It’s everything I hoped it would be (and more)!
I knew before coming into the cinema that the Michelle Yeoh-starrer is widely acclaimed by fans and critics, and became A24’s highest grossing movie worldwide, which is why I expected it to be good. A low-budget movie that managed to knock down Hereditary from its top spot and got everyone so excited for its release must be, at the very least, an entertaining watch.
Weeks prior to TBA Studio’s announcement that it will be distributing the movie in the Philippines, many of my friends have been eager to see it, trying to discover which streaming platform has it. For me this is indicative of the movie’s impact so far. When most most people I know can’t hardly wait for blockbuster movies (usually Marvel flicks), it’s a good thing when they are excited to see a movie like this.
Anyway, I digress.
Everything Everywhere All At Once is a rare cinematic gem. It’s unlike most of the films we’ve seen in quite a while: it’s weird, silly, trippy, absurd, profound, not really hilarious but funny, dark, touching, emotionally provocative, action-packed. Just like its title, it’s possibly everything you can feel all at the same time.
And yet it works. In fact, it works so well you won’t mind how, at certain points in the beginning, the movie was discombobulating. Yes, as confusing and disconcerting as the word “discombobulating”. But as each minute goes by, you’ll start to realize that despite the universe jumps and character switches, everything seems to make sense.
I have to admit I was as confused as Evelyn Wang (Michelle Yeoh) was when she first started talking to Waymond’s (Ke Huy Quan) alternate version inside the IRS office during the first few minutes. But then, things got easier.
Everything Everywhere All At Once is a product of superb writing. Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert are geniuses. The theme isn’t unique nor were the plotlines, but they were able to weave together something so original so well they created a universe of their own where wacky doesn’t have to be absurd and nihilism becomes a topic worth discussing.
At its heart are the characters that are well-fleshed out. But, more importantly, very relatable. We have a Chinese family that’s about to disintegrate because of unspoken feelings, parental pressure, romantic apathy, economic woes, and depression–realities that everyone in the audience can empathize with.
I’m not even going to talk about how each actor portrayed the hell out of each characters because it can easily be summed into: A-list performances. Besides, that would take much more space. What I want to focus on is, again, how impeccable the script is because it managed to squeeze together that many themes without losing itself along the way.
It’s so easy to lose the audience when a movie talks tries to tackle so many things all at once, yet this one never lost its grip on us. Even as Evelyn and Waymond jumps from one consciousness to another, and we are taken from one universe to another, we still know where we are in the story; we didn’t lose touch of what Evelyn is fighting for, or why Joy (Stephanie Hsu) feels the way she does, or what we want to happen for these characters.
The movie’s messages are further reinforced by impressive editing. There were many good choices in transitions (at one point it reminded me of Split). I like how the consistency in editing allowed us to distinguish where we are in between these worlds.
And while there are so many things going on in these separate universes, in its core is that one universal theme that brings everything together: a mother’s love. Now we’ve seen tons of other movies that tackle this, but none as effective and creatively as Everything Everywhere All At Once.
Several weeks ago, I claimed Top Gun: Maverick was the best movie of 2022 so far; Everything Everywhere All At Once is now that movie for me.
