Everything Everywhere All at Once
The ways in which some movies challenge us narratively, structurally, and stylistically, are what makes some films great regardless of any possible “flaws” that might exist. The last film that connected with me in such a way, in terms of modern films, was “Cloud Atlas,” and a decade later, “Everything Everywhere All at Once” has done it again. This film from the Daniels- Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert- takes a bit of time to focus thematically, but as soon as it does, my God is it an experience.
We begin in the apartment of Evelyn and Waymond Wang (Michelle Yeoh and Ke Huy Quan), who own the laundromat below them, and are getting paperwork ready. They are preparing for an audit; in addition, Evelyn’s father (James Hong) is with them, and he is not feeling well. Their daughter, Joy (Stephanie Hsu), is supposed to help them translate, but bringing her girlfriend, Becky (Tallie Medel), complicates things at home, at least for Evelyn. We see them juggle work and home, which is not easy when you basically have customers coming to your home constantly, and sometimes, you have to have your work intrude at home. Evelyn is focused on getting things together for the audit, but Waymond has more personal matters to discuss. The personal and professional is going to get even more complicated for Evelyn when she is warned of a rift in the multiverse, which threatens every universe, that she will have to fight.
This is my first experience with the Daniels, and they are swinging for the fences in this film in a way we haven’t really seen since “Cloud Atlas.” The degree of difficulty in giving us a through line when we get different versions of the same characters coming in and out of different universes is never easy, but in their screenplay- and their collaboration with editor Paul Rogers- it is seamless. The performers are a huge part of it, as well, and I’ll get to them, but the ways in which they manage to build brief, ambitions visions of various multiverses in quick glances is a credit to not just their imagination, but the work of production designer
Jason Kisvarday, art direction Amelia Brooke and cinematographer Larkin Seiple. No one universe feels the same as the other, not just in look and feel, but in the frame format they are shot in. And yet, we don’t feel any sort of whiplash watching it- the film’s storytelling is very linear because each moment, regardless of universe, is integral to both the story as a whole, and the emotional journeys of the characters. It’s a masterclass of cinematic innovation.
Sometimes, it takes a dramatic event to make us realize the impact our parents’s approval, or lack there of, of how we’re living our lives has had on us. For me, it was when I was 29. I was five years removed from graduating from high school, and five years into my job at the movie theatre. It seemed as though, every time my mom would yell at me for some reason, some variation of, “when I was your age…” would come into the equation. That’s a deflating thing for someone to hear when they’re already self-conscious about their life, and how it isn’t remotely what we wanted for ourselves when we were younger. It wasn’t long after that that I began to really take stock in my life, and realized that my life was not there’s, and that was fine. It would take a few years before I really became fine with it, and started living life as it came to me, not as I tried to force it to be. “Everything Everywhere All at Once” is, fundamentally, about how a woman who was raised to believe acceptance from her father was the most important thing, and how that mindset permeated to how she raised her own daughter. How the film frames that into its wildest ideas about the multiverse are hilarious, heartbreaking, and absolutely captivating, all at once. This is that moment for Evelyn, and she’s about to get a glimpse of how her own issues have manifested to her daughter unlike anyone ever has gotten before.
I’m relatively unfamiliar with Michelle Yeoh outside of action films, be they “Supercop,” “Tomorrow Never Dies” or “Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon.” One of the smart things the Daniels do here is play with that iconography, but not be beholden to it. This is a wholly original character for Yeoh to play, and it brought to mind her work in “Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon.” Evelyn is a woman who seems like she’s been fighting her whole life, whether it’s for her father’s approval, or inherent bias that come out when she’s dealing with customers (she calls one of them (played by Jenny Slate) Big Nose, a typical Chinese description of white people, although it also carries an anti-semetic meaning that the filmmakers apologized for later), or trying to make her business work, sometimes at the expense of her marriage, or in accepting her daughter. What she will come to realize is how the way she’s gone through life is not enough to create a happy life; how judgments of others only bring more conflict, and less understanding; and how family means more than blood and responsibilities, but about letting those closest to us know every single day that we care about them. Seeing the change happen in Evelyn throughout the film is a riveting experience, one which Yeoh makes palpable…and yet, she may be overshadowed in this film that her co-star.
My wife watched this with me, and she immediately recognized Ke Huy Quan as Data from “The Goonies,” and not just because of the waist pouch he’s wearing throughout the film. He was also Short Round in “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom,” and if you grew up watching those films, you’d be surprised that he didn’t become a big success. But it didn’t happen for him, and he basically quit acting until “Crazy Rich Asians” made him think, maybe there’s a place for him. As Waymond, his moment is now, and this might be my favorite performance of 2022. He is the heart of the film. In ways that will become clear as the movie goes, he is Evelyn’s guide through the multiverse, and I like how that permeates through into their relationship at the center of the story, as well. Evelyn’s family did not want her to marry Waymond, and you can see the pressure that still holds on their relationship, which compounds the anxiety they feel with the audit. Communication is essential, especially in moments of strife, and that Waymond feels as though he must resort to certain things to get that is painful to see on Quan’s face. Like Evelyn, he is a fighter, as well, but how he fights through life requires more strength, more understanding. The big moment for his character is one of the best individual moments for an actor this year, and watching it, you can see the kid who pleaded with Indiana Jones at his darkest moment in “Temple of Doom.” Seeing someone who, in their own way, meant a lot to you as a kid find their moment as an adult is gratifying- I hope Hollywood doesn’t screw up what they have with Quan a second time.
There’s a lot more to say- how Jamie Lee Curtis is wonderful as the IRS auditor, and is relishing every moment. How Stephanie Hsu and James Hong complete this familial square with rich, entertaining work. How the score by Son Lux is complex and twisty and brings out every emotion. And how the Daniels managed one of the most profound films in movie history where there’s no verbal dialogue, and no humans, on screen in one of the funniest ways. “Everything Everywhere All at Once” reminds us of the magic of movies, the treasure of literate, emotional storytelling, and how sometimes, the strongest thing we can do is just be kind to one another. It is a masterpiece.
