Everything Everywhere All at Once (MV1)

2022, Dan Kwan, Daniel Scheinert (Swiss Army Man) -- cinema

OK Toasty, what's up with seeing a rare movie in the cinema and then not even writing about the most exciting, most enthralling thing you have seen in ages? Sure, you can tent pole the requirement to rewatch it again, as it was available for OnDemand / Download even before you got home from the cinema, but ... you didn't rewatch, did you? And why are you using that as an excuse to not write about your most enjoyable movie experience in quite some time?

<hangs head>

Sorry.

I have always been a fan of the multiverse concept. The idea that there are an infinite number of universes existing at the same time, in an overlapping state, is supposedly an idea based in science, but really, that's when the level of postulating bleeds into science fiction. One concept of the multiverse is that every single choice every single person makes creates an "alternate timeline" or an entirely new universe wherein that was the choice. That means an awful lot of very similar universe, but with only VERY minor variations. It also ties the idea purely to sentient beings. The radically far end of the spectrum, in pop culture not scientific postulation that is, likes to have things massively different from universe to universe. Think the "mirror universe" from the Star Treks. I don't suggest Googling the actual science concepts, unless you want your brain to ache.

The fun in multiverses comes when you get to interact with another one. In one (I have many) of the "novels being written mostly in my head" something happens and a bunch of universes collide and combine, leaving our planet like a quilt of universes mashed together. In another, there is a prime world (ours) and then a universe for every single fiction we, as a people, have ever conceived, including individual fantasy. Most multiverse fictions have someone traversing from their own over to a single other universe. But, IMO, the real fun comes when you can visit A LOT of other universes.

Everything Everywhere All at Once postulates an entirely new idea, in that technology allows people of the "alpha" universe (oh the conceit, that there is always a prime universe, the "real" one, while all others are extensions or bad copies) to not travel to other universes, but draw upon the skills and personalities of their other-universe counter-parts. The body may stay in one universe, but the mind can draw upon another's knowledge, or take control. Alas, that technology use did not go well for the alpha's.

Gawddammit, still haven't rewatched it !!

Everything.

Evelyn (Michelle Yeoh, Star Trek: Discovery) and Waymond Wang (Ke Huy Quan, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom) run a laundromat. Its a bit of a mess. Their life is more than a bit of a mess. While Evelyn seems intimately aware of all the workings of the place, her husband is rather flighty (leaves googley eyes on everything), she is swamped in an IRS audit going badly, her unforgiving father has recently arrived to live with them, and the tension with her daughter is hitting a high, as Joy (Stephanie Hsu, The Marvelous Mrs Maisel) brings home her GF to meet the family, just before a laundromat customer appreciation party (Chinese New Year? Party for her father?). Evelyn does not seem happy, her husband (despite his giddy reaction to everything) even less so, as he is trying to catch his wife's attention long enough to give her divorce papers.

And then the other Waymond reaches out to Evelyn.

P.S. ReWatch Complete! 

Quan does such a good job of switching gears from Waymond, the silly set upon husband, to Waymond the multiverse soldier. While in the elevator, he puts his glasses away, pulls out a small umbrella to hide them from the camera, and then proceeds to tell Evelyn quickly about what is going on, as well as installing their equipment: dual mid-2000s style hands-free earpieces. After a bit of disorienting configuration, DING they are on the 10th floor. "Wow, fast elevator, " this universe's Waymond says.

This whole opening act introduces us to the war going on between agents of the AlphaVerse (the first universe to discover the others, and learn how to connect) and the Jojo Siwa Jobu Tupaki. AlphaWaymond believes he has found a special warrior in Evelyn, someone who has made all the disappointing choices for her life, leading her to ... here, a tax audit. We solidify that introduction with the most fantastic fight sequence, between AlphaWaymond and some unfortunate security guards, after Evelyn misunderstands an instruction to fight back, and punches Deirdre (Jamie Lee Curtis, Freaky Friday) the auditor, in the nose. From there, in just trying to escape the IRS building, we learn all about the multiverse and what is going on. And the Bagel. Hail the Bagel. 

This opening also introduces us to the style of directing from The Dans, and the range of our actors. It constantly, quickly shifts from humorous, to uncomfortably emotional, to absolutely ludicrous. I honestly never thought Michelle Yeoh had this in her, as she has always been so fucking regal in my mind. But she pulls off the shifts from mundanity to silliness to action so well, I was marvelling all over again in the rewatch. And while I am less familiar with Quan's work, the switches between silly Waymond, complete with high pitched Shortround voice, to suave Hong Kong drama Waymond, so slick in his black suit, are fantastic. I am so glad he is back to acting. But isn't it a little on the nose that his next project is season 2 of Loki ?

Anywayz, things just progress, and get sillier, and more dramatic, and more tear-jerkingly moving. Soooo much goes on, but when thinking of how to recap it, I realized plot-wise it all happens within a very very condensed time period. So much of the movie takes place inside the IRS building that the are desperate to escape, occasionally shifting to another universe where they just left quietly after the audit meeting, and are in the party at the laundromat. But, by then, Evelyn is fully versed (pun intended) in verse jumping, and is now desperate to understand her power well enough to save her daughter. She is beginning to see that even in the universes where she made the best possible choices (basically becomes Michelle Yeoh), there are disappointments. And we visit more than a few nonsense universes, each that have their own just-right amount of sweetness and poignancy. And disturbing aspects -- hotdogs for fingers are fine, but squirting mustard and ketchup from finger tips?!?!?

Eventually, Evelyn finds her centre. Her place. Her real universe. Which also doesn't quite say everything, because Evelyn is now in all universes, everywhere, all at once. But she is accepting it and has a chance to be happy about it/them.

Kent's MV post.