By: Andrew Wing

Everything Everywhere All at Once is a 2022 American science-fiction action film written and directed by Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (collectively known as “Daniels”). It stars Michelle Yeoh (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Crazy Rich Asians), Stephanie Hsu (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel), Ke Huy Quan (Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, The Goonies), Jenny Slate (Saturday Night Live, Parks and Recreation), Harry Shum Jr. (Glee, All My Life), with James Hong (Chinatown, Big Trouble in Little China) and Jamie Lee Curtis (Halloween franchise, True Lies, Knives Out).

The plot follows a Chinese-American woman (Yeoh) being audited by the Internal Revenue Service who discovers that she must connect with parallel universe versions of herself to prevent a powerful being from causing the destruction of them all.

Everything Everywhere All at Once premiered at South by Southwest on March 11, 2022. It began a limited theatrical release in the United States on March 25, 2022, before a wide release on April 8, by A24.

THE GOOD

Where do I start? Ever since this movie premiered at SXSW in early March, the buzz has been completely insane. As a massive fan of everything A24 has ever put out, I remember going through their scheduled films to be released in 2022 and seeing this film and being like WTF is this movie with way too long of a title? However, after doing some research and seeing that it was to be directed by Daniels, the directing duo that gave us Swiss Army Man (now streaming on Showtime), which is the most unique film I’ve ever seen, and also seeing the involvement of the famous Russo brothers as producers, I knew this movie would be special. And so many people would agree. Since releasing in March, the reviews and ratings for this film have been as good as any film since Parasite back in 2019, which just so happens to be what I think is the best movie ever, so you shouldn’t be surprised when I say that I was not going to miss this once I got the opportunity to see it. Well, I did, but was it so good that it can already be heralded as one of the best movies of the past decade? Keep reading to find out!

I won’t waste any more time, I absolutely freaking loved this movie. It was as good as advertised, if not better. This movie has been a sensation and it’s easily one of the coolest original films that have come out in the past decade, and we as a society of film lovers, need more movies like this. I know it’s early, but I truly think this will be my favorite movie by the end of the year and I agree with the statement I’ve heard that it’s already one of the best of the decade. I mean this movie just hit it out of the park on all levels. But for you, someone who maybe hasn’t seen it yet and is reading this review to determine if you will or not, let’s break down every part of this film and find out why it’s so damn good.

We might as well start with those that created this work of art. As I said in the intro, this film comes to us from Daniels. It took one film, Swiss Army Man, for me to fall in love with them. It’s an overlooked movie, but it’s amazing and fantastic, and definitely one of my favorite movies of the past few years that I’ve watched. But this new film of theirs is just on another level. With Everything Everywhere All at Once, they give us everything they have to offer cinema and it was a fucking treat. The amount of energy and density packed into every second of this movie is insane and that’s why I loved it so much. It’s so impressive how they even pulled off what this movie is because on many levels the multiverse concept that tackles five different genres shouldn’t also be able to make you cry and be heartfelt. Like none of that should really work here but somehow they made it work and for that alone, I would love to see them get a Best Director nomination at next year’s Academy Awards.

Their directing was perfect, but what was more perfect was their script. As I mentioned, the plot follows a woman going through these alternate universes to try and ultimately save the world. More than that though, and I know this film’s genre is said to be a science-fiction action film, but it’s really a swirl of genre anarchy as you can also throw in comedy, black comedy, drama, and maybe even some thriller and some romance in there too. This film really has everything, pun intended, and this script deserves to be put in a museum somewhere because it’s straight gold. As I said, it fires on all cylinders but the comedy was the best in my opinion. It made me laugh out loud as the physical comedy is absolutely hilarious. There are a lot of really great gags, and there’s one revolving around the famous Disney Pixar film Ratatouille that nearly made me piss myself. Also, as an action film, it was phenomenal. It’s one of the most exciting that I’ve seen as the middle of the film is nonstop action full of endless possibilities. The action and the comedy just went together seamlessly and it was all extremely awesome.

Continuing with the writing, as fun as it gets, the writing allows us to get enveloped in the world on an intellectual level. They are able to take us through this odd and complex world and make us understand it. Despite all of the craziness, I loved how they kept the core of the story the core of the story, and that’s the mother and daughter relationship who are just these mediocre ordinary people living in a laundromat trying to get by. For all the movie's genre-bending rides it takes us on, they ultimately come back to that story and the familial connection was beautiful, and that’s all a testament to Daniels' superb writing. All in all, I have a hard time seeing a script to come out this year that’ll be better than this, and with that said, go ahead and give them the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay right now.

Now it’s time to touch on some of these performances. First with the star of the show, Michelle Yeoh. Yeoh is no newcomer to the film industry and she has been acting for almost forty years and has starred in some pretty big movies, but after seeing her in this, I really think this is what she’ll be remembered for when she calls it quits. She was responsible for the majority of the emotional moments in the film thanks to the connection she has with both her daughter as they share the generational drama and also with her husband. More than that though, with the film being 139 minutes long, I’m not joking when I say she is on screen for almost all of it. I was just in awe of her performance as she really showcased her wide range of skills with the film touching on so many different genres. She is always digging into this character and bringing it out to us as she is constantly delivering in every moment. She can kick ass thanks to her martial arts training, she can make you laugh, and as I’ve hinted at, she can certainly make you cry, and her performance was so crucial to the movie working as a whole in the first place. With all of that said, I would be ecstatic to see her get nominated for Best Actress, and if she won I would absolutely love it because she’s been at this for a while now, and she deserves it!

