The word of mouth for Swiss Army Man coming out of Sundance six years ago was huge. Watching that film on the big screen for the first time was something I’ll always remember as I was transported into something so bizarre, yet oddly moving. Even with that knowledge of the directorial duo Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinart going in, nothing could prepare me for their latest film, Everything Everywhere All at Once. It’s nearly as bizarre as Swiss Army Man, but instead of having a farting multi-purpose corpse, we travel the multiverse and sometimes find ourselves in worlds that must be seen to be believed. Somehow a movie with weiner fingers can contain so much more emotion than I could have expected.
Everything Everywhere All at Once feels like the ultimate “what-if” film that I can relate to in ways I almost wish I didn’t. We follow Evelyn Wang (Michelle Yeoh) moments before an audit for her laundromat. It’s then she’s informed about the multiverse and that she’s the only hope for every world to continue to spin. She must use the abilities of all the lives she was so close to living to save everything. It’s from this moment until the end of the film, we’re taken on a journey unlike any I’ve seen or felt before.
We meet the rest of her family, her husband Waymond (Ke Huy Quan), her daughter Joy (Stephanie Hsu), and her father played by James Hong. Every character gets their moment to shine, but while we know Hong and Yeoh are going to be exceptional, it’s both Stephanie Hsu and Ke Huy Quan’s performances I’ve been thinking about since I’ve walked out of the theatre.
Unfortunately, Everything Everywhere All at Once is a film that needs to be experienced for yourself to the point that I’m struggling to find ways in which I could discuss the film, without actively discussing the film’s story. It tackles the multiverse in a way that we often don’t see, at a human-level first, and then the fate of everything at a close second. While it’s great to see comics and films like Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021) play with the multiverse in such an entertaining way, it’s these oddball filmmakers who are extremely in tune with what it means to be human that tackle the multiverse in a way that makes every version of their characters and worlds feel extremely realized and full. It’s breathtaking to witness.
I’ve lost a lot of time asking myself “what if” as I was a teenager. I would imagine the best and worst situations based on the smallest decisions and get stuck wondering what I could have become instead. It’s a place my mind still goes to, and it was hard to watch Evelyn, who has so many hobbies that could have become a different career at any moment. She’s left wondering what life she might be living instead. It’s these same thoughts that kept running through my head throughout the bit too long runtime of the film. I was left thinking and wondering about all the things I still wish to accomplish and all the things I would never, and how different everything could be because of the smallest and simplest decisions. As we watch these almost-iterations of Evelyn, I think about my own almost-iterations of me and question if I’m happy in my own day job or place in life.
Everything Everywhere All at Once tackles existentialism while examining relationships within one immigrant family. In other words, it scared and moved me at the same time. It’s this balance that the Daniels can accomplish that is astonishing. It’s a movie I haven’t stopped thinking about even and will tell as many people as possible that it’s a film that must be watched as soon as possible, even if it might scare them in ways they weren’t expecting as well.
