Everything Everywhere All at Once is a miracle of a movie; a masterpiece bursting with imagination, creativity, and heart. It’s not just the best film of 2022 so far; it feels like it’s already claimed a place as one of the best films of the decade.
The movie will likely be mentioned alongside The Matrix (1999), Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), and Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) as a mind-blowing, life-changing experience for a generation of budding film geeks. While it has elements of those films — from The Matrix and Mad Max’s boundless energy to Eternal Sunshine’s mix of homemade science fiction and philosophical depth — it’s also wholly original, its own weird, funny, exciting, joyous thing. Marvel may be easing audiences into its multiverse, but Everything Everywhere All at Once tosses them into the deep end and trusts they are able to swim.
The film is about Evelyn Wang (Michelle Yeoh), a stressed-out wife, mother, and laundromat owner. Her life has been a series of dashed dreams and constant disappointment, and she’s bored with her sweet husband, Waymond (Ke Huy Quan); frustrated with her stubborn daughter Eleanor (Stephanie Hsu); and wondering how she wound up managing a neighborhood laundry that’s constantly on the brink of bankruptcy.
During a tax audit before a merciless IRS agent (Jamie Lee Curtis), Evelyn’s mind is hijacked by a version of Waymond from an alternate reality. There, he’s not a meek, sweet husband. He’s a multiverse-hopping warrior who wields a fanny pack like a pair of nunchucks. Alpha Waymond, as he calls himself, warns Evelyn that every decision she’s made in life has splintered reality into millions of multiverses, and that an evil from one of those realities is searching for her across space and time. The only hope for all of existence is for Evelyn to commandeer the skills and knowledge of her other versions and join the fight.
What follows is a delirious, fast-paced multiverse dash that incorporates parallel realities, philosophical musings, nihilistic pastries, hot dogs, family drama, martial arts, slapstick comedy, marital discord, and jokes about the movie Ratatouille (2007). It should collapse under the weight of all its ideas, yet it’s so in tune with its emotional and philosophical cores that it transcends its fantastical trappings to become something moving, even profound.
That it’s able to do this is a testament to Yeoh, the film’s emotional anchor. Yeoh’s been recognized as a great actress for decades, but this will be her defining moment. Evelyn is a scattered mess who’s constantly flirted with a variety of passions, interested in everything but pursuing nothing. She struggles with contentment and knows how far she’s fallen in the eyes of her father (James Hong). Yeoh captures Evelyn’s frustration with the right measures of sadness and gentle humor, but the film also allows her to tap into her intimidating, slapstick and romantic sides. This film’s Evelyn has hundreds of different personalities, whether it’s a sleek movie star, a no-nonsense chef or a despondent lover with hot dogs for fingers (that is not a typo). Everything Everywhere All at Once full-throttle, tour de force work, and when the dust settles, it will be shocking if it doesn’t stand among the best work of the year.
After years of working largely behind the scenes since his days in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) and The Goonies (1985), Key Huy Quan threatens to steal the movie out from under Yeoh. Waymond is sweet, kind, and meek; in love with his wife, but unsure how to steer his marriage out of its rut. Quan is by turns adorable and badass, a comic foil, romantic co-lead and action hero rolled in one. Hsu carries much of the film’s emotional weight, rooted in Eleanor’s struggle for her mother to understand her sexuality and messy life choices. It’s possible there might be a bit of thematic deja vu to this relationship after Turning Red (2022), but then again, it’s very unlikely that this and a Pixar movie have much of a crossover audience, and Hsu brings her own surprises and nuances to the role, as the plot unveils how crucial her character is in the whole multiversal melee. Curtis has a blast as the foil who threatens to tear the family apart, while also getting her own variety of notes to play,
Everything Everywhere All at Once is written and directed by Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, whose previous film was Swiss Army Man (2016), the farting corpse buddy comedy with Paul Dano and Daniel Radcliffe. While that film has its defenders, nothing there hinted at the creativity that explodes out of them here. Nearly every frame vibrates with ideas, constantly unveiling dizzying action sequences, outlandish realities and gorgeous visuals. Even at over two hours, it feels like it’s just scratching the surface of the directors’ vision, and yet the plot mechanics never feel overly confusing, nor does its brisk pace feel too hyper. The film bursts at the seams with hilarious visual gags, breathtaking action, and moments of beauty; at one point, the camera simply focuses on Yeoh as she cycles through a thousand different realities and identities, and the result is a riveting and gorgeous static shot.
It’s possible for a film to be a creative success and still feel like nothing more than a technical exercise. But Everything Everywhere All at Once’s greatest triumph is how it has deeper things on its mind. It’s a story about modern ennui, and the frustration of being paralyzed by too many options. It’s about failure and contentment, and the power of families to heal and break cycles of harm. Most explicitly, it’s about the tension between hope and despair, and the importance of being kind and pressing on even when it feels like nothing matters. It’s the rare movie where a plea for kindness feels radical and world-changing, and where an everything bagel can serve as a powerful symbol for nihilism that can only be defeated by the googly-eyes of hope.
Even with all this gushing, a review can’t do justice to how blisteringly fresh Everything Everywhere All at Once feels. It’s a crowd-pleasing spectacle, action-packed thrill ride, moving family comedy and deep philosophical rumination, a film where even hot dog fingers can be packed with profundity. It’s one of the best films in years, and it is destined to influence an entire generation of filmmakers.
