Everything Everywhere All At Once

 This review may contain spoilers!

 

Everything Everywhere All At Once follows Evelyn Wang, a middle-aged laundromat owner who is struggling to manage the relationships in her family, her business and has lost touch with her own identity. However, when a multi-dimensional variant of her husband reveals to Evelyn that only she can stop the multiversal monster known as Jobu Tupaki, her life is flipped inside out.The most refreshing thing about this film is how original it is, there is so much here that hasn't ever really been explored in cinema or TV before that I really applaud. Taking the story of an Asian migrant who has to navigate American culture without strong English is al ready the beginnings of a great protagonist; but then to have this character struggle with a business that is danger, a marriage that is on the rocks and embracing her daughter's homosexuality makes for something really new. I loved the complexity of seeing Evelyn navigate facets of her life, and what it could've been, in such a varied way. The ultimate reconciliation she has with her family, and by extension her own sense of identity is a powerful theme that I think will resonate with any audience member. At the same time, the way the science-fiction aspect of the plot works in is really fascinating too, having a multiverse that becomes something the characters explore and access hasn't been done a lot in the past. The reason this film succeeds so well with it is because it knows not to take it too seriously; in fact when first this element starts getting introduced it is intentionally jarring for comedic effect.I like how this film utilised genre or genre elements in service to the story, as opposed to making a science-fiction film first and foremost. The nature of this toying with different universes and making up it's own rules on the fly means you can never predict where the action will take you, and it chooses to undertake this in such a fun and entertaining manner. The Daniels have such a distinct visual style that lends itself to the erratic nature of the narrative, I was really impressed by a lot of the homage shots to classic martial arts features especially. The score by Son Lux invites you on an adventure; this music is halfway between the intensity of an action feature and the sheer wonder of an Alice in Wonderland adaptation.

 

Stephanie Hsu, who played Joy Wang/ Jobu Tupaki, was really quite thrilling as the chaotic whilrwind that is the feature's antagonist; yet I most enjoyed those moments of raw honest emotion from Hsu when she portrayed a daughter outcrying how she felt to her mother. Ke Huy Quan, who played Waymond Wang, is fascinating as the softspoken romantic and optimist paired against Yeoh; I also loved how Quan played to the comedy of being a heroic dimension-hopping hero at other times in the film. James Hong, who played Gong Gong, is comedic as the ailing yet authoritative patriarch of the Wang family; I loved when we got to see Hong take on the commanding and beleaguered Alphaverse version of Gong Gong. Jamie Lee Curtis, who played Deirdre Beaubeirde, is a lot of fun with her dry wit portraying a stern IRS agent; I really think Curtis got to play the whole gauntlet in this film from wild physical comedy to honest human connection. Tallie Medel, who played Becky Sregor, is one of the more minor characters in the film who I wished we got more of; her chemistry with Hsu is immediate and I like the quiet way she bonds with the Wang family.

 

However, the best performance came from leading actress, Michelle Yeoh, who played Evelyn Wang. In such a short time this film strongly establishes Evelyn as quite a compelling role with many aspects to her. Yeoh switches between Mandarin and a rather low-level proficient accent when she switches to English, I think just arranging the amount of dialect and accent work required to make this non-native speaker role authentic was pretty masterful. Yet seeing Yeoh portray a woman who is so stressed and out of touch with her life, despite attempting to navigate control of it is such a brilliant contrast to be introduced to her. The fear she portrays around introducing her lesbian daughter's girlfriend to her traditional father is a great starting point to see some of the generational trauma that has shaped who Evelyn is. Seeing Evelyn get lost and caught up in the multiversal aspects of the film was a lot of fun, especially because Yeoh plays to the comedy of being bewildered so well. This role is so powerful because Evelyn's whole journey is around recognising the good aspects of her life as well as the bad, reclaiming these pieces of her to affirm her own identity. I loved the mother/daughter relationship between Yeoh and Hsu, the hurt and love this pair navigate together is really the heart of the film. Evelyn is one of Yeoh's best roles to date.

 

 Everything Everywhere All At Once might be the most creative film I have seen this year but it often endeavours to be the most absurd too. The absurdist elements of the film aren't always so bad, there's a fantastic scene with Evelyn and Jobu as a pair of rocks talking to one another that is one of my favourite scenes in the film. However, I often find the film loses itself to moments of nonsense that never really fuel the narrative; big subplots like the hot dog finger universe or Raccacoonie are perfectly fun comedy but are given way more screen time than is ever really able to be justified. I also thought there was a lot of absurdist humour in this that was quite akin to Rick And Morty, moments like the martial artists who needed butt plugs to engage their fighting abilities or the opposing operative who was neutralized by accessing his dominatrix fetish. These jokes were strange and pretty opposing to some of the finer elements of the film itself, I think the film often pushed the envelope for the sake of it and not because it served the finished product. The jumping around between visual and practical effects didn't really work either, it just meant that things like the 'bagel', the hot dog fingers or Raccacoonie looked rather poorly imagined.

A unique and often times out of this world film brimming with creativity, humour and absurdity. I would give Everything Everywhere All At Once a 7.5/10.