Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022)

Directed by: Dan Kwan, Daniel Scheinert | 140 minutes | action, adventure, science fiction | Actors: Michelle Yeoh, Stephanie Hsu, Ke Huy Quan, James Hong, Jamie Lee Curtis, Jamie Lee Curtis, Jenny Slate, Harry Shum Jr., Biff Wiff, Sunita Mani, Aaron Lazar, Brian Le, Andy Le, Narayana Cabral, Chelsey Goldsmith, Craig Henningsen, Anthony Molinari, Dan Brown

Have you ever thought about what your life would be like if you had made different choices? Would you have been happier, more successful or more influential? And would there be something from your real life that you would miss if you didn’t have it? These are questions that Evelyn Wang (Michelle Yeoh), the main character in the crazy and packed but brilliant science fiction action comedy ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’ (2021). What if she had listened to her father back then and hadn’t been with the good-natured Waymond (Ke Huy Quan, Short Round from ‘Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom’ (1984), who is making his amazing comeback as an actor after twenty years) married, hadn’t moved to the United States from China, and hadn’t had to sort out her tax papers in a dilapidated laundry. When we meet Evelyn she is close to despair. Her laundromat is dying and she is dreading her tax return – especially talking to the dowdy ‘tax inspector from hell’ (an almost unrecognizable Jamie Lee Curtis) who has to review her tax return. Meanwhile, her elderly father Gong Gong (the now 93-year-old James Hong) insists that he wants noodles and the customers whine where their laundry has gone. Waymond urgently needs to speak to her about something important (the viewer sees that he has divorce papers with him) and daughter Joy (Stephanie Hsu) tries to get her mother to finally accept her friend Becky (Tallie Medel).

So much for the set-up of ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’. Because only when Evelyn is approached by an alternative version of her husband in the elevator of the tax office, the party really starts. This ‘Alpha Waymond’ tells her that there are countless other versions of Evelyn in countless universes; with every choice you make, a new universe is created. The people of the Alpha Universe, which was once led by Alpha Evelyn, developed a technology that allows you to ‘hop’ between the various alternative realities (‘verse jumping’) and thus temporarily dispose of the talents of that version of yourself . And Evelyn desperately needs those talents, because the multiverse is threatened by one Jobu Topaki, who has hopped between the universes so much and so often that her mind has shattered, allowing her to experience and experience all the alternate realities all at once. She’s set her sights on destroying the multiverse and Evelyn is the only one who can stop her.

It would be a shame to reveal more about the paths this film takes. It is better to let yourself be surprised by the chaotic, wonderful, hysterical and often hilarious craziness that director duo ‘Daniels’ – Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert – treats the viewer to. They already showed their unique creativity and fascination for the absurd in ‘Swiss Army Man’ (2016), in which Paul Dano befriends a corpse (!) played by Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter). That they play with multiple angles and outcomes can be seen in the short film ‘Possibilia’ (2014), an interactive love story that takes place in the multiverse and is shown in no fewer than sixteen different perspectives. Expect the unexpected with these men! The same goes for ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’, a film that cannot be pigeonholed. All genres have been thrown into a particle accelerator, resulting in a wonderful mix that works against all odds. Michelle Yeoh is the calm point in the chaos, even if she is constantly in the middle of it. In her alternative universes, we see her as a kung-fu heroine of the silver screen, as a genius chef, as an opera singer in Beijing and there is even an Evelyn who tries to play the piano with sausages instead of fingers.

But in the midst of all that craziness, she remains the same woman who struggles with the relationships in her life; with her husband, her daughter and her father. That woman who is the sum of all those missed opportunities, who settles for significantly less than she’s worth and who takes so little pleasure in the people she loves. Beneath that layer of multiverse jumping, kung fu and an exuberantly attired Jobu Topaki, ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’ also has a melancholy side, which is perhaps most expressed in the Wong Kar-Wai modeled alternate reality in which Evelyn refuses Waymond’s proposal and becomes a big movie star, but secretly longs for an alternate version of Waymond. And so there are more references to other films, including ‘The Matrix’ (1999) and ‘Ratatouille’ (2007). And how cool is it to see Jamie Lee Curtis as a universe-hopping shrew who takes on the fight like a professional wrestler (luckily turns out she also has a sweeter side).

But it is mainly Yeoh who steals the show, with Quan and Hsu in her wake. Seemingly effortless, she switches from mushy laundromat owner who has no idea what’s going on, to top-notch kung fu boss in masterfully choreographed battle scenes and the entire spectrum in between. The common thread is always the search for love, not only for the people around her, but especially for herself. The actress gets to play all the roles she’s ever played, first one at a time, and then all at once. What a party that must have been for Yeoh. For Hsu, who offers strong counterplay, it must have felt that way too: she can parade around in lavish outfits that would kill Björk. And then Quan as the wimpy Waymond, he too gets to jump back and forth between the different universes and therefore always play the role of different versions of his characters. But at the core, he’s still that sweet-natured benefactor who puts wiggly eyes on everything to make it a happier place.

What’s most special about Everything Everywhere All at Once is that from the hysterical yet hilarious rollercoaster ride that is their film, the Daniels manage to distill heartfelt emotions and some universal truths that form a completely natural and comforting conclusion. As big as the whole concept of the multiverse is, and as much as the film goes in all directions with its bagels, butt plugs and raccoons, the makers manage to bring it back to that one woman in her laundromat who has to fill out her tax return. Back to the emotional core of the matter. Let that be the reason that this crazy film hits us right in the heart. Already the film highlight of 2022!