Review: Everything Everywhere All at Once
A praising of the new Michelle Yeoh multiverse movie.
The beauty of cinema is that it can transport the viewer into a different place that might be different from their own walk of life. Everything Everywhere All at Once, the new action/comedy/drama hybrid by the directing duo Daniels, takes us into many places once its central protagonist is transported across a multiverse.
As Evelyn Wang (Michelle Yeoh) and her family are going through an IRS audit to save her laundromat, she finds herself taken to various parallel universes with alternate versions of herself ranging from a world full of people with hot dogs for fingers to a reality where she’s a successful movie star. Entering universes like the latter forces Evelyn to come to terms with her unfulfilled potential as she literally fights and punches her way through each reality.
No matter how satisfied we may be with our lives, there are times where we yearn for something more or wonder what could’ve been if we didn’t turn down that big job or if we did spend our romantic lives with the one that got away. Sometimes, we get so wrapped up in the past, imagining another world where our aspirations are fully realized, that we forget what we have right in front of us including those who’re there for us through thick and thin. For Evelyn, those people are her husband Waymond (Ke Huy Quan) and her daughter Joy (Stephanie Hsu). Both of whom still have slight friction with Evelyn due to Waymond wanting a divorce and Joy trying to get her mother to fully accept her queerness.
Michelle Yeoh as Evelyn Wang in “Everything Everywhere All at Once” (A24 Films)
To save the multiverse, Evelyn must not only make peace with herself but repair her fraught relationships with her loved ones. It becomes quite a frenetic, emotion-filled journey for Evelyn successfully navigated by lead actress Michelle Yeoh. Besides nailing her stunt work during the action sequences, Yeoh plays a perfect comical straight man reacting to all the chaos around her while expressing a whirlwind of hefty feeling. By blending her action star gifts, her adept comedic timing, and skills as a dramatic performer, Michelle Yeoh pulls off what is arguably the best performance of her storied screen career.
Praise should also go to Ke Huy Quan for being the heart of the movie as Waymond. His optimism and practicality make him a perfect paragon of the movie’s eventual underlying message. Additionally, Stephanie Hsu is another scene-stealer as the disgruntled Joy. As Hsu seamlessly holds her own against a screen icon like Michelle Yeoh, it only makes me want to see more film roles come her way. Plus, Jamie Lee Curtis gives an amusingly live-wire performance as Evelyn’s high-strung IRS auditor Deirdre.
The technical prowess shown by the craftsmanship members who make each parallel dimension feel distinct from each other is another positive. The costume design by Shirley Kurata, the production design by Jason Kisvarday, the small visual effects team, and even the cinematography by DP Larkin Seiple that makes the “Movie Star Evelyn” world appear as a Wong Kar-Wai homage. Everything is pulled off with sharp and strikingly vivid detail.
Every technical element is pulled off wonderfully in Everything Everywhere All at Once, a movie that indeed has everything: Humor, drama, action, great performances. Anything that you could possibly want from a great motion picture. Everything Everywhere All at Once is the kind of emotional and immersive roller coaster that we go to the movies for and rather than go any further, it’s best to recommend seeing it at your nearest theater if you’re comfortable making the trip. There truly is nothing like it.
Grade: A+