A24: Everything, Everywhere, All At Once Pt. 1
A Multiverse of Madness If I Ever Saw One
I think it’s safe to say that this is my favorite movie of 2022. It’s only June and there’s half a year left and laa-di-daaah but man have you seen this movie? And if you haven’t seen it, are you planning to with your Significant Other or mutually platonic friend group?
If you haven’t seen it, please do. It’s not so much a favor to me as a favor to yourself because this? This is a really good movie. It made me feel a whole range of emotions, emotions I didn’t even realize I could have but still enjoyed nonetheless.
I enjoyed this movie so much that I sat down and recorded a whole ass podcast with my friend Dan Ton, who runs the wonderful newsletter Flow With Film and made talking about this movie so much fun and was an absolute pleasure to work with <3
He also wrote a review on this movie, and you should definitely check it out here, because he has a penchant for brisk analysis that is short and to the point (in beautiful contrast to my oft long-winded ramblings and nonsensical turn of phrases at times :P).
You can listen to our podcast at all the big kid streaming services:
And we would love any sort of feedback or continued conversation about this movie!
But like Waymond says throughout the film: be kind. Please. We would love to hear your thoughts and comments and we are not adverse to negative feedback, but we make mistakes. Things aren’t perfect and we’ll keep trying in the next one and the next. So thank you for your patience as we grown and learn <3
But as always,
Thank you for reading and listening :) and definitely continue on if you’d like a little bit more of a synopsis on the movie! And there will be spoilers, so read ahead at your own risk, but please, think about treating yourself out to the theatres to watch it before you do.
According to IMDb, Everything Everywhere All At Once is about “An aging Chinese immigrant swept up in an insane adventure, where she alone can save the world by exploring other universes connecting with the lives she could have led.”
Which feels like an oversimplification of this movie, but is still, funnily enough, accurate and an almost exact explanation you should give someone to avoid overexplaining and diving into the random multiverses. We don’t want to scare people away from this movie, though it does a lot and it does it all amazingly well, shit hits the fan and it doesn’t ever settle, only ascending into the sky, covering every facet of the film, and then soaking into the fabric of it.
Evelyn (Michelle Yeoh) is a small business owner of her very own laundromat in America, which is an accomplishment in itself, but one where she feels trapped and, dare I say it, feels like an overall failure.
This isn’t exactly where she thought she’d end up, this isn’t even top 3 if she’s being honest with herself, but this is her lot and she’s trudging along to the IRS while her laundromat is being audited and trying to make things work.
Even when things are not and have not been working.
Like her marriage. One of the major side stories is Evelyn’s failed marriage, and her relationship with her husband, Waymond (Ke Huy Quan), as it falls apart or is nonexistent in certain universes.
The great thing about this movie is that everything is Evelyn’s fault. I don’t mean that in a condescending or rude way, but if you look at character development and plot progression, Evelyn directly influences everything good or bad that happens to her.
The villain is her own offspring, Joy (Stephanie Hsu), whom she pushes to the brink and shatters to create a broken monster desperate for peace.
She accepts or leaves Waymond and both of their life stories are deeply impacted by her decisions.
Every offshoot of her own timeline boasts an Evelyn with more accomplishments, skills, and happiness levels because somehow and somewhere in her very own life, she was her own worst enemy.
She feels lackluster in her business and her marriage and to watch it unfold as a bystander, it seems like Evelyn always settled. Her choices were important because each one led her down a different path, but she was always trapped in the dichotomy of do-or-don’t. One-or-the-other. Choice A or Choice B and having those minimal options, it can often feel like one has no control over their life and they’re just plodding along to the beat of some unknown god’s drum.
There were times where she felt like she wasn’t enough, so she stopped trying.
There were times where she thought she wasn’t good at something, so she put it to the side.
There were many times where she had to put the well-being of her business in front of anything she ever wanted, and that’s just what she did.
Either or. And what choice does she have when the only other option is absolute failure?
There were so many dreams she gave up on (that spawned other multiverses), that it made me wonder:
Out of all the failed dreams she had for herself, she kept going. She could have been a movie star, a Kung Fu master, an opera singer. But in her main timeline, she was none of the above. In her main timeline, what was her main dream?
These multiverses are collapsing. Joy is aiming to tear it apart and the only person in her way is laundromat-Evelyn.
There’s a great thing about bagels.
There’s some amazing choreographed fight scenes.
There’s a lot about hope.
Like most mother-daughter relationships in media, Evelyn and Joy end up fighting and like any good heroine led story, there is healing.
Everyone picks up the shattered pieces of their lives and puts it back together by the end of the movie.
It’s not perfect. It’s beautiful in its own way. But it is whole again.
But the 15th-Century practice of kintsugi, meaning “to join with gold”, is a reminder to stay optimistic when things fall apart and to celebrate the flaws and missteps of life.
Sounds like an interesting movie. Might have to check it out.
I loved this movie.