1/5
Michelle Yeoh battles “Everything Everywhere All At Once.” Photo courtesy of A24
LOS ANGELES, March 22 (UPI) — Everything Everywhere All At Once, opening in a limited number of theaters Friday, delivers on what the title promises. It encompasses so much, and guides the viewer to absorb it all.
Evelyn Wang (Michelle Yeoh) is preparing for an IRS audit of her family laundromat and a party for her father, Gong Gong (James Hong). On the way to the audit, Evelyn’s husband, Waymond (Ke Huy Quan), tells her she can cross alternate universes.
There is a very elaborate mechanism to cross the multiverse. Writer-directors Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert reveal it piece-by-piece, so once the worlds collide, viewers can follow the sophisticated way Evelyn is navigating them.
Evelyn and Waymond can take over their counterparts in other universes. They have to perform improbable actions to jump worlds, which leads to some outrageous behaviors.
Evelyn can call upon skills from her alternate selves. One is naturally a martial artist, so she can use those skills to fight off invaders, but she obtains other awesome and hilarious skills, too.
A group of technicians monitor Waymond and Evelyn from one of their universes. The technicians will give instructions, but the more the movie progresses, the less it has to rely on them.
The villain is Jobu Tobacky (Stephanie Hsu), who happens to be Evelyn’s daughter, Joy, in her world. So Evelyn must stop Jobu from destroying every universe while keeping Joy safe in her world.
Evelyn literally experiences everything, everywhere, all at once. The multiverse means that characters can die repeatedly and still call upon other versions of themselves to carry on.
Kwan and Scheinert convey the simultaneous actions via editing, split screens, changing the shape of the frame, sound and other subtle techniques.
It’s a lot, but by the time it gets super chaotic, they’ve taught you how to watch this movie. Everything Everywhere All At Once is so fast and dense it will reward multiple viewings, but it’s mighty fun the first time, too.
Kwan and Scheinert turn IRS hallways into an epic multiverse. Most of the film takes place in that one location, transformed in many different ways by lighting, production design and shot composition.
Some of the worlds have forests and temples, so not every universe is stuck in the IRS building.
Evelyn lands in other wild worlds with bizarre differences.
After 20 minutes, you truly cannot predict where this movie is going, but by an hour in, you can follow Evelyn trying to explain it to her family.
While Everything Everywhere All At Once is a unique cinematic creation in its own right, it also has something relevant to say. One world is already too much, and this movie captures how overwhelmed anyone can feel, and magnifies it.
Evelyn’s relationship with Joy and Weymond also give the action a poignant, emotional heart. Perhaps the film truly succeeds in being Everything Everywhere All At Once.
Fred Topel, who attended film school at Ithaca College, is a UPI entertainment writer based in Los Angeles. He has been a professional film critic since 1999, a Rotten Tomatoes critic since 2001 and a member of the Television Critics Association since 2012. Read more of his work in Entertainment.
