Everything Everywhere All At Once is a 7x oscar winning movie which follows an exhausted Evelyn Wang who gets swept into the multiverse as she’s just trying to finish her taxes. The film analyzes the themes of what it means to live the life you’re destined to live, along with the meaning of family, and identity. The movie is considered an Adventure and Sci-fi, but also can be categorized as a comedy and drama as there are many elements and depth to the story.
Evelyn Wang, played by Michelle Yeoh, is a Chinese-American woman feeling as if she’s living in a constant time loop. She’s miserable in her current reality, as she owns a laundromat with her husband Waymond. She’s stuck taking care of her father and has a strained relationship with her daughter, Joy. Evelyn uses her father as a reason to not accept Joy’s sexuality, as he’s strict and close minded. Her life and family became dysfunctional, and she didn’t know her husband had divorce papers ready. The crisis that draws Evelyn over the edge is when she meets with a tax officer, Deirdre, who berates and accuses Evelyn and the laundromat of fraud. She becomes overwhelmed and thinks of what her life could’ve been. She looked at the endless amount of opportunities, like being a movie star, an author, or even a singer. Finally, her life changes when a different version of Waymond from another reality tells her only she can defeat the villain, Jobu Tupaki, who has the power to destroy almost every universe. Now Evelyn must use her powers from the different universes to defeat Jobu, and save her other realities.
Michelle Yeoh plays the main protagonist, Evelyn Wang. Yeoh has starred in movies such as Crazy Rich Asians, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Tomorrow Never Dies. Michelle Yeoh brings a phenomenal performance to each film she’s in. In Everything Everywhere, Michelle has to play in many different realities. Yeoh had to navigate through such a deep and complex movie script, which makes me appreciate her talent even more. She won many awards for her performance, and each one is very well deserved. Waymond, Evelyn’s husband, is played by Ke Huy Quan. Quan has had an interesting acting career. When he was younger, he was in movies such as The Goonies and Indiana Jones. He took a long break from acting and his performance in Everything Everywhere tops all of his other performances. He wasn’t acting for years, so to see him come back with such a strong and emotional character was amazing. The entire cast is so talented and conveys the message perfectly through their skills.
The directors of this film are Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, (Also collectively named “The Daniels”) and this isn’t the first film they’ve directed together. They also directed a film titled “Swiss Army Man”, along with many other short films. The “Daniels” have an interesting way of implementing special effects and colors into the movie. One of the most shocking facts about this film is that the special effects team only consisted of 5 people, and were extremely tight on budget. These special effects artists had taught themselves to do movie effects through tutorials on Youtube. Throughout the film there are many wide shots that fill the whole screen with lots of color which brings the whole film together, as everything is really EVERYWHERE! While there is a lot going on throughout the film, it has a way of being organized. Even though this film was on such a tight budget, it defies Hollywood’s expectations but somehow is greater than any other multiverse film. This movie proves that you don’t need millions of dollars to make a fantastic film.
Everything Everywhere really captures the deeper meaning of life. Evelyn is reaching to fulfill her dull life, the real statement this movie tries to make is that really, the only meaning to life is to be present in EVERY moment. These philosophical messages are expressed through the comedic scenes. That’s what makes this movie so special, the fact the directors could capture such a complex belief into a comedic act. The comedic scenes of this movie don’t take away from the real meaning though, the message never gets lost and is clear. The “Daniels” found a way to convey the message without even stating it directly. The directors state that “The multiverse is the perfect metaphor for what it feels like to live right now. If we can explore all of our neuroses and fears through the multiverse, maybe we can learn something about ourselves”.
One thing I learned from this film is how nothing ever REALLY matters. We subconsciously make our fears and we worry about how people may think of us. My favorite scene in this film is the one universe where Jobu and Evelyn are rocks. They are overlooking a beautiful rocky scene with mountains. Evelyn apologizes to Jobu for ruining the universes and Jobu states that “We’re all small and stupid.” And she’s right. Why do we worry so much about our mistakes? We’re in a big galaxy and we’re only here for a short amount of time, so why not make the most of the time we have? Don’t worry about the small mistake you made. Don’t let your fears hold you back, as you can miss out on big memories.
This movie really changed my perspective on life. No one should be afraid of one little mistake they made. While this movie shows it in such a comedic light, you can really take the deep meaning from it. It makes such a deep subject, easy to understand. I recommend this movie to anyone who’s interested in philosophy and the meaning of life. It’s a deep subject but makes you appreciate your life and what you have.
We’re all just small and stupid.
