Everything Everywhere All at Once

April 8, 202295/1005 min
Starring
Stephanie Hsu, Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan, Jamie Le Curtis
Written by
Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert
Directed by
Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert
Run Time
2h 12min
Release Date
March 25th, 2022
Overall Score
Rating Summary

Decisions are things that we all face multiple times a day, with each one affecting our lives in small or large ways. What if though, those decisions not just affected you here, but created different versions of you throughout a “multi-verse”. That is the premise behind The Daniels (Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert) new film Everything Everywhere All at Once, in which one woman might be the answer to all of the universe’s problems.

Evelyn Wang (Michelle Yeoh) and her husband Waymond (Ka Huy Quan) live a pretty simple life as the owners of a laundromat. Right now they are going through a rough patch as they are getting audited, while also caring for Evelyn’s elderly father and also dealing with their daughter Joy (Stephanie Hsu) finding her way through life. Things are about to get a little more complicated as during their conversation with the auditor Deirdre (Jamie Lee Curtis) Waymond starts acting a little strange and tells Evelyn that he needs her help and hands her what looks like are a set of headphones to put on. Confused Evelyn does so and during their audit follows some instructions that Waymond has written down and something strange begins to happen. Suddenly, Evelyn is in two universes at the same time.

This is where she finds out that our universe is not the only one, but there are many, each one representing a different result to a decision we made. All of these universes are in trouble when a being seeks to cause chaos in them and the only hope for the universe’s is Evelyn. Written and directed by The Daniels, Everything Everywhere All At Once is like something a mad scientist would throw together, only to have the end result be a thing of beauty. With its many references to other movies, including The Matrix, In the Mood for Love and Terminator 2 : Judgement Day, to name a few, The Daniels show the influences of the past that helps shape something wholly original. With its many timeline changes and lots of action, it can be hard to follow at first, but once you get into it you can’t help but have the best of times. As Evelyn lives in constant anxiety and fear, she at first doesn’t believe in her talents. As she slowly begins to accept that she might indeed be the one, that’s when she and us are in for a hell of a ride .

Filled with great performances, especially by Yeoh  Hsu, and Quan, who in his first role in years reminds us why we all loved him in the eighties with The Goonies and Temple of Doom. This is a beautiful family drama that has outrageous humor and some fantastic action that only The Daniels could make happen. I felt the full array of emotions with this one and it legit kept me smiling even long after the movie had ended. Everything Everywhere All at Once can be described a number of ways as it hop-scotches its way through multiple genres, but in the end it’s just plain unapologetic fun.

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