by Tabatha Golat –
If you’re ready to head back to the movie theatre and enjoy a night of chaotic entertainment, look no further than this month’s recommendation Everything Everywhere All at Once. This comedy/kung-fu/multiverse/action film is mind-bendingly entertaining and surprisingly sweet. Though difficult to fully summarize (given the aforementioned genre-defying plot) this film is worthy of a venture to your closest theatre.
Directed by the “Daniels”– Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert – and produced by The Avengers’ Russo brothers, Everything Everywhere delves into a Matrix-like multiverse with an unlikely hero: Evelyn. Played by Michelle Yeoh (Crazy Rich Asians), Evelyn is an overworked wife and mother running a faltering laundromat with her inept (yet sweet) husband Waymond (Ke Huy Quan, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom) when during an IRS audit she is pulled into an alternate reality and informed by “Alpha-verse Waymond” that there is a multiverse of infinite possibilities. Evelyn is told that she is the only version of herself that can save the multiverse from the agent of chaos known as Jobu Tupaki. Jobu is a foreboding character set on imploding all existence through the creation of an everything bagel that contains, well, everything. You read that right. An everything bagel that holds the entirety of space and time is truly the least bizarre part of this all-encompassing tale.
Evelyn must learn to harness her infinite skills and memories acquired through all alternate realities in the multiverse, doing so through seemingly bizarre decisions that alter her timeline (cue eating chapstick and self-inflicted paper cuts). From Kung Fu master to movie star, Master Chef to … a literal rock, Evelyn can instantly “upload” necessary skillsets in her pursuit of stopping Jobu Tupaki, making her an unlikely heroine.
Ripe with a surprisingly coherent smattering of film influences from The Matrix to Ratatouille, and even Michelle Yeoh’s own performance in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, the frenetic dialogue and dizzying edits make for a wildly unpredictable story. Hold on for a wonderfully bumpy ride where the simplest of choices can alter an infinite number of realities.
If the film sounds bizarre that’s because it truly is, but in one of the most interesting and hilarious ways I’ve seen for some time. Expect lots of buzz come awards season for both cast and crew, as Everything Everywhere is bound to impress critics with its imaginative exploration of the multiverse theory, including an alternate reality where humans possess hot dogs for fingers (again, you read that right). This film truly is everything, everywhere, all at once.
If you are keen to delve into more films that explore theories of the universe(s) check out my recommendations below.
1. Interstellar
2. Doctor Strange
3. Looper
4. Arrival
