Weird Cinema, I live for it! If the film goes out of its way to be different or strange, I see that as a positive. Many filmmakers have banked their whole artistic careers off that concept. Anyone from John Waters to David
Cronenberg to even a Lynch likes to play in a realm that might alienate their audiences. The best films of this batch are weird and strange, but they also have something super important or relevant to say. Cronenberg uses the weird tag to discuss the darker parts of humanity while Lynch uses it to keep his audience in a perpetual dream. The Daniels use a weird and quirky energy to discuss some deep and very human concepts in their films. Very passionate film fans would have first seen their work through a film like Swiss Army Man, where you see a depressed Paul Dano hanging out with a dead body played very well by Daniel Radcliffe.
Everything Everywhere All At Once is the film that showcased their weird but deep sensibilities to the general audience. I saw this film a total of 4 times in the theatre when it came out and that fourth viewing was with my mom. My mom is someone who I thank, along with my dad, for their introduction of cinema into my life when I was very young. My mom introduced me to so many good films, and TCM was on all the time when I was growing up. She likes to watch films that challenge her in many ways. I recall her telling me a story about how she saw Easter Sunday and told me that she wasn’t the biggest fan of it because it didn’t engage her as it was very generic and didn’t play outside the boundaries of the comedy genre. I’m happy to confirm that one of my mom’s favourite movies this year is Everything Everywhere All At Once. My mom is the example of someone who doesn’t search out crazy obscure films, but she likes to think when she watches films. She’s right in between the terms of casual viewer and ultra cinephile. The thing I found shocking is that Everything Everywhere was able to bridge the gap between those two concepts. A24 is definitely known as the “niche brand” of cinema, but this film broke past that. Everyone has either seen this film or knows a dozen people who have. The Daniels utilized their style of weird but deep cinema to make a film that is unlike anything i’ve seen before and will never be replicated perfectly.
Everything Everywhere All At Once follows an aging Chinese immigrant mother who is dealing with multiple negative elements occurring in her life at the same time. This all comes to a head when she learns of the existence of a multiverse. She is soon thrown into a multiversal war where she is the chosen one to save the sacred timeline. The weird elements come into play when she starts to learn about different universes and how she has to access those said universes. Everything Everywhere All At Once takes the simple heroes tale and puts an interesting spin on it through everything from the characters to the choices for cinematography and color grading to the very sharp and witty script. The place where this film is the richest though is the subtext about us as individuals and our desire for something better when we might have all that we need at that specific moment. The film also tackles concepts of multi generalized trauma and how the things that we hold onto inadvertently effect our kids and the generations after.
The performances in this film are unbelievably good. Michelle Yeoh as the struggling mother Evelyn is one of deep complexity. You watch as this sudden realization of a multiverse causes her to become introspective of not only what she could have become but also how her stress of regret has caused a strain on her family. She starts the film believing that everyone has problems that they created themselves, but realizes by the end of the film that she played a hand in these strained relationships. You see as she processes all this information about herself as she has to deal with a threat from the multiverse. This film probably wouldn’t have been as compelling if it wasn’t for Michelle Yeoh’s performance.
Stephanie Hsu as Evelyn’s daughter Joy is also a fantastic performance. Her character starts out as someone who is not as welcoming with her mom because her mom can’t fully accept that she’s gay and her life is on a different path than Evelyn could have guessed. Her role becomes much bigger when you realize what is fully going on in the multiverse and that’s were Hsu shines the brightest. The Daniels gave her so much content to chew on and she runs with it. I was super impressed when they started to peel back the layers and they revealed how she connects to everything. Jamie Lee Curtis is also great in this film as the tax auditor who also plays a bigger role as things start to unfold. She was also given so much to work with and she gave it her all.
Now it’s time to talk about the best performance in the film and the one that is my lock for the academy awards, that performance being the one of Ke Huy Quan as Wayne, Evelyn’s husband. When I say that he’s in my top 2 characters in a film for all of 2022 (the other character will be revealed when the embargo lifts for Babylon), i’m not kidding. Wayne is the heart of the film and Quan gave this role 110% of his energy. There’s a very emotional scene during the third act of the film (if you’ve seen the film, you know exactly which one), and I won’t lie, I have at least teared up during it every time I’ve seen this film. His acting is so natural and he feels like an authentic goofy dad. The character himself is definitely multilayered as the development goes on throughout the film and by final scene, you definitely feel everything that he felt. He is the heart of the film as he’s caught in the drama, but he also brings a huge portion of the laughs as well. This is a fantastic comeback for Ke Huy Quan and he deserves that Best Supporting Actor Award!
When it comes to the weird elements of the film, it’s hard to sell the film based one one specific element. If I were to tell people about the bagel, or the raccoon, or the guys being killed by dildos that would probably make people not wanna see it or they would think it’s probably the stupidest film in existence, but everything works so well. The best way go get people to see it (in my experience) is to tell them nothing except the basic plot. All I told my mom was that it was about a woman who is stuck doing taxes and discovers the multiverse. That concept alone is enough to sell people on the idea of this film. It’s fun to watch it with people who haven’t seen it before and get their genuine reactions to some of the batshit insane content in this film.
With the fluidity of concepts in this film, it led to the Daniels getting really experimental with the way they put the film together. The directing of this film feels like it took so much brain power to achieve along with the writing. The Daniels stated that they started writing this film during the beginning of the pandemic and I believe it. This film probably took so much time to develop based on how complex the concept truly is. Despite the complexities, the film was still super easy to understand. This film is probably the most easy to understand multiverse film that i’ve ever seen. They just give it to you in an easy to understand format without sacrificing the craft of the film. It definitely takes multiple watches to fully understand the complexities of the film, but it’s in no way hard to understand.
The film also seems to be a love letter to the films that inspired the Daniels and their films as there are so many nods to other films and styles in this film. The big notable one is the clearly Wong Kar Wai inspired romantic universe that I definitely loved since Wai is one of my favourite filmmakers. They also had some fun nods to other films from classic martial arts films, to 2001: A Space Odyssey, to even Ratatouille (which is many people’s favourite element of the film). This film is a massive achievement of cinema, but it also throws love to the films that helped make it achievable.
The last thing I will touch on is the sound mixing and the score. Seeing this at a premiere in an IMAX cinema was the best way to experience it for the first time. The film is loud both in the style and the way that they mixed the sound. The intro title is where the score hit a crescendo and it sounded so impressive. It’s probably the film that has the best sound that i’ve experienced in an IMAX theatre this year. The score is also impressive as Son Lux took the job and did everything they could with it. The title track “This Is A Life” goes hard in the emotional field and should definitely be nominated for Best Original Song this year!
Everyone has heard how good Everything Everywhere All At Once is and it’s the truth. A little A24 comedy drama that came out of nowhere and took the world by storm. I got to experience it a few times in theatres and it never dropped in quality. With fantastic performances, some wild elements in the story, a strong script and phenomenal directing, Everything Everywhere All At Once is the film that everyone should seek out and watch. Everything Everywhere All At Once is one of the strongest films i’ve seen in a while and it deserves all the love for what they were able to pull off. This film is the definition of true cinema. I deeply love this film and I'm so happy that it exists.
The Rating:
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