Everything Everywhere All At Once: An Unapologetically Weird Masterpiece

Everything, Everywhere All at Once is the most distinctly unique movie I have ever seen. Directed by Daniel Scheinert and starring Jamie Lee Curtis, Ke Huy Quan, and Michelle Yeoh. This film comes from the acclaimed A24 studio, and sustains the high standard that we have come to expect from A24. Everything, Everywhere All at Once made me laugh at the absurdity of its action, while simultaneously making me tear up at its more sentimental moments. It really makes you feel everything all at once. Everything from the writing, acting, cinematography and even action is masterfully woven into one another into a bizarre yet captivating film that has already become a masterpiece.

Everything, Everywhere All at Once’s cast is built on veterans to the industry, from the likes of Jamie Lee Curtis who has been acting since 1979, and Michelle Yeoh, best known for her role in Tomorrow Never Dies. Everyone puts on stellar performances, but Ke Huy Quan, who played Data inThe Goonies, definitely steals the show as husband to the main character, playing a kind hearted, timid father trying to please everyone all at once. Michelle Yeoh also puts on a stellar performance as the main character, Evlyn Quan. Evlyn Quan is a complex character, due to how flawed she is. The version that we first see in the opening couple of scenes is the version of Evlyn Quan that has made the wrong decision in every choice she has made, but as the movie continues, she comes to accept her flaws, as making every wrong decision leads to her being able to adapt to any situation she needs to. Evlyn Quan also has practically two character arcs, one coming as she fights the villain of the story, then falls to the ideology of the villain, then grows to accept her flaws and find hope in the life she lives. With a pretty complex character, Michelle Yeoh had her work cut out for her, but she was able to expertly execute every part of her character, whether it was action or comedy moments thrown at her throughout the movie.

The story on a surface level looks like another “save the world” Marvel-inspired plot, but Everything, Everywhere All at Once manges to intricately weave a deeply emotional story into a plot about saving a multiverse from a cross-dimensional evil. Everything, Everywhere All at Once also poses the existential question of “does anything really matter?”, which creates a dilemma between the characters that the audience can see is constantly an internal struggle for both the antagonist and protagonist. 

The writing of the characters in Everything, Everywhere All at Once transforms characters, such as the main character, from a mother who tries to hide what her child is, doesn’t give her husband the light of day and in general is unlikable, at first. I say at first, because over the course of the movie’s 2 hour and 20 minute run time we come to understand her frustration and flaws, and she comes to realize that she can fix these flaws. This can also be said about the main villain, who at first, is seemingly evil due to being experimented on, which eventually turned her into a trans-dimensional being, and now wants to destroy the multiverse as revenge for these experiments. But, through the course of the film, we see that she doesn’t want to destroy the universe for the simple reason of revenge, but instead because she has lost all hope, she has come to the nihilistic conclusion of “nothing matters.” Being a transdimensional being means she knows that eventually everything fades, no matter the place or universe. To her, the only way to escape this hopeless, joyless reality is to destroy reality itself.  Both characters are, by the end of the movie, ideological opposites, creating an interesting conflict that deepens the plot. 

The cinematography also excels in this movie, expertly controlling the focus and framing of shots and drawing the viewer's attention to the characters or a detail the plot wants you to pay attention to. The action in this movie is also something to take note of. There are multiple, fully choreographed, martial arts fights in this movie that are a sight to take in. For example, Ke Huy Quan’s character has a fight scene early in the first part of the movie where he uses a fanny pack as nun-chucks. After viewing the fight you would think it was done by a stunt double, but surprisingly Ke Huy Quan did his own stunts. That is only one example of how bizarre the fights can be, yet so captivating.

Everything, Everywhere All at Once, is a once in a generation film that will be looked at as a masterclass in writing and cinematography, and has already carved out a spot in the filmography of the 2020’s. Everything, Everywhere All at Once is an experience, and should be viewed without any prior knowledge, as it contributes to the appreciation of this masterpiece. I absolutely adore this film, and recommend it to anyone who needs something to watch. 10/10.

By Holden Gruel