Review: Everything Everywhere All At Once

Image courtesy of A2.

While maybe not every moment in "Everything Everywhere All At Once" felt completely necessary - at nearly two hours and 15 minutes, there is a bit of a lag during the film's middle section - it's still a wildly inventive action-comedy-sci-fi-family-drama, and the one multiverse movie of late you shouldn't miss (in all fairness, I still haven't found time to watch the other one).

Trying to describe the story of this latest film from Daniels - the directorial team of Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, who were also responsible for "Swiss Army Man," AKA the farting corpse movie, of which I was not particularly a fan - is possibly a fool's errand. There's a lot going on, and trying to make sense of it in the context of a review might be not worth the effort.

But let's suffice it to say that, at least to an extent, the film is a story about a fractured family - including Evelyn (Michelle Yeoh, who's quite good here), a tired laundromat owner who is married to Waymond (Ke Huy Quan), an affable man who is plotting how to hand over divorce papers to his wife, and has a daughter named Joy (Stephanie Hsu), who's anything but, and has a girlfriend who she's afraid to introduce to her somewhat conservative family.

At the beginning, Evelyn is planning a birthday party for her aging father, Gong Gong (James Hong), who's made no mystery of the fact that he's disappointed with his daughter. But first, the family makes their way to a meeting with grouchy IRS agent Diedre (Jamie Lee Curtis), who basically tells them that they're screwed unless they quickly get their financial affairs in order.

But a curious thing happens. On an elevator, Evelyn is told by a version - and I can't go into much further detail about what I mean here - of her husband, who gives her a secret about finding a multiverse that exists and, in which, she has led varied lives in numerous realities - and in some of which she's a badass kung fu expert. She, much like Neo in "The Matrix," is some sort of chosen one who must stop a nefarious character - who it turns out is one of the numerous variations of her own daughter - from destroying all the multiple universes.

Or something like that. It's best not to get too caught up in trying to keep up with the story in "Everything Everywhere All At Once." Just find amusement in the various tidbits - which include a chef whose mastery is derived from the raccoon hiding under his chef's hat, or the multiple versions of violent Diedre across the multiverse, or a universe where everyone has hotdogs for fingers, or - the best of the bunch - a universe where human life cannot be sustained, so Evelyn and Joy have been reduced to a pair of talking rocks overlooking a cliff.

The picture exists in that small category of movies like "Being John Malkovich" in which no explanation you'll give could likely sell it to someone you're trying to convince to watch it. Instead, they'll just have to trust your oddball tastes and go along for the ride. And what a ride it is. While the film's first half is amusing and well enough crafted, it's not until the second half when it really kicks in. 

And aside from all the off-the-wall jokes - among which is a pretty funny fight scene involving a woman and her pet dog - there's some genuine emotional involvement to be found. At its heart, "Everything Everywhere All At Once" is a story about a family struggling to hold it together. When the film goes from loony antics to a surprisingly emotional series of scenes at its end, it actually feels earned. 

So, while the film isn't exactly perfect - some of the kooky comedy sequences in the film veer a little too close to being twee - it's a wholly original work with some fine performances, a unique visual style and an emotional punch you might not see coming. Those who enjoy the cinema of the peculiar might consider this one to be a veritable feast.