Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022)

Movie Info

The multiverse is broken…good going, Evelyn

Evelyn Wang (Michelle Yeoh) is the co-owner of a failing laundry, a rocky marriage to Waymond (Ke Huy Quan), and a daughter named Joy (Stephanie Hsu) who hardly speaks to her…or is she the inventor of inter-dimensional travel…or an professional singer…or a martial arts expert who has become a movie star…or a hotdog hand lesbian in a crumbling relationship?  Evelyn is everything everywhere all at once and the worlds are about to collide as the villainous Jobu Tupaki comes to settle a score with her.  Evelyn will have to master her world and the others if she hopes to survive what is coming.

Directed by Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (aka “Daniel”), Everything Everywhere All at Once is a science-fiction action-drama comedy.  The project was originally planned for Jackie Chan and premiered at South by Southwest on March 11, 2022.  The film was released to positive reviews and a strong box office return.  The film received Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress (Michelle Yeoh), Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Jamie Lee Curtis), Best Supporting Actor (Ke Huy Quan), Best Original Screenplay, and Best Film Editing with nominations for Best Supporting Actress (Stephanie Hsu), Best Original Score, Best Original Song (“This Is Life”), and Best Costume Design.

Proving once again that taxes suck…

Everything Everywhere All at Once released its trailer and it was hard to gauge how it would be or even what it would be…which is a good trailer.  Too often movies give up too much in the trailer, but this film gave up just enough to make me curious.  While I do admire and like the movie, I also feel it tried to accomplish too much…all at once.

The movie’s plot deals with multiple realities and feels a lot like something like The Matrix combined with some aspects of the superhero film The One.  In both, a character is trying to reach their peak ability by tapping into their other versions.  Everything Everywhere All at Once does it with a lot of humor, but the plot continues to twist (actually changing what the movie is about a few times during the course of the movie).  It is a little hard to take at the start, goes over the top in the middle, and is followed by some nice (and surprisingly tender) moments near the end…but it goes a bit too long and hard to get there at points.

Sparking the great debate: Mustard or Ketchup on hotdog hands?

What cannot be faulted at all is Michelle Yeoh who always brings class to a role.  It is nice to see her in a somewhat comedic role and to see her also getting to tie back in to her earlier action days.  She really nails the role and is a good contrast to Stephanie Hsu who plays her daughter Joy and the villain Jobu Tupaki.  James Hong gets bit bigger role than his normal character roles as Gong Gong, and Jamie Lee Curtis also gives it all as another person pulled into Evelyn’s multiple realities.  One of the odder casting choices is Ke Huy Quan as Evelyn’s husband Waymond.  Quan does a great job in the role, but since he has spent so much time behind the camera since The Goonies and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom that it is still hard to think of him as an adult (especially since he looks just like he did when he was young.

All hail the Bagel!

The movie has a lot of fun visuals which plays with the absurdity of the plot.  The worlds included in the film are worlds like piñata world and rock world.  The costumes and the crazy worlds tapped into by Evelyn and Jobu have a lot of visual appeal but don’t feel as gimmicky as some flashy movies since they are important to the story.

Everything Everywhere All at Once is a welcomed break from the formulaic “big budget” movies that normally tackle subjects like this.  It isn’t necessarily as art house as some smaller films, but it also isn’t the scope of a Marvel or DC movie with unlimited budgets.  Instead you get a nice movie that will benefit from multiple viewings and hopefully shows that superheroes can be anyone.  While most superheroes strive to be the best, Evelyn succeeds because she’s the worst…and the audience can go along with that.

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The 95th Academy Award Nominations