THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
You ever wonder what kind of movie is bound to surprise everyone? It is the kind that has Everything Everywhere All At Once.
PLOT
The film follows Chinese American immigrant Evelyn Wang who runs a laundromat with her husband Waymond. The story begins with a stressful Evelyn preparing for a meeting with the IRS to prevent being audited. She ignores her husband trying to divorce her and refuses to accept her daughter Joy as a lesbian, afraid of her own father Gong Gong being unable to accept her. During the said meeting with inspector Deirdre Beaubeirdre, it goes awry when she meets another version of her husband who takes over his body, Alpha Weymond from the 'Alphaverse' that first discovered the multiverse. Alpha Weymond explains to her that many parallel universes exist as every life choice creates a new universe. In the Alphaverse, Alpha Evelyn developed time jumping techonology that enables people to access the skills and memories of parallel selves, by performing unordinary and specific actions. He warns her that the multiverse is threatened by Alpha Joy, now known as Jobu Tupaki. When Alpha Evelyn pushed her to extensively verse jump, it splintered her mind and made her capable to verse jump and manipulate matter at will, while experiencing every single universe at once. Once Evelyn returns to the meeting, she is told by Deirdre that she has until the end of the day, 6pm, to turn in all receipts and defend their case to prevent the audit. Just when she notices the divorce papers and before she could confront her husband of it, Alpha Weymond returns to protect her from an evil version of Deirdre. As she learns how to verse jump, she sees potential lives she could have such as learning kung fu and her dream career as a movie star. When Jobu confronts her, she shows her a bagel shaped black hole she created with the potential to destroy the multiverse at once. Alpha Gong Gong interferes and instructs her to kill Joy to save the multiverse. Evelyn refuses and prefers learning her abilities to be strong enough to defeat her. This leads to Alpha Gong Gong ordering all nearby Alpha verse jumpers to pursue her. During the chase, Jobu is able to kill Alpha Weymond and moments after, Evelyn's mind fractures. Rather than killing her, her mind would splinter across the multiverse and witnesses more universes she never thought she'd see such as: Dating Deirdre in a universe where everyone has hot dogs for fingers and being a chef where her coworker is controlled by a raccoon. When Jobu finds her, she explains that the black hole is meant to just destroy herself and not the multiverse, but wanted someone to accompany her into the unknown. Evelyn appears to be persuaded that nothing matters and before she enters the black hole, she hears Weymond in her home universe begging everyone to stop fighting. This inspires her to change her mind and repair the multiverse by showing happiness to the other verse jumpers. As she does this, she is able to confront Gong Gong about his disappointment in her, standing up for herself and her daughter. She then saves the multiverse for good by stopping Jobu from entering the black hole, promising that she'll always choose to be with her. The film ends days after the multiversal fiasco, with the Wang family having an improved relationship and refiling their taxes with Deirdre together. Although Evelyn is briefly drawn to her other selves, she remains grounded to her home universe.
THOUGHTS
With a story so ambitious, you would think it would be impossible to pay off. But in the 21st century where impossibly made stories become reality, it became clear that I had less to worry. And by the time I got to see this, I was blown away of the most surreal experience. If there is anything I've learned from comic books, the multiverse is a concept where everything is possible and you have to accept all possible outcomes. The writing and directing duo of Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert take advantage of this complex concept and make all the absurd of it a delight. From free online tutorials, we get the most stunning glimpse of how colorful it is in other universes. Every chance you get to see one, you can't help but want more out of it. Having hot dog fingers or knowing Racacoonie should not sound intriguing, but they ultimately do. Whether or not you're laughing, you're still impressed on how real it is. I admit that I had my fair share of laughs because of how it embraces the oddness of it all. I never thought you would have to act unordinary to unlock certain skills from your other selves. So if you think you can intentionally paper cut yourself, eat chapstick, drink an entire 2liter bottle of soda, use your dog as a weapon or jump on a butt plug just to learn how to fight, be my guest. When I wasn't laughing however, I came to an understanding what a big heart it chose to show in between such insanity. Michelle Yeoh fills in big shoes of what could arguably be her greatest performance to date as Evelyn Wang, earning her first Best Actress Oscar. In between showing incredible range with the other versions we're able to see, we're all relating to the main Evelyn from the Tax Universe. I felt so because I understood of being far from perfect and always trying to do better. She struggles to be herself due to the pressure she puts herself through to get by and that causes her to push her family away unintentionally. Once the unlikely scenarios came her way, she had to adapt to her surroundings to live another day. For her own life, she was always disappointed with the decisions she didn't make to have the life she wanted and it is during this adventure where she accepted that it's better to enjoy what is rather than worry of what could've been because there is always something to love with what you have in front of you. Had she not found her epiphany, she would've not been able to make the changes needed to save the multiverse. When we get to focus on Oscar nominee Stephanie Hsu, we feel every bit of neglect each Joy gets, especially Jobu. Being pushed