By David Chase & Katie Nguyen
Editor’s note: Spoilers for the film are discussed in this review. If you wish to view the film knowing nothing, please do so first, and then come back and read our reviewers’ dialogue about the film.
Basic Impressions
David: Everything Everywhere All at Once, starring Michelle Yeoh, is at once a send-up of films from Ratatouille to 2001: A Space Odyssey and The Matrix, and martial arts epics as well as an homage to the same.
As a result of the satire, some of the imagery is quirky and could be offensive (a villain wielding an oversized sex toy as a weapon, for instance) and there is violence on top of it all. But the fusion of the absurd and the serious is not incidental: it is the problem Evelyn (Yeoh’s hero) faces in a bid to save the multiverse from a villain who has abandoned rationality and normalcy for chaos.
Katie: Expanding on the idea of normalcy, I loved that the heart of this movie isn't found in the supernatural, but in the ordinary. The ordinary, in this case, is very clearly Asian. Within the first scene of the movie, what is used as “ordinary” and normal are elements like having a rice cooker casually on the counter, making a noodle dish for the family, or even a casual reference to the intricacies of bilingualism as an indicator for generational differences in an immigrant family.
It’s not a tokenist, mindless "Asian American superhero" movie: It’s a movie about an Asian American superhero and her daughter fighting to eventually find their way back to each other. The combination of the absurd and the serious and the supernatural and the ordinary can probably best be captured by Evelyn's mentor, Alpha Waymond’s, quote:
“Every failure here branched off into a success for another Evelyn in another life. Most people only have a few significant alternate life paths so close to them. But you, here, you’re capable of everything because you’re so bad at everything.”
David: Yes. The film uses setting and character details well: The daily life of the characters isn’t tossed aside as the film progresses; Evelyn’s low point in the film is when she stops caring about the people in her life and explores the temptation to abandon them.
As an answer to this, Waymond, her husband or love interest (depending on the universe) gives her a way to fight that is not selfish, but attentive to the people around her.
Story Beats
David: Let’s talk about what stood out about the story.
Yeoh plays Evelyn Wong, a woman who is in trouble for misfiling her taxes for the laundromat business her family runs. But, her taxes are only one of her worries. There is a multiverse that is threatened by Jobu Tupaki: A person who is out of control and possibly driven mad by an awareness of the endless possibilities of the multiverse.
One of my favorite aspects of the film is that there are hints of the multiverse early on, when people on security camera screens in her laundromat behave strangely before returning to normal. But, as the film progresses, Evelyn is increasingly drawn into the experience of the multiverse, and the audience learns along with her how it works.
While Evelyn's family drama seems like an obstacle to the idea of saving reality from Jobu, it intersects with that narrative in intriguing ways: unlike many superheroes, Evelyn cannot simply leave her daily life behind.
Katie: For example, in one of the extended fight scenes of the movie when Evelyn is beginning to engage more fully with the extent of her potential power, we see her fight with a combination of hibachi chef skills and drawing on the abilities of a sign twirler on a street corner.
David: I thought cutting from the sign-twirling Evelyn to the fighting Evelyn was a great match cut and drove home the artistry of the film.
Katie: Yes. Neither of the “powers” she draws on are particularly extraordinary on their own, yet that’s part of the message of this film.
The comment to Evelyn, “You’re living the worst you,” connects the sense of the absurd and the abnormal into a relatable fear: Are we truly living our best lives in every moment?
David: I appreciated how everything in Evelyn's life in the multiverse was a learning opportunity—even when life seemed absurd; no experience was wasted.
Katie: Because the multiverse in Everything Everywhere All at Once is an infinite number of realities that each spawn off from different choices, there is an underlying hope that you can make the most of every remaining moment you have: Your life is the sum of every decision you make in life rather than the deterministic result of a single moment.
At the center of the film is a supernatural “everything bagel” capturing the spirit of nihilism Jobu invites Evelyn to embrace: “Feels nice, doesn’t it? If nothing matters, then all the pain and guilt you feel for making nothing of your life, it goes away. Sucked into a bagel.”
In one of my favorite parts in the film, this tension between nihilism and embracing life takes on form. Evelyn and her daughter Joy/Jobu Tupaki are both in a universe where the entirety of their existence is wrapped up simply in existing in a universe completely devoid of life. As rocks.
David: The rock scene took guts: the audience is refused a normal confrontation between the villain and the hero with dramatically spoken lines and sound and fury. It forces the audience to read their words and think about the ideas. I found it oddly effective once I got past the strangeness. Which, come to think of it, is a good summary of the experience of the movie in general!
Image: Jobu Tupaki as a rock.
Katie: I completely agree. Oddly enough, in the obvious absurdity of the presentation of two rocks having a silent, subtitled conversation, the sincerity of the ordinary search for meaning (or the sense of the lack of it) comes through in such a pure way through the focus of simply existing: just be.
Final Thoughts
David: When the film’s resolution comes, we at once feel the pieces clicking into place that the film has scattered throughout its three acts, rewarding the viewer for attention to the many side characters. Nothing is wasted, and the side characters aren’t anonymous goons for a supervillain or expendable supporting characters for the hero. This gives a refreshing twist on the “final battle” style climaxes that we may have grown accustomed to. As Helen learns the lessons from her many lives in the multiverse, the audience does as well.
The film has stunning visuals, and combines its different realities through quick, onscreen sequences of images, as well as through spending more time in certain places to explore its message. In a crowded field where films like the Matrix Resurrections promise to be a send-up of the genre that the original Matrix established and films like Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness promise to show the mind-bending complexities of the multiverse concept, Everything Everywhere All at Once delivers on both those premises and rewards the viewer with fuel for thought, humor, and entertainment, all at once.
Katie: Even as Evelyn journeys through each of the three acts, the viewer doesn’t see a tidy ending tied up with a bow. It’s interrupted again and again. Whether it’s Evelyn experiencing her split, multiple realities immediately one after the other, or when she’s finally beginning to journey with her daughter as they realize they’re both struggling with the journey of exploring the question, “Who am I, and where do I get to exist?”
The beauty I found in this film was not necessarily in the expansive multiverse of infinite realities it created, or even the concept of verse jumping between any of them at will, but in the finite.
At the heart of this film is the portrayal of a slow, messy journey of the healing of generational trauma between a 1st and 2nd generation Asian American mother and daughter. The beauty and hope in this film is that anyone can step into affecting change through small decisions–like choosing not to eat your chapstick, or keeping your shoes on the correct feet.
It’s a combination of the concept that Joy brings up in the rock universe that we are all small and stupid, as well as what Alpha Waymond tells Evelyn, “The only thing I do know is that we have to be kind. Please, be kind. Especially when we don't know what's going on.” There’s a sense of hope that’s found not in the supernatural, but in the ordinary of the film: focus on the power of each individual decision, and take advantage of each moment as it comes.
Photo Courtesy A24
David Chase is an adjunct professor of art appreciation and art history. He is also a stay-at-home-dad of two kids. As such, he reads story books, cooks, cleans, chauffeurs, and more! In his spare time, he likes to read, draw, and go for runs or hikes. Weather permitting, camping and kayaking with the family are also fun. Weather not permitting, a museum or a library will do just fine.
Katie is a bi-racial Vietnamese/White pastor, writer, & teacher who leads Sol Life, a joint Youth Ministry between two churches in the historically marginalized Eastside of Austin. She is currently completing an M.A. in Christian Leadership at Dallas Theological Seminary and earned her B.A. in English with teacher certification from Texas State University.