miscommunication, resentment, guilt, fear, failure and regret.

It manages to explore a lot of topics and Emotiontions are highly impressive. It really tugs at the heartstrings at times, and I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of people found at least something to relate to in this film.



However, it’s Yeoh’s range that is most admirable as the film demands she wildly bounces from slapstick goofiness to genuinely heartbreaking and earnest emotional monologues. She simultaneously parodies and questions every sacrifice and decision that has bought her to that point in a wonderfully meta way. In doing that, it implicitly asks its audience to look at their own life choices; not always a comfortable experience, but one that elevates this film immensely. 

This all works because, through the chaos, weirdness, pulsating visuals and philosophising, the script strategically sets up an array of elements that proceed to pay off in a spectacular way. From googly eyes placed on the wash bags of a dowdy launderette to the most philosophical and soul-searching of themes – nothing is wasted. 



This is one of the funniest, most creative, emotional, action-packed films of the last decade and reminds us why original films are so important to us all. This film is a breath of life into a genre that was seeming to be stuck in the same old beats. It deserves to be seen on the big screen and deserves its title, it truly is Everything Everywhere All at Once.

10/10


"The Only Thing I Do Know Is That We Have To Be Kind. Please, Be Kind. Especially When We Don't Know What's Going On."

"You Are Not Unlovable. There Is Always Something To Love. Even In A Stupid, Stupid Universe Where We Have Hot Dogs For Fingers, We Get Very Good With Our Feet"

"Of All The Places I Could Be, I Just Want To Be Here With You."

"When I Choose To See The Good Side Of Things, I'm Not Being Naive. It Is Strategic And Necessary. It's How I Learned To Survive Through Everything."






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