And Now, "Everything, Everywhere, All At Once"

Minor spoilers ahead.

I've seen enough of Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert's prior work that I understood what they were capable of.  However, it feels like "Everything, Everywhere, All At Once" is the first time they've really had the opportunity to really show the full extent of their filmmaking powers.  The joke going around is that this is the film that deserved the title "Multiverse of Madness," because it makes much better use of the multiverse concept than any of the Marvel projects that have popularized universe-hopping and genre-mixing in the last few years.  However, the film's real strength is that it knows to center its wild, weird, chaotic story on a very emotionally engaging set of characters.

Evelyn Quan (Michelle Yeoh) is a Chinese-American immigrant who runs a struggling laundromat with her scatterbrained husband Waymond (Ke Huy Quan).  She's trying to juggle an awful lot at once - the business is being audited by IRS agent Deirdre (Jamie Lee Curtis), and her disapproving father (James Hong)  is coming to visit from China.  She brushes off Waymond, who is working up the courage to serve her with divorce papers, and she brushes off her daughter Joy (Stephanie Hsu), who wants Evelyn's help to introduce Joy's grandfather to her girlfriend, Becky (Tallie Medel).  And then Waymond suddenly becomes inhabited by a different, much more assertive Waymond from the "Alphaverse," who tells Evelyn that she has to learn to hop universes and fight a nihilistic evil being called Jobu Tupaki.

On the surface level, "Everything, Everywhere" is a comedic action film that delivers plenty of silliness and fun fight scenes with a dazzling amount of creativity.  Its premise is wacky, but the filmmakers commit so hard to everything, from a universe where everyone has hot dog fingers, to a universe where everyone is rocks. However, dig into the film at all, and the complexity of the themes and the absolute sincerity of the story are just breathtaking.  The Daniels use the film to tackle the Asian-American immigrant experience, the overwhelming nature of the information age, and Millennial nihilism.  It explores Evelyn's dissatisfaction with her life, stemming from her regret over the choices she made.  The adventure she's thrust into gives her a chance to see what her life would have looked like in different circumstances - if she'd learned martial arts, if she'd become an actress, or if she'd never left China with Waymond.

I keep finding more things to like about the film the more I dig into it.  You realize that Evelyn is already navigating different universes from the beginning, as she converse with her father, husband, and daughter in three different languages.  You realize the ridiculous hot dog fingers universe actually has a plot function that enables Evelyn to win a fight, and at the same time it's putting her in Joy's shoes as a lesbian woman and getting her to empathize with her daughter.  Michelle Yeoh, as a former Hong Kong action film star, is absolutely perfect for this role.  She gets to put all her talents - dramatic, comedic, and action - to very good use, and I love that she's unquestionably the star of the picture.  It's also so gratifying to see Ke Huy Quan onscreen again after decades away, and of course James Hong is here, because how could James Hong be anywhere else?

I feel like a grinch pointing out that I think the second half of the movie drags out a bit too long, as the running time is 140 minutes, and it's an exhausting 140 minutes.  However, I also immediately wanted to rewatch the film once it was over, because I knew there was so much that I had missed, and so much I needed to unpack.  The filmmaking alone - stretching a very modest budget to achieve sky high ambitions - is thoroughly impressive.  As a film nerd, I caught homages to Hong Kong action films, Wong-Kar Wai romances, and "Ratatouille" the first time through, and I know there are plenty more.     

A few years ago I wrote about how strange and wonderful it was to find myself the target audience of several pieces of American-made media after years of being ignored.  "Everything, Everywhere" is another one that really feels tailor made for me with its Asian immigrant characters and focus on awkward parent/child relationships.  The fact that it's found so much success is very heartening, and I can't wait to see whatever the Daniels want to make next. 

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