Everything Everywhere All At Once, 2022.
Written and Directed by Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert.
Starring Michelle Yeoh, Stephanie Hsu, James Hong, Ke Huy Quan, Jamie Lee Curtis, Jenny Slate, Daniel Scheinert, Harry Shum Jr., and Biff Wiff.
SYNOPSIS:
An aging Chinese immigrant is 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.
With Everything Everywhere All at Once, filmmakers Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (collectively known as Daniels) have crafted yet another full-throttle bonkers feature that lives up to every grandstanding and seemingly hyperbolic superlatives there will be noting its utter insanity. But just like their debut narrative feature Swiss Army Man (and I would presume some of the numerous music videos they have crafted together and Scheinert’s uncomfortably brilliant solo effort The Death of Dick Long), this experience is not limited to weirdness for the sake of it nor should it be defined by its random chaos.
Any time Kwan and Scheinert introduce something crazy, which in this case is typically another alternate dimension drastically changing up the characters’ lives, skill sets, and in some cases their entire world, it’s rarely done as a throwaway joke for a cheap laugh. A ludicrous concept such as hotdog hands or sentient rocks conversing with one another generally evolves from being a joke into a moving and thoughtful dynamic. That’s not to say there aren’t wacky gags that serve no purpose other than for a laugh (one character even acknowledges that none of this makes any sense), just that these filmmakers also know how to expand on their insanity with overwhelming emotion and sincerity tying together various story themes.
That’s what I would say if asked what makes Kwan and Scheinert such undeniably fascinating directors creating artfully lunatic works unlike anything else out there in the cinematic landscape. Yes, Everything Everywhere All at Once is a movie where connecting to multi-verse versions of oneself requires performing outrageous acts of stupidity that feel generated by a computer algorithm (and not because they aren’t imaginative, but because they are so positively blinding stupid that it’s hard to believe these ideas can come from the human mind), yet also one deeply invested in its many characters navigating family, cynicism, hope, fulfillment, and ultimately, how to pull from thousands of versions of themselves to bring out the best one.
International superstar Michelle Yeoh is Evelyn Wang, a discouraged, tired, and mentally defeated co-owner of a failing laundromat and head of a fractured family. She doesn’t find much energy or joy in talking to her husband Waymond (an outstanding Ke Huy Quan capable of flipping like a switch between earnest and silly) from the draining exhaustion of failed dreams and an ongoing audit of their business, and has a wedge between her daughter Joy (Stephanie Hsu, a fantastic breakthrough performance also game to play up multiple personalities in grandiose fashion), disapproving of her path in life in various lifestyle choices, including having a girlfriend. As we get a brief introduction to Gong Gong (Chinese for grandfather) as played by James Hong, it’s evident that Evelyn is dealing with generational trauma at the hands of her father and is dangerously close to repeating that pattern of behavior, pushing away her daughter forever.
While carefully drawing these characters (wisely aiming for Chinese-American authenticity with a mixture of Mandarin, Cantonese, and English) before getting to the nonstop sci-fi nuttiness, the Wang family also heads to an IRS meeting to discuss bankruptcy and business expenses with Jamie Lee Curtis’ Deirdre Beaubeirdra. There’s a similar emptiness suggested in Deirdre, working a soul-draining job without much sympathy for the struggling class. It would also be straightforward for Kwan and Scheniert to paint such a character in broad villain strokes, but as the reality of a multi-verse emerges, every character is afforded genuine humanity. You also simultaneously see Jamie Lee Curtis do a flying dropkick from the top of a staircase.
That’s also nothing compared to the gonzo greatness Michelle Yeoh gets to indulge in once she is encouraged (in a sequence that gleefully pays homage to The Matrix) to tap into her alternate versions, as Everything Everywhere All at Once boasts numerous sublime martial arts sequences shot by Larkin Seiple where just about everything but the kitchen sink becomes a weapon. Accounting for the random checklist objectives these characters must often do to connect to these alternate versions fully and thus embrace a different set of combat abilities (at one point, there is a brief look at the pros of an altered dimension swap resembling something out of an RPG video game), every burst into action is refreshingly juvenile and relentlessly exhilarating. Stellar editing from Paul Rogers also accompanies these segments with cuts to different versions of these characters reacting to the overflowing madness.
Again, there is a solid emotional core to Everything Everywhere All at Once (heightened by a powerfully swelling score from Son Lux) that grows in personal and universal stakes. Evelyn is summoned into action for more than saving a dying laundromat. There are glimpses at lives lived alongside what could have been should Evelyn have branched off in different directions. It’s a movie where an unstoppable final boss enemy is fought with hope and the moments of life that make existing meaningful despite our insignificance in the grander picture.
Everything Everywhere All at Once stretches far and wide into the reaches of loony comedy and exhilarating action, just as much concerned with unity and existential pondering. It is a raucously madcap stroke of heartwarmingly lunatic genius anchored by a magnetic ensemble and exceptional work from Michelle Yeoh. Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert lean into their every outlandish impulse with endless sincerity and pathos, fueling their frenetic, adrenaline-fueled mayhem.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Critics Choice Association. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check here for new reviews, follow my Twitter or Letterboxd, or email me at MetalGearSolid719@gmail.com
