Nerea Zambrano

Everything Everywhere All at Once arrives on UK screens with lots of critical and public acclaim on its back. And the burden of an expectation to meet in turn.

An emotional scene of two rocks with googly eyes. Oscar-buzz. And a stellar performance by Hollywood veteran Michelle Yeoh at the forefront. I arrived at the cinema not knowing what to expect because, as I later learned, it’s hard to spoil this film.

Brilliantly layered as its title suggests, it’s ultimately a film with a simple concept in its heart: a multigenerational Chinese-American family struggling to connect and understand each other.

The story follows Evelyn (Michelle Yeoh) in the chaos of her everyday life as a small laundromat business owner. Her husband, Waymond (Ke Huy Quang) has filed for divorce. And she is in the midst of filing her taxes, struggling to reconcile with her daughter Joy and her father’s expectations.

The stakes rise from the mundane to the multiversal once her husband is taken over by his alternate ‘Alpha’ universe self.

In the film’s world logic, every crucial decisive point in one’s life opens up an alternate reality where you would have lived through that alternate decision.

Alpha Waymond believes Evelyn to be the only one who can fight against an inter-dimensional villain threatening the entire multiverse. In a hilarious subversion of ‘the chosen one’ trope, this is because her many failed hobbies have opened up the path to many more experienced ‘Evelyns’ she can connect with to gain their skills.

In the words of her sidekick, “[she’s] capable of anything because [she’s] so bad at everything.” Genius.

Entering the multiverse

As a sci-fi film, the worldbuilding of the first half inevitably overloads the audience with information. And the quick pace makes the experience quite overwhelming. It’s definitely the point, as Evelyn’s experience of suddenly being thrown into this multiversal chaos directly translates to the audience. However, it also makes the emotional beats of the story less momentous.

It feels sort of like when you’re scrolling on TikTok and find a heart-wrenching video that makes you want to cry your eyes out. And then the next one is someone having floppy sausages for hands, and now you’re not sad but confused. (I’m not making that one up – that is the so-called ‘hot dog hands universe’ in the film).

I get it. Absurdity is the point when the absurd scale of the multiverse means anything is possible. So it might just be my dislike for millennial slapstick humour.

Still, I didn’t feel the ridiculousness was as pointless with the so-called ‘everything bagel’ and the googly-eyed rocks. In fact, those two are as stupidly funny as they are profound. Their opposing black and white composition represents the protagonists’ alternate points of view. Yin and yang. Light and darkness. The hot dog hands storyline is just weird for the sake of being weird. After all, as Michelle Yeoh revealed to Empire, the main actress’ gut reaction was to ask the directors to write it out of the film. So, I’m not the only one thinking this.

Moving on.

Nothing matters (yay?)

Exploring ideas of nihilism, all too common in this day and age, the writers delve into the philosophy of absurdism. A sort of optimistic nihilism, by the end of the film Evelyn accepts that “nothing matters” in a cheerful rather than depressing tone. For the ‘everything-happens-for-a-reason’ people like me, this might have been a bit of an unsettling conclusion.

Now, this may be why by the end of the film I felt nothing. As in, I loved it. But the directors may have been a little too good at conveying the protagonist’s feelings to the audience.

Or I was probably just trying to process everything I had just seen. Because, shocker, a lot happens in Everything Everywhere All at Once.

An otherworldly beauty

The visuals in this film are out of this world and play a massive role in keeping the audience interested. Amidst the gripping and unique cinematography of the multiverse jumping scenes, there’s a beautiful tribute to director Wong Kar-wai, who often deals with themes of time.

Kar-wai’s step-printing effect features in the universe where Evelyn and Waymond would have gone their separate ways, actually becoming rich and successful. It’s a technique that instantly transmits nostalgia and heartbreak, very in tone with the narrative of longing and ‘what-could-have-been.’

“In another life, I would have really liked just doing laundry and taxes with you.” See? Heartbreaking.

Waymond, a lovable meek character, eventually turns out to have a pivotal role in the conclusion of the film. Here, in his alternate successful self, the writers show the heart of their work and set in motion Evelyn’s eventual reconnection with her family.

The acting is on par with the writing. The rest of the cast enhances Yeoh’s brilliance. But I would say The Goonies actor Ke Huy Quang and rising star Stephanie Hsu are the real revelations of this film.

Hsu does a great job playing the witty and villainous Jobu Tupaki. The character’s introduction to the film is, once again, genius. Effortlessly cool and flamboyantly stylish, the costume designers and stylists truly make a fashion icon out of this interdimensional villain.

The fight scenes with Hsu and Yeoh are a true highlight. Yeoh has not been a stranger to doing her own stunts since her martial art days in films like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Here, she leads the kung fu action sequences where anything is possible so that by the end, in Evelyn and Jobu’s interdimensional fight, everything comes full circle and heads exploding into confetti and blood turning to ketchup is very logical.

The rundown

In short, Everything Everywhere All at Once is one-of-a-kind and a must-see. Sure, it can be a bit too edgy for its own good at times. But in an industry full of sequels and book adaptations, it’s good to know fresh new ideas are still being championed.

It won’t be surprising if this film sweeps the awards season next year. And I look forward to the directing duo’s future work. People are already calling this one a masterpiece so no pressure following that up!

Featured image courtesy of Ian Valerio on Unsplash. No changes were made to this image. Image license can be found here.

Currently a second-year journalism student at the University of Leeds, interested in storytelling and documentaries. Some of my hobbies include photography, obsessing over the latest Netflix series and of course, writing!✨

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