Movies: Everything Everywhere All at Once
General spoiler warning for this blog post.
Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (a directing duo that goes by the name "Daniels") last directed a film I found pretentious and offensively silly, Swiss Army Man, which is more colloquially known as "that movie where Daniel Radcliffe plays a farting corpse". I REALLY didn't like Swiss Army Man, so when I heard that Daniels had another movie in production, I was skeptical.
However, Everything Everywhere All at Once (EEAAO) struck like a bolt of lightning. Both critics and audience members were praising this movie to the rafters. Too bad I broke my leg right when it came out! But I finally rented the film and am happy to report that EEAAO is as good as everyone says it is. The film is funny, yet heartbreaking, overwhelming, yet simple. It's definitely a movie that I'm going to have to see more than once because it is so jam-packed with details, I surely missed something the first time around.
Michelle Yeoh plays Evelyn Wang, a first generation Chinese-American who owns a laundromat. She has a loving, yet goofy husband, Waymond (Ke Huy Quan--returning to acting after 20 years!!), and a lesbian daughter, Joy (Stephanie Hsu) whom she alienates by, well, basically being a Chinese mom. Evelyn herself was alienated by her own severely critical father, Gong Gong (James Hong), who is visiting the Evelyn's family in America for the first time in years.
On top of family stress, Evelyn is being audited for possible tax fraud. Her papers and receipts are a total mess and she has a history of writing off her hobbies as business expenses. But as she and Waymond are headed to see Deidre (Jamie Lee Curtis), an IRS inspector, something happens. Waymond appears to completely change personalities and tells Evelyn to do a series of strange things (put her shoes on the wrong feet, imagine being in a janitor's closest) and then press the button on a headset he gives her. Even though Evelyn is confused, she follows Waymond's instructions and finds herself transported into a parallel universe.
In this universe, Waymond--who is actually Waymond from another universe--explains to Evelyn that there are an infinite number of universes. Every time we make a decision, no matter how small, an alternate universe is created. In the universe this version of Waymond is from, people have learned how to jump from universe to universe (it requires doing something strange and unexpected to create a "jumping pad"--hence, putting the shoes on the wrong feet). This version of Waymond--Alpha Waymond--has been searching for a version of Evelyn who can defeat Jobu Tupaki, a young woman whose mind was broken after universe-jumping too much and became able to see, well, everything everywhere all at once. Because of this, Jobu can no longer experience a single moment of peace and quiet. So she wants to destroy all the universes. Also, Jobu is a version of Joy, Evelyn's daughter.
At first, Evelyn is incredulous. When she begins to experience different possible versions of herself, she realizes that in each version she has a special skill: in one version, she is much like the real Michelle Yeoh--a marital arts expert and movie star. In another version, she is a hibachi chef. But in the "regular" version of her life, she has nothing but unfulfilled potential. Something that she blames Waymond for, since in most universes where she doesn't marry him, she achieves great things.
But Waymond convinces her that the "worst" version of herself is the only version that can stop Jobu Tupaki from destroying the multiverse. Because she has unfulfilled potential, she has *unlimited* potential. And with the tools from Alpha Waymond's universe, she can slip into the skin of any other version of Evelyn and use that version's skills to fight Jobu.
Hahaha, are you still following? Even though EEAAO is admittedly chaotic, I found it pretty easy to understand the basics. The film, to me at least, is less about the scientific aspects of how all of this is possible, and more about the philosophy and spiritually behind the idea of multiverses. Who among us hasn't wondered "What if I had gone to a different college? Married a different person? Had kids? Never had kids? Moved to Albuquerque? Taken up the oboe?" Our decisions in life, especially when we're young, feel endless. And as we get older, we become more aware that our choices are drying up. Our time is running out. It's enough to make some people suicidal. I'm serious. There was an author named Mark Fisher who wrote a book called The Ghosts of Myself, which delves into the concept of "hauntology"--the idea that our own poor choices and unfulfilled potential will haunt us until we die. And in Fisher's case, death came by his own hand.
This is some serious shit. Being haunted by what "could have been" is a real thing. Especially if you can clearly see mistakes you made along the way. But the Daniels take this idea and mold it into something beautiful. By the end of the movie, Evelyn comes to see things differently. Because of the love and optimism of her husband, Evelyn gathers the courage to accept her daughter just as she is. In doing so, she breaks the chain of critical parent-child relationships passed down to her from her father. She tells Gong Gong, "I no longer care whether or not you are proud of me, because I am proud of myself." And she tells Joy that even though she could be anywhere else, she will choose to be "right here with you" every time.
Everything Everywhere All at Once is a movie about choosing life, warts and all. It's about mindfulness and being present in the moment with the ones you love because, whether you like it or not, you're here. The option is to keep moving, keep loving, or die. EEAAO is deliriously optimistic, yet not at all saccharine. It's an especially timely film given that we're "living in the worst timeline" (or so it seems sometimes!).
Is it a little cliche for a movie's thesis to be "love conquers all"? Sure. But the idea that love is the most important thing in life, though cliche, is true. The fact is, love can't save us from cancer. It can't save us from a military takeover. It can't save us from heartbreak. But still, there is something about the human desire and capacity to connect that persists even in the absolute worst times. Love fuels hope, and hope fuels love. And even if--well, when--we die...if we've loved, then we've lived well.
There's a lot more I could say on that topic, but I'll hold off for now and just say--go see Everything Everywhere All at Once. It lives up to the hype, and is an important movie for these hard times.
Grade: A-
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