Everything Everywhere All at Once is a tornado of a movie: dizzying, filled with turns, and peppered with eye-catching elements. Yet at the core of its frenetic swirls of allusions, action sequences, and madcap mayhem, there lies a poignant parable about this ruthlessly overwhelming age. Its message may be simple, but delivered by the director duo Daniels, who brought us the farting-corpse jetski of Swiss Army Man, that message comes with scads of silliness, style, and sweetness.
Michelle Yeoh stars as Evelyn Wang, a Chinese immigrant who struggles to balance the demands of being a wife, mother, daughter, and business owner in America. Everything is on her plate, from dealing with the persnickety customers of her laundromat to fielding the pestering questions of her husband Waymond (Ke Huy Quan), to lecturing her aimless twenty-something daughter (Stephanie Hsu), to appeasing her judgemental father (James Hong). Plus, she's also planning a big party for her community while dealing with a tax audit, overseen by a glowering government agent (Jamie Lee Curtis), who dresses in various shades of urine yellow.
On top of all that, Evelyn learns that not only does the multiverse exist, but also she — right now — must be its savior from a dark conqueror, hellbent on annihilation.
Co-writers/co-directors Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert thoughtfully fold a delicate family drama into a spectacular sci-fi adventure, bursting with imagination and jaw-dropping action. A mentor from another reality crashes into Evelyn's life and shows her how to tap into the potential of the other lives she might have lived. These lessons include beating a batch of foes up by wielding a fanny pack like a nunchuck and gobbling chapstick like taffy to tap into new abilities. Trust me, within the weird world of Daniels, this totally makes sense. Thematically though, it's about making a radical but minor change to create a new pathway in your life. Like the butterfly effect, but with Looney Tunes sound effects, googly eyes galore, and a three-way fight scene that involves phallic trophies and a pixelated butthole.
Most remarkable of all, though, is how deeply moving this movie is through all its mayhem.
True to its title, Everything Everywhere All At Once throws a dazzling and dizzying barrage of imagery and ideas at its audience. In that way, it becomes a thrilling and profound commentary on our times, when we are constantly overwhelmed by information and grumblings of impending doom. The world may literally be ending, but we still need to care for our families, do the chores, and deal with the tax auditor, whose cold stare could freeze fire. The Daniels' empathetic script invites us into the shoes of Eleanor, who is righteously frustrated at being attacked by everything everywhere all at once. But as she battles back against the forces of despair, she learns frustration — no matter how hard won — won't stop it or save us.
Her consciousness leaping from one universe to another, Evelyn is pitched into the answers of her many "What Ifs?" She sees luxury, devastation, professional jealousy, and what it means "when you really put everything on a bagel." She sees who her family would have been if she'd made different choices, and ultimately she sees who they are. Amid flurries of costume changes and cheeky turns from the stellar supporting cast, Evelyn learns the radical power of joy.
Joy, in its many forms, be they splendid or silly or even stupid, is heralded here as not naivete of the horrors of the world, but as noble defiance against them. But to choose joy is not easy. So, though Evelyn's final battle changes in ideology, it is still full of bonkers stunts and absolutely outrageous sequences that will make you laugh, cheer, and cry out in joy.
Like Jackass Forever, Everything Everywhere All At Once relishes in the pleasures to be found in the puerile, yet taps into something deeper. The style of Daniels, forged in their music video-making, is not just dressing up a flowery message of love. It's crucial to the world-building, expressing the crushing onslaught of pressures, pleasures, and possibilities that hit every day, every hour, every minute, every moment. This barrage of wackiness, weirdness, and wonder invites us to understand Evelyn's exhaustion and the heart it has hardened. Then, this barrage turns more beautiful and more bizarre, begging her and us to relish the treasure amid the trash, or maybe even how the latter urges us to appreciate the former.
Most remarkable of all, though, is how deeply moving this movie is through all its mayhem. Sure, the circumstances are extraordinary, the visuals ludicrous, and the jokes gleefully dumb. But Daniels' perfectly chosen cast infuses heart into every goofy face, fight scene, and playful punchline. Quan, who many might remember from The Goonies and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, is transfixing as he transforms from a meek Waymond to one who is an action star and another who is a dashing romantic lead.
Hsu is sensational as a daughter torn apart by her deep desire to please her mom and herself. (DIY double feature suggestion: pair Everything Everywhere All At Once with Turning Red!) Curtis, who seems to revel in the freedom of a character actor role, bursts with energy and antagonism that makes her every incarnation of the auditor a wonderful jolt. Then there's Yeoh.
For decades, Yeoh has been mesmerizing in movies, including Tomorrow Never Dies, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, and Crazy Rich Asians. Here, she does it all, shouldering with aplomb the rage within a domestic drama, the grace within a martial arts epic, the glamor of a romance, and the splendid silliness of a balls-to-wall comedy. She is a force of nature, her onscreen presence so radiant and powerful that it's instantly believable that her laundromat matron would be the one person destined to save all existence. And because she plays even the preposterous from a grounded stance, the comedic calamity around her is more vibrantly funny by contrast. She's a master, but we knew that, right?
Now, I understand all my talk of the overwhelming everything of Everything Everywhere All At Once might make the movie itself seem anxiety-inducing. Remarkably, it is not. Perhaps because Daniels seem to see us, those who feel the burden of this everything everywhere all at once. And by giving us Evelyn, who feels that weight and resents it, they give us the space to chase away the shadows, battle back against the "what ifs," and then urge us to bark back at the darkness, not with yells but with riotous laughter.
The delights of this movie are not only a balm for what pains us. They are an encouragement to choose our own joy, even when it's hard or hilariously absurd. In all this, Everything Everywhere All At Once isn't just a wildly entertaining action-comedy; it's sensational cinema of visual splendor and unapologetic silliness. It's not just destined to be one of the best films of the year, but also a classic comedy, sure to be treasured for decades to come.
Following its world premiere at SXSW 2022, Everything Everywhere All At Once is now in theaters everywhere.
UPDATE: Apr. 8, 2022, 10:54 a.m. EDT This post originally ran on March 25, 2022, when Everything Everywhere All At Once debuted in limited theatrical release.
Topics Film
