First things first: this movie rocks. Go see it. It’s my favorite movie of the year so far; it’s so heartfelt and fun and moving. The cast is aces, the visuals and music are insane, and I want this movie to do well so badly. Now that that’s out of the way—let’s review this movie.
Directed by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, a directing duo known as Daniels, this movie follows international movie icon Michelle Yeoh as Evelyn Wang, a middle aged Chinese immigrant trying to deal with her dad, a marriage on the rocks, and her loving but messy relationship with her college-aged daughter, who recently came out as a lesbian and has brought her girlfriend home to celebrate New Years. When the Wangs are dealing with an IRS audit, Evelyn’s mild-mannered dork of a husband transforms into a sci-fi action hero who tells her that it’s up to her to save the multiverse from destruction.
Evelyn must learn a technique that allows her to move her consciousness into her alternative selves across space-time, where everyone lives slightly or extremely different lives, and Evelyn must tap into their memories and skills to stop the bad guy, and more importantly, come to a more complete understanding of herself. As you can probably tell by now, Everything Everywhere has a very precise, slippery tone where jokes, emotional beats, exposition, and thematic statements of purpose all intermingle. One of the early examples comes from why the “Alpha-verse” has sought this particular Evelyn out: she had so many dreams that were never fulfilled or roads she did not take, and thus she can tap into the minds of her counterparts who did learn to sing or study martial arts or any of her long list of might-have-beens. It’s a sobering reflective moment every time Evelyn gets a glimpse into another life as she debates whether she’s really the worst or most disappointing version of herself. That sounds heady and complicated, and sometimes it is, but just as often it’s hilarious and touching and it ultimately affirms that “best” and “worst” are the wrong ways to view a human life. We’re all here for a very short time, and in that time we have each other to learn from and help us through.
Lots of action blockbusters allude to compassion and good works as the key to saving the world, but it usually ends in a big beat-em-up action sequence all the same. Everything Everywhere All At Once never loses sight of its central character drama, and the investment in these characters is what keeps us glued to the screen for those two high-octane hours. Soon enough, Spider-Man and the Flash and Doctor Strange will have their own multiverse adventures, and I’m not knocking any of those films, but I seriously doubt they’ll be able to top the sheer scale and emotional heft of Everything Everywhere All At Once. Seriously, go see it.