Next with what might’ve been the best performance of the whole film, and that belongs to Ke Huy Quan. I was shocked to learn that he was the same actor who starred in two huge movies back in the 1980s, as Short Round in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, and Data in The Goonies. Despite me finding out before the movie though, I still would like to think I would’ve recognized him as his voice has not changed one bit since the 80s. For real though, Quan stole the show. His character is really endearing towards the end as he gives us arguably the most emotional part of the film. Throughout the film too, he switches back and forth between being the protagonist’s husband Waymond, and also the Waymond from another universe, and that was super amusing and that showed how talented of an actor he is.

Another huge standout like Quan was Stephanie Hsu as she played the daughter. You connect a lot with her character especially towards the end as she has some of the most touching moments in the film. But aside from that, her character is really fun and some of her line deliveries were hilarious. I could totally see her getting a Best Supporting Actress nomination, but after seeing what she does in this movie, I can really see her being a star sometime in the very near future.

To be honest, I really liked all of the performances and I bet they’ll win an award for an ensemble, but I wouldn’t forgive myself if I didn’t touch on the performance we get from Jamie Lee Curtis. Curtis plays the IRS inspector agent Deirdre Beaubeirdra, and I was really happy with the role she was given here. She played this curmudgeon character perfectly and she had me laughing in all of her scenes.

Now onto the tech side of things, let’s talk about the film’s unbelievable editing. The editing of a film is definitely one of those things that you can usually go through an entire film and not even think about it, but as a person who watches a ton of movies, I’ve paid more and more attention to a film’s editing and Everything Everywhere All at Once’s is maybe the best I’ve ever seen. Back to the action scenes, the combat was very stylized and the coverage of all these scenes was great as we got to see some of the choreography play out over a longer take. As fast as this film goes, the editing never felt like it had rapid cutting that is often quite annoying, but they just gave it this frenetic and urgent pacing that was top notch. Every cut felt very deliberate and necessary and I never felt like I got cheated out of moments. The editing allowed us to see exactly what’s happening, and it shined through to me personally by being able to see it in a theater. As I said, it was some of the best editing I’ve ever seen, and because of that, it should win Best Editing too at next year’s Academy Awards.

Continuing with the technical side of things, let’s talk about the overall sound of the film. The degree of sound this film uses is something we don’t too often see and it’s very similar to the way Dune (see my full review here) used sound to make sure that we were going through every single moment with the characters. Really though, every five seconds is its own journey in this movie and it added so much to the viewing experience. You can lock in a Best Sound nomination too if you’re keeping track reading this. Not just the sound, but the score too was astounding. It was done by Son Lux, and it included collaborations with musicians Mitski, David Byrne, and André 3000, and I bet you are about to be shocked, but I see them getting an Oscar nomination as well. In conclusion, the sound and the score worked together to take you through that journey and the film would be so different if they didn’t make the musical choices they did.

Before I close and start making this into a dissertation, I just wanted to touch on some other small things I appreciated about the film. The costumes and production design were amazing. Some of the outfits are Cruella-level weird, and to show you why that might be helpful to all of the nominations this film will get, Cruella (see Ted’s full review here) won for Best Costume Design at last month’s 94th Academy Awards. The production design though was so cool. This thing takes place in a corporate office building and because of the production design and how they shaped the lighting in all of these scenes, we feel like we go on this whole journey despite being in the same location for most of the film. Also, and you should have been expecting this if you’ve ever read a review of mine, but Larkin Seiple’s cinematography was sick. Lastly, I liked how it touched on both existentialism and nihilism. With nihilism though, which is really the belief that nothing matters in the world, I loved how the film tries to offer an antidote to that sort of existential dread. There’s no denying that at some point in our lives we’ve maybe taken on a nihilistic mentality and this movie was a comforting reminder that we can still find love and joy in life despite the perceived smallness of our own existence.

THE BAD

You guessed it, I don’t have much bad to say about this film as it will be receiving the best score I’ve given a film in a few years. Honestly, though, I really loved everything about this movie and I think most people will feel the same way. Two things I will say though are that it is long with a 139-minute runtime, but it definitely flies by, and second, it can feel overwhelming because there’s so much to take in at first, but once you begin to understand what’s going on your mind will be at ease. Needless to say, I will definitely still be giving it a rewatch to one, pick up on some things I missed, and two, more importantly, to just bask in its undeniable glory.

THE VERDICT

Without question, Everything Everywhere All at Once is one of 2022’s must-see films as it is a cinematic masterpiece of epic proportions. You can already lock in the fact that this will be regarded as a classic film as the performances are amazing, it’s technically impressive, and thanks to Daniels, the film effortlessly blends both a heartfelt tone and an otherworldly imagination.

I think it will dominate at the 95th Academy Awards, but even if it doesn’t, it will still be one of the most fun movies I’ve ever seen. I was blown away by Daniels as they reached into their imaginative tool kit and gave us unapologetically the wildest film ever. Despite all the craziness, thanks to their phenomenal script, the story makes sense as we get this great family story that will make you feel so many different emotions. It’s just a blast from start to finish and you need to see it in theaters while you can.