Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022)

By: Mike Ward on Saturday, December 24

R Running Time: 139 mins

SHOULD I SEE IT?

YES

  • If nothing else, you have to experience a film that people have already declared an instant classic and a movie that people will be talking about for years and years to come.

  • Find a better on-screen duo in 2022 than Michelle Yeoh and Ke Huy Quan. They are magic together, even in the frenzied worlds created by writer/directors Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert.

  • You’ve never seen anything like this - yet, even with its science-fiction, action-movie desires, this is a film about the power of connection, love, and loss, and the fear and vulnerability all of that brings with it.

NO

  • After three viewings, the reality is that Everything Everywhere All At Once just leaves some viewers behind. When the argument is made that this is “too much” for some people, I can’t argue against that.

  • I’m not sure it fully adheres to the rules it establishes all the way through, but its most rabid supporters and fans don’t seem to care about that. Maybe you won’t either.

  • The absurdity does not always make sense (it’s not really supposed to) and the exposition and dialogue is dense and must be followed. This may prove frustrating, confusing, and some may simply give up trying to follow everything happening.


OUR REVIEW

As I compose my thoughts, I have now watched Everything Everywhere All At Once three times. That’s not a flex. That’s both a testament to everything it explores and a small criticism of the film. Three views in and I mostly get it. I mostly understand the leaps and diversions it makes. I can more easily accept that things happen in this movie, simply because, as opposed to rationalizing the storytelling with any logical, linear approach.

I can fall into its embrace. I can feel comfortable in these moments.

That was not always the case. At the dismissal of some of my peers, I didn’t initially find Everything Everywhere… to be this groundbreaking, remarkable work of art that is the greatest movie since whenever. I loved much of it, but also found elements of it to be obtuse, a barrier hard to overcome.

The principal elements of the story are effective, especially the arc between Michelle Yeoh’s stern, traditional mother Evelyn Wang and her defiant, non-traditional daughter Joy (Stephanie Hsu). You have to be dead inside to not find Ke Huy Quan’s performance as Evelyn’s husband, Waymond, moving and endearing. 

But this is also a movie with characters who have fingers made of hot dogs. And a movie where people fear being sucked into the vortex of an enormous black-hued “everything bagel.” And a movie which makes the simple idea that we all exist within a multiverse of dimensions and timelines rather convoluted at times. Three viewings in, I still am not sure the movie follows the very rules it painstakingly sets out for itself.

And yet, I haven’t thought about a movie more than this one in 2022. 

Written and directed by “Daniels” - Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, whose last film was the polarizing and divisive Swiss Army Man - the breakneck pacing can leave some people behind. At its core, this is a character study through and through. One focused on the ease with which we can forget the impact of our words and actions on others. The misconceived perception that people can be replaced, that there is always something better. In reality, the moments we live in are the ones which matter most. And through all the machinations, jump-arounds, overlapping scenes, and run-around we endure watching Everything Everywhere…, there is a tenderness and emotional heart beating loud and proud that simply cannot be ignored.

Kwan and Scheinert carry a staggering vision, an expansive ambition that anything can be designed and created and exist on screen. Yeoh finally earns the right to carry a movie squarely on her back and trusts these Daniels implicitly. For a film which cost $25 million to make, you get more movie-per-dollar than anything else put on screen in 2022. 

The innovative visual effects work makes this movie feel limitless, properly existing in a world without boundaries. And that, I think, is where the appeal largely lies. Kwan and Scheinert make everything seem possible. 

The chemistry of Yeoh and Quan is also undeniable and elevates the basic premise of the story tremendously. Quan is simply a gem, returning to the big screen for the first time in 20 years, playing Waymond as a kind husband, considering divorce because he simply feels lost and feels he has no meaning to Evelyn. The family-run laundromat is in financial strain, with receipts piling high, customers increasingly impatient, and a massive tax debt threatening to shut the business down. On top of that: it is Chinese New Year, plans for a karaoke party are not finalized, Evelyn’s judgmental father Gong Gong (James Hong) is set to visit, and Joy’s girlfriend Becky (Tallie Medel) is still not accepted by Evelyn.

The film rushes through those details intentionally, dropping us into the daily frenetic world that has grown to exhaust Evelyn, Waymond, and Joy. Tensions are high, we feel lost. And then we are off to the IRS office, where Dierdre (Jamie Lee Curtis) grills the family on their poor bookkeeping habits. That is where we first meet Alpha-Waymond, a confident Waymond from another universe, who gives Evelyn specific directions on how to not only get out of the situation she finds herself in, but also how every decision we make creates a new timeline, adding a layer to the multiverse. 

The tricky aspects come with the Daniels having us learn all of this along with Evelyn. I do think, after multiple viewings, some transitions, at times, feel clunky and hard to follow. And so, I double down on the performances, the commitment Yeoh, Quan, and others give to the material, and just let it take me on a ride.

To appreciate Everything Everywhere All At Once is to be comfortable with not having all the answers. A fact that pays off in a tearful, emotional exchange at the end of the film as Evelyn and Joy try to reconcile years of pain and unspoken truth. We cannot change our past. We cannot cancel our mistakes or choices that have led to situations both good, bad, or in between. We can, however, use those moments to empower ourselves to move forward in the best way we know how. I think that is the through-line that makes this the rare film that gives you something new each time you watch it. 

And Yeoh sparkles throughout, as Evelyn carries such pride and protective resolve through all her scenes, until vulnerability and realities catch up to her across the many alternative universes she finds herself in. 

Though it asks a lot, Everything Everywhere All At Once endures as one of 2022’s most unforgettable cinematic journeys because it lives in the messiness of everyone’s lives. Along the way, even if we don’t have villainous alter-egos, celebrity personas in an alternate universe, or simply have no purpose other than existing as a rock in another timeline for an indiscriminate period of time, we all need meaningful connection. We all need love. We all need one another. And the Daniels find a way to get us to understanding those universal truths in the most inventive and unconventional of ways.  

CAST & CREW

Starring: Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan, Stephanie Hsu, Jamie Lee Curtis, James Hong, Tallie Medel, Jenny Slate, Harry Shum Jr.

Director: Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert
Written by: Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert
Release Date: March 25, 2022
A24