10 years ago, the idea of the “multi-verse” felt like a fun and fresh sci-fi spin in blockbusters. But after the last few years and particularly 2021, aka the Year of the Multi-Verse, the concept feels more like a cheap tool: a way to keep massive, evolving franchises going without having to mark previous or inconsistent chapters as null and void.
So leave it to Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert – the writer/director duo behind Swiss Army Man, which showed us Paul Dano using Daniel Radcliffe’s corpse as a fart-powered motorboat, because why not – to find a fresh spin on the concept that occupies critical darling territory. With Everything Everywhere All at Once, Kwan and Scheinert have arguably achieved when Marvel set out to do with Chloe Zhao’s underwhelming Eternals: they have taken a tentpole approach to storytelling and action and distilled it through an auteur storyteller’s lens. And the action-packed, mind-bending results, though not always consistent, are much closer to the “fun ride” concept than almost any film the MCU has offered.
Everything Everywhere All at Once stars Michelle Yeoh as Evelyn Wang: a mother, wife, and entrepreneur staring down the barrel of life’s run-of-the-mill problems: an unhappy marriage, a turbulent relationship with her daughter Joy (Stephanie Hsu), a disapproving father, and to top it off, a financial audit from the IRS. On her way to request a reprieve from her auditer, Evelyn’s husband Waymond (Ke Huy Quan) briefly flickers and transforms into another version of himself: a version from parallel reality, he says, who needs Evelyn’s help to defeat an ever-growing threat.
For the next 30 minutes or so, Evelyn slowly becomes aware of the parallel universes that surround her, each constructed from different choices she could have made on life’s path. These changes range from a life without her husband to one where she has hotdogs for fingers, and several of them pay homage to specific filmmakers in their aesthetic. As she begins to admire and covet these alternate realties, she’s also confronted with darker ones, particularly those that concern the fate of her daughter. The film slowly transforms Evelyn from a confused and annoyed bystander to an ass-kicking action star in a way that no one but Yeoh could have pulled off. It also introduces us to Jobu Tupaki: the most daring, glitzy, and nihilistic arch-nemesis Evelyn could ask for.
Everything Everywhere All at Once is incredibly unique, but it reminded me most of two films. One of them is a flattering comparison, and the other less so. At its boldest and freshest moments, the film reminded me of watching Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (or any other Charlie Kaufman movie, honestly). Overwhelmingly, the Kaufman comparison is the more accurate one and is true for about 90% of the film. At its more juvenile or redundant moments, though, the movie would occasionally stray into Scott Pilgrim territory. If you know, you know.
Beyond the storytelling mechanisms, though – the humor, the action, the gimmicks, and everything else – the heart of Everything Everywhere All at Once rests in the relationship between Evelyn and Waymond. Much like their partnership in the story itself, Quan feels like Yeoh’s secret weapon. Their chemistry is palpable in a well-worn way, as are their struggles, and Quan plays the part to heartbreaking perfection.
If you’re excited to see a film that is theater-worthy but exhausted by the run-of-the-mill tentpole options out there, Everything Everywhere All at Once was tailor-made for you.