#i dunno man its weird and bizarre and strange and wacky

[selfdiagnosedeyemotif]

and on today’s episode of “do i actually like this music or do i want to steal the artist’s voice”, our special guest is iris chaoticgoodmomfriend from tumblr, who

[agentnico]

Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022) Review

Doctor Strange WISHES he was everything everywhere all at once. But nope. That strange fella is NOTHING! He’s NOWHERE! He’s....what’s the opposite of ‘all at once’? Later? Dribs and drabs? Oh I dunno, you get what I mean. Multiverse shmultiverse!

Plot: An aging Chinese immigrant is swept up in an insane adventure, where she alone can save the world by exploring other universes connecting with the lives she could have led.

The only things I’ve watched prior to this of the directors’ Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (who collectively call themselves the Daniels) works was the 2016 Swiss Army Man that featured Paul Dano hanging out with Daniel Radcliffe’s farting corpse, and back then I should’ve expected that these two will not limit themselves there upon how much weirdness they can cram into one movie. So now we get A24′s Everything Everywhere All At Once, that brings us the real multiverse of madness, no shade towards Doctor Strange with the same name. Look, it’s difficult not to compare these two movies seeing as they both released so close to one another and happen to handle the concept of the multiversal theory. Oh, and there’s also that little factor of star Jamie Lee Curtis starting a social media feud against Doctor Strange showing that she is errr... very passionate about being part of Everything Everywhere All At Once. Throwing around comments how her film “out marvels any Marvel movie they put out there” or how Doctor Strange did a “copycat” poster, or comparing dick sizes, sorry, budget sizes of the two movies. “COMPETITIVE? Fuck YES. I wasn’t head cheerleader in high school for nothing” screams Curtis, and I’m not going to lie, I am living for her self proclaimed internet war against Marvel. Totally unnecessary but 100% entertaining. Anyway, my lovely fiancée brought my attention to Curtis’ vocal proclamations and we both agreed we should go see her “little MOVIE THAT COULD AND CAN AND IS CRUSHING the box office” and see if her words had much ground. And yes, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness left a bit of a sour taste in our mouths after seeing it, so we were hoping for some better multiversal mayhem.

To put it simply, Everything Everywhere All At Once is amazing! It’s difficult to talk about what its about, since the title is very accurate with the movie being this beautiful blend of ideas and genres. It’s a science fiction, a black comedy, a drama, a fantasy, a martial arts film, a family film, absurdism and even an animation at one point. It’s got moments of real emotion, like truly some scenes at the end really got to me and I didn’t tear, but gosh was I close. It’s also really funny, but it’s the kind of humour I was shocked to see in a film. You know when you’re with your mates and you talk hypotheticals or outlandish scenarios that you find absolutely hysterical but then if some stranger heard you they’d think you were a total wacko. Well this movie is filled with those kind of ridiculous moments and concepts and that was a cause for some very solid comedy. Not the laugh-out-loud kind of humour, but the kind where you’re like “WHAT??” and “did they actually just do that??”. I’m not gonna spoil any of these moments, but I’m just gonna say hot dogs and Ratatouille. Once you see this film and see it you should, you will know what I am referring to.

For all its wackiness and bizarreness, this movie at its heart is filled with thought-provoking, emotionally resonant themes about family, existentialism and the role we play in the universe, let alone the multiverse. The idea of acceptance and staying true to who you are and not having regrets for the choices you’ve made, will make, or have not made, at the end of the day you are you, I am I, he is he and honestly I’ve lost my train of thought. I don’t know where I was going with this. Regardless, this movie gives you the feels and it gives you the thoughts. However bringing it back to the multiversal concept, the film does something truly unique and original with that idea. Instead of simply having the main character Evelyn (played superbly by Michelle Yeoh by the way) jump from one reality to another and doing whatever she wants, the entire idea here is that you can not necessarily go into a different universe, but you can’t connect with your alternate self and develop skills from that alter-ego to then use in your own reality. Naturally the more alternate selves you meld with the more reality begins to distort and you begin questioning which reality was the original one, but I must say this take on the multiverse, though I still have a few questions on certain technicalities, was a very cathartic experience to watch. But what adds to the brilliance is that even though we get a lot of multiversal madness and randomness, it all still managed to connect to the movie’s central themes. Even the most weirdest oddities still in some capacity build up towards the overall story and its characters. Its both disorganised yet so interconnected and to the point. 

Everything Everywhere All At Once is a wildly original feature filled to the brim with unique visual gags, and its truly one of the more unrepeatably eccentric films to come in cinemas this year. I forgot to even mention the cast, they are all great. Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan, James Hong, Stephanie Hsu and Jamie Lee Curtis all do their part. Heck even Jenny Slate who I usually find annoying is used to good use here. This movie is sensational and the only knit pick I have is that the first 30 minutes are hard to get through. It’s a lot of fast talking and very sporadic and I was confused for a good ol’ while but then once I got onto the movie’s eccentric level I bought into it fully. I’m sure once I re-watch it I’ll be able to enjoy even those first 30 minutes. But nothing is disputing the fact Everything Everywhere All At Once is remarkably unique and entertaining. And hell, I may just absolutely love it. Yet in a different universe I probably hate it. In another one I haven’t even seen it. In another universe I simply don’t exist. In another, the universe isn’t even a thing and gosh golly I feel I am experiencing EXISTENTIALISM!!! 

Overall score: 8/10