to the limit that gained her unlimited power, she tragically became nihilistic and felt the desire to end such personal suffering, hence creating the 'Everything Bagel' black hole. After one clash to another, it becomes a heartwarming relief to see Evelyn save her, reminding audiences that it is always up to the individual to create his/her own meaning with the given life and to be ruthless when prioritising on what's important in life. In this case, family will always be important. I would've not minded if they reconciled when they were rocks before they ever made contact with the black hole because that's how invested I was with the unexpected. In my lifetime, I would have never guessed an incredible returning performance from an adult Ke Huy Quan after being absent from the scene since the 80s when he was a child. Nevertheless, he was easily the best thing about this movie aside from the rest of the cast because with each version of Weymond we got to see, whether or not he knew how to fight with a fanny pack, we loved each and every one of him for always finding a way to be optimistic. Some may look at it as a weakness like Evelyn did, but like her, we remember how that is a greater weapon unlike anything else. Seeing how every Weymond prefers this in whatever the situation shows how strong of a will he always had within, and that alone is enough understand why Evelyn loved him in the first place. If you were to ask me what choked me up the most, it had to be in the Martial Arts Universe, where the superstar Evelyn has a heart to heart with the businessman Weymond. Hearing him say he wouldn't mind the future he originally had in mind with her got to me, as it noted how universal his love was for her, not caring what obstacles came his way, as long as he got to be with her. That was the moment where Quan would earn his domination over awards season. If only loving someone was that easy for us all. I think anyone can be satisfied when we get an appearance from the legendary James Hong. This would make it a big surprise when seeing how much of a bigger role as Gong Gong in comparison to the past hundred roles prior. It gets easy to hate this character as he chooses not to be open minded like he should be. Had he been so in every universe, the fiasco that ensued would not have occurred. Once Evelyn finally stands up to him and accepts how his family is different, it's a sweet embrace to see because even that expresses that it's never too late to make a change. That moment is great in general for reminding audiences to not ever be ashamed of being yourself. Last but not least, I was very surprised with the presence of Jamie Lee Curits who definitely was a treat as well as the various versions of Deirdre we got to see, earning herself the Best Supporting Actress Oscar. In the Tax Universe, she is pretty firm and not too lenient in her work, while some act more wicked and surprisingly, this attitude comes from how she hasn't been able to have her own set of happiness. Lucky for her, Evelyn is able to show her just that and that satisfaction gives her family another chance to save their home. This movie will always have a great place in my heart, but even with all the love I got for it, this one had its fair share of confusing moments. For instance, I respect Evelyn for doing her job by throwing the shoe out of the washer, but why not ask who they belong to first? It could've not belonged to the guy close to her. There definitely is creativity of how Alpha Weymond contacts Evelyn, most by posssessing his Tax self, but how do the mirrors work to communicate? Like why wasn't there more burner universes to buy time? Jobu would've taken longer to stop Alpha Weymond and Evelyn would've had more time to consume the stakes at hand. It's already bad enough that it took her so long to find the Alphaverse when she originates from there. If you want to keep exploring into the unknown, please keep explaining. It's pretty awesome when Alpha Weymond kicks some ass with the Fanny pack, but the security are really stupid at giving him a chance. That is literally the same mistake the verse jumpers later make and it's ridiculous. I embrace the weirdness when people gotta do the unordinary to gain abilities, but is licking an elbow a possibility? Since the alpha jumpers narrow down what to do, it's pretty spotting that as an improbable action when it's impossible. If it's licking someone else's, please verify that. It even gets cooler when Alpha Gong Gong gets involved, but how'd he upgrade his wheelchair? Did he really have enough equipment in the IRS kitchen? If Alpha Gong Gong entered a universe where he got the brains to make tools out of random items, it would've been a cool cutaway to see. I thought it was hilarious seeing Racacoonie, but how the hell does it hide in the hat? It doesn't look that big of a hat, so a lot of people should've noticed the tail like immediately. That's about as smart as cooking in the kitchen without the hat at all, meaning that ain't smart. And where is the Everything Bagel supposed to be stored before the climax? If Jobu literally made a personal dimension for it, that should be clarified as well. And is Deirdre allowed to pull up with police when someone misses an IRS meeting? I know the tension is needed for everyone to make amends by the end, but this attempt to punish the Wangs feels like a bit of a stretch since it's not like IRS agents have control to take action overnight. I like that Deirdre lets Evelyn but since the latter acted out by damaging her own laundromat, it's impossible to think the cops would listen to her with ease. That's crazier than people sticking around for the party after that fallout. Ignore these issues, and you'll still be in love with entertaining chaos. In conclusion, Everything Everywhere All at Once is one of the best movies ever made for knowing how to open everyone's mind and take them to their most imaginative state, becoming the most deserving Best Picture winner in a long time. If you want something that is more than epic, see this now.
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