A24: Everything, Everywhere, All At Once Pt. 2

Some Things Hit You In the Face Metaphorically and Literally

I liked this movie so much, I wanted to create in-depth articles on it and analyze it and re-watch it till someone in high heaven pried my eyes from my lifeless body to simply close the sockets for a rest.

After enough time passed, I realized this obsession was not the healthiest and I was probably better off blowing off steam doing yoga or hike stretches. Or something else that requires cardiovascular stimuli.

It is what it is.

Please tell me you’ve watched this movie by now. It’s in a handful of theaters but soon moving online and the viewing experience in a poorly ventilated, tiered, and dimly lit room with dozens of strangers is honestly worth a few booster shots.

I’m just gonna rant about some of my favorite themes and metaphors from this movie, but as my esteemed colleague Dan Ton said in our super-awesome-cool podcast episode: “You can slice this [movie] so many different ways to talk about it, and it still works.” I’m obviously butchering his casual eloquence by trying to remember his words off the top of my head, but you get the idea.

What was up with the google eyes for real though?

Definitely drop a comment below if you want to harangue me about this movie! And give our podcast a listen. It’s lowkey worth it and you can use it as small talk at those godforsaken dinner parties adults love putting on.

Themes and Metaphors

Everything Bagel

There was something. About googly eyes. That really sussed me out. If anyone knows or even understands what that is about, please please let me know. As of right now, I’m thinking it’s something about the third eye opening in Buddhism and Taoism for wisdom and spiritual awakening.

[But all the googly eyes at the beginning throws me off that trail, so if you have any thoughts, I’d love to hear them!]

The Everything Bagel as a low-brow symbol of an infinity symbol had me laughing my ass off and enjoying this movie that much more because it does several things:

1. Introduces the idea of a circle with no beginning or end, a (time) loop, never-ending, a space where all of existence simply exists.

2. Again, calls back to symbolism in East Asian religions and methodologies about chakras and spirituality because of its basic shape denoting a *ahem* circle.

3. Plays with the idea humans existing as a blip, where everything everywhere is literally happening all at once.

4. Does all of the above in a simple, over-the-counter-coffee-partner metaphor so we know that as grandiose as these themes are, it’s still something to poke fun at and laugh about. Meaning, it’s only as serious as we let it be.

This bagel is literally everything you could hope for in a breakfast food and as a vehicle for the Daniels’ message about our time on this here earth.

THB Bagels + Deli knows exactly what the people want AND I AM HERE FOR IT.

Family is Grounding

Literally. Ground-breaking. For an intergenerational Asian family but also this scene.

[Family and community in Asian countries is so important and in stark contrast to the individualism that America propagates.]

This calm as can be scene in the middle of all the action and nonsense. The eye of the hurricane. It could be out of place, but it really helps to ease the tension of pacing in this movie because it breaks the monotony of the action up so we get this gorgeous scene with subtitles and rocks. Somehow talking to each other.

As great as this scene is for pacing, it also literally shows how Evelyn is grounding for Joy. She is and always will be Joy’s mother, and that’s a choice that Evelyn willingly makes by the end of the movie.

Just as Evelyn is grounding to Joy, Waymond is also grounding to Evelyn. Every version of him we meet in the multiverse offers her an alternative: a family. And you know how people like to say that “blood is thicker than water”? In a world as crazy as ours, the people we call family, be it by blood or bond, are really the ties that keep us from going mad.

Of course they can still be assholes and drive you up a wall. But in the best possible version of life, they will be the ones you call home and keep close.

Same thing with Evelyn and Joy. It’s not perfect and never will be, but they’re trying.

Choices

Every choice Evelyn has ever made branches off and creates alternate dimensions of herself. Every choice, no matter how insignificant, creates infinite other instances and she is told that she has failed so much that her other lives are so much better off thanks to her.

That’s fucking brutal.

So much untapped potential that Evelyn will never be able to realize. It must be heart-breaking and oh so depressing to realize you are living as the worst possible version of yourself.

But you know what? That is exactly what Alpha Waymond is looking for. Evelyn’s failures have defined her, but every single one of them makes her stronger now.

The mistakes pile up, the lessons are learned. She becomes a better version of herself, but still just a version. Not who she really is, but you know what’s really cool about her realizing her potential?

She knows she can do it.

Sometimes, believing in yourself is the only difference that matters between winners and losers.

When no one else will, and you’ll do just fine <3

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Here’s a link to the first newsletter synopsis on Everything Everywhere All At Once!

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