Film Review: EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE (2022): Michelle Yeoh Stars in One of the Most Ambitious Films Ever Made

Everything Everywhere All at Once Review

Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022) Film Review, a movie written and directed by Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert and starring Michelle Yeoh, Stephanie Hsu, Ke Huy Quan, James Hong, Jamie Lee Curtis, Tallie Medel, Jenny Slate, Harry Shum Jr., Biff Wiff, Sunita Mani, Aaron Lazar, Brian Le, Andy Le, Narayana Cabral, Chelsey Goldsmith, Anthony Molinari and Dan Brown.

Michelle Yeoh is certainly on track to earning an Oscar nomination for Best Actress for her amazing, layered and deeply profound performance in filmmakers Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert’s dazzling science fiction masterpiece, Everything Everywhere All at Once. This movie didn’t seem to have the potential to actually deliver what it has in store for the audience from the opening scenes but by the time the end rolls around, the audience will become true believers in the material the film presents. At least for a little while anyway. This is the type of movie that will pique viewers’ interest right from the first frame and although what goes on in the film is deep and requires patience to fully grasp, it’s a picture that has big ambitions and thus operates on a grand scale.

Yeoh plays Evelyn Wang in the movie and her character, when we initially meet her, is a laundromat owner about to be audited by the IRS and divorced by her husband Waymond (a grown Ke Huy Quan of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom fame). If that wasn’t bad enough, Evelyn doesn’t truly understand her daughter, Joy (Stephanie Hsu in a star-making performance) and Evelyn’s rather difficult dad (the terrific James Hong) has come in from China for a “celebration” which will help complicate already delicate matters. Joy is seeing a girl named Becky (Tallie Medel) and Evelyn is too concerned with the mundane details of every day life to understand who her daughter truly is as a person.

Evelyn and Waymond arrive at the IRS audit location where an agent named Deirdre Beaubeirdra (a wonderful Jamie Lee Curtis) is ready to inform them that things are looking rather bleak. Another Waymond from an alternate universe expresses concern to Evelyn regarding the fact that a woman called Jobu Tupaki has unparalleled power to jump across multiverses. Every decision we make in life has consequences which lead to a different world, so to speak. What will Evelyn do when she learns she has the power to change her circumstances and restore some sort of order to the world?

Evelyn is lost in her life. She has become the worst possible version of herself. This story line which the film presents to us gives her the chance to discover what she is actually capable of achieving even though she seems to have settled for a lackluster way of living life instead of embracing the joys and possibilities that every day has in store for us as human beings. Yeoh nails the part and the movie puts her in many different situations which allow Yeoh to use all her unique characteristics as an actress to her full advantage. She is put into fight scenes and emotional sequences to equally powerful effect and Yeoh never loses sight of the chances to develop her character in every scene she’s in making the performance a skillful one. Evelyn could have been any number of different “contenders” in life and the movie shows us all those possibilities from her being a chef to a rock, yes a rock, to actually being a movie actress.

As Evelyn’s daughter, Joy, Stephanie Hsu has the potential to score an Oscar nomination as well playing the film’s most imperative character–you’ll have to see it for yourself to understand how important Evelyn and Joy’s relationship is to these characters’ potential to be sucked into a giant everything bagel (see the movie to understand this concept) black hole sort of nothingness. Hsu and Yeoh play off each other masterfully and their on screen intensity is the stuff legendary performances are made out of.

Don’t count out Ke Huy Quan or Jamie Lee Curtis from the most valuable performers in the movie either. Quan embodies goodness in a turn that is full of compassion and sensitivity. He also has the ability to use a fanny pack quite well–see the film for more details! Curtis hasn’t been this good since her role in 2003’s Freaky Friday remake. Curtis makes the audience have a great time with her energetic scenes in this picture where Deirdre clashes with Evelyn. This movie truly shows Curtis’ range as an actress. Jenny Slate, playing a laundromat customer called Big Nose, also delivers a brief but relevant turn.

This movie creates alternate universe scenes fascinatingly. A part where people have hot dogs for fingers is especially noteworthy and the picture has plenty of aesthetic choices (nothing is off limits here) that should provide plenty of rewards for the audience from the film’s costumes to the movie’s skillfully conceived art direction. That being said, the movie is not for everyone but then again, neither is the greatest of art.

Everything Everywhere All at Once is a true work of art that can appeal to those willing to put the extra effort into understanding all the important things it is trying to say alongside the more fun things it does to keep the viewer entertained. In addition, the fact that the movie probably requires multiple viewings to get everything out of it makes it all the more powerful because, like life, it is full of complexity. Art reflects life and Everything Everywhere All at Once is a near perfect reflection of the quest to achieve happiness and how we can miss perfection some days and others, achieve it beyond our wildest dreams. It’s a great movie.

Rating: 9.5/10

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