Movie Review: Everything Everywhere All At Once
I didn't really pay much attention to the hype of this movie until I started hearing about its nominations for awards. It was playing at my nearby theater still, but somehow I missed it that week. As luck would have it, it came back just in time for me to check it out recently. I'm still trying to figure out whether this is technically a good movie or not. The answer to if I liked it is yes.
I became aware of Michelle Yeoh as people talked about her performance in Star Trek Discovery. Because I don't like the dark direction that show went, I have to confess I haven't watched it, but I was interested in seeing her in this movie. She plays Evelyn Wang, the daughter of the laundromat owner Gong Gong, played by James Hong.
We see her life in the beginning. She's facing another audit, which means bringing in receipts and explaining to the IRS agent why things are the way they are. IRS agent Deirdre Beaubeirdre is played ability by Jamie Lee Curtis. Evelyn's husband Waymond Wang, played by Ke Huy Quan, and Gong Gong, have to meet with the IRS agent once more. This is where things get crazy.
People have talked about this being the comeback movie for Quan. You may remember him way back as Short Round in Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom. Let me tell you, he lives up to the hype in this movie. He shined brightly. On one level, he plays the person who travels through the multiverse to find the right version of Evelyn. He explains to her what's going on. On another level, he's her mild mannered husband, and their marriage isn't going so well.
Though it's not new territory for a movie, I am one of those people who is interested in the multiverse theory. The movie's premise is that Evelyn has made different decisions throughout her life. Every time she made one choice, another universe opened up. It didn't matter how small the choice was, another universe opened up. We find out that she's not really special at anything. However, her decisions not made worked out to where her alternate selves have various different abilities that will come in handy for her throughout the story.
One version of her came up with what they call verse jumping. That is to say she has figured out a way to link with other versions of herself and gain their abilities. I don't think I've ever seen this idea explored in a movie. Also interesting is the things people have to do for the ability to verse jump. It might involve her having to chug down a 2 liter bottle of soda in order for her to gain access to that version of herself from another reality.
I will tell you that there is occasionally an adult joke in here that borders on the naughty. At the start of the movie, the IRS agent gleefully explains how she got the three awards behind her and how they don't give them to just anybody. If you look closely at the awards, they resemble butt plugs. That's funny in itself. I had a chuckle out of that joke. The award will come in handy later in the movie, but I won't spoil the joke.
In fact, I don't want to spoil too much of this movie. The story happens because another version of Evelyn figured out the ability to verse jump. She was so gifted in that ability that she took on a protege that she believed could go further than her. Turns out, that protege did exceed her expectations. We find out that the version of her who first learned how to verse jump ultimately got murdered, but her protege lives on and is wreaking havoc.
I "feel" what they're saying in this movie. It is said that the world doesn't quite feel right. Things feel a little bit off. That rings true to me in our reality. I can't quite put my finger on this negative energy we live in. I'm not suggesting what I feel leads to this multiverse thing happening in our reality. However, it's interesting that they chose this as a way to tell that things weren't quite right. Our prime version of Evelyn has no clue what's going on. She has to slowly get used to the idea before she starts to learn her true potential and become the hero of this movie.
Sometimes the movie is going so quickly as it shows so many different things to highlight what's really happening, and I think some people might get confused. I was able to keep up with it, but at times I wondered, is it just too busy? Was this creative direction really the right way to convey what they were trying to tell us? I was asking myself, did they really do a good job here, and I'll debate that in my mind for a while. I did like the movie, and I followed it well enough.
One of the things that grounds this movie is family. Although it has this science fiction element to it, the heart of this movie is family. The mother and daughter have a strained relationship. The mother seems to be a disappointment in her father's eyes. Though the husband loves her dearly, he feels like their marriage may not be salvageable. How does all of this play into the story? You'll have to watch, but I think they did a good job with it.
Some of the performances in this movie were quite exceptional. Stephanie Hsu did a good job in her role as Joy Wang. You need characters you care about for a good movie, and I did care about Evelyn, Waymond and Joy. Evelyn makes the right choice as the movie comes into its final act, and I thought she performed it well. Hsu was also exceptional in the final act as Joy.
I also know that these days people talk about "woke" messages in entertainment. It's a way for them to say they don't like something, and it translates into what they call woke. Because there is an LGBT element in this movie, some people are going to say it's woke.
In this case, there is a relationship happening, and it felt very necessary for the story. There's more in the various different universes, but again, I didn't mind it at all. Like it or not, people in the LGBT community exist, so they will show up in stories.
If you like a science fiction type of movie that will make you think, this movie does it. It will have moments where it feels busy in explaining what's going on, but if you're paying attention, it's not hard to keep up.
Visually, it's stunning. It looks like they're using a version of the "Bullet Time" technique made famous in The Matrix. Sometimes it gets silly, but that's all right. It's a movie that's not necessarily taking itself too seriously but is still presenting a message worth hearing.
As I said, I like this movie and I'm glad I went to see it. I don't know where I'd rate it on a scale of 1 to 10. I'm still debating whether what I saw was a good movie or not. Then again, part of what makes a movie good to the viewer is that they liked it. I happened to like this movie, so there you have it.
