LogFAQs > #973312595

So, about that surprise....
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Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022)
Written and Directed by: Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert
Starring: Michelle Yeoh, Stephanie Hsu, Ke Huy Quan, Jamie Lee Curtis, James Hong
Previous status: Never seen

"You are not unlovable. There is always something to love."

Holy shit, that was a trip. This one most certainly lived up to the hype!

First of all, it's accessible. It's not trying to use characters to represent ideas in disingenuous ways. No, it's using the circumstances to showcase that people really need to stop being so damn judgmental and instead be nice to each other. And those circumstances are tremendously variant. This film, while a thriller through and through, incorporates elements from every genre under the sun. It seems like it's almost parodying American cinema, particularly with the doomsday device being an everything bagel. Hilarious.

Michelle Yeoh shows that she hadn't lost that badass edge after 25 years since her English-language breakout in Tomorrow Never Dies; this is a much stronger performance than that in large part due to her co-stars having better chemistry with her than Pierce Brosnan did. Yeoh's character Evelyn is a pretty ordinary individual in extraordinary circumstances and reacts in believable ways every time. Ke Huy Quan, who hadn't had an acting credit in two decades, didn't lose a beat. It's amazing how he made Waymond and Alpha Waymond distinguishable from one another even though both were in the same body wearing the same clothes. James Hong does the same with Gong Gong. Stephanie Hsu nails the edge of Jobu Tupaki just as well as the depressed darkness consuming Evelyn's daughter Joy. Jamie Lee Curtis handles different varieties of Deirdre well also, even if her character is kinda racist for interrupting a Chinese New Year party. Let them have their fun.

And the fun also includes inventive martial arts choreography that sometimes involves two fights in separate universes at the same time. It also involves a universe where life could not form, so they're just rocks that talk as text on the screen. It's kind of a nice pace-changer and feels relaxing and private, away from the hustle-bustle of the real world and the toxicity of humanity. It's also nice to see instead of the whirlwind of images, though the only time I needed to avert my eyes was when it was flashing five selves a second, something that could've benefited from learning about Electric Soldier Porygon.

The movie nails its humor, from funny reactions to crazy circumstances to a dog being a projectile weapon (Jenny Slate is hot btw) to hot dogs for fingers to googly eyes to... you get the idea. It incorporates drawings and a plethora of home video footage from the past that paints this reality as well as the movie paints others. The skipping between worlds is done marvelously, with conversations being interpreted in two ways due to expertly-crafted dialogue writing. This is most notable when Waymond (Quan) thinks Evelyn is talking about the divorce papers when she's really talking about the instructions his alternate self wrote on the back of them.

Really, this movie resonated with me in many ways. The writing. The comedy. The meaning of it all - let's just be nice to each other. Let's stop berating people for being a different generation. Let's stop being mean to people because of their sexuality. Let's stop making people depressed by being mean to them for no reason. I've certainly experienced my fair share of bullies who could've watched this movie and taken something from it. Be present and remember those around you are trying to be the same. I really should show this to my mother sometime, as I'm still very much mad at her for trying to control who I am and who I can be attracted to.

Overall, there's really no question of it. I hardly took any notes here because I was engaged in watching it (and also had to read the subtitles for the Cantonese portions; it's amazing how some people [mostly Asians in my experience] can switch between languages in the same sentence), and this time that's a good thing. It was all building up to a thrilling ending and I think we got it. This movie deserved all the Oscars - it's well-written, well-directed, well-edited, and well-acted... and just plain brilliant to boot. 5/5, gold.