Everything Everywhere All At Once – Film Review

When an interdimensional rupture unravels reality, an unlikely hero must channel her newfound powers to fight bizarre and bewildering dangers from the multiverse as the fate of the world hangs in the balance.

For months, practically all I’ve been hearing about is Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert‘s absurdist comedy-drama film Everything Everywhere All At Once. Why? Well, there’s something magical about this film that’s been capturing the hearts of virtually everybody who has seen it. Now that I have seen it for myself, I can vouch for that and say that the film is a total blast from start to finish, and is without a doubt, the most creative film I’ve seen all year, and easily the most creative in several years.

The Daniels’ obviously had some huge ideas here, all of which are insanely crazy. So many filmmakers could have tried to make this film, and I’d be willing to bet that the vast majority of them would have failed. However, under the Daniels’ careful direction and screenwriting, they managed to craft a film that feels investing, heartfelt, exciting, and dramatic all while having some of the most absurd and goofy scenes in movie history.

Obviously, since this film traverses the multiverse, one can expect to see some genuinely wild things. I expected the film to be weird, but I didn’t expect it to be that weird, and I loved it for that. Seriously – there’s a universe in this film in which everybody has hot dog fingers instead of just, well, normal human fingers. There’s a universe where everyone is a rock instead of a human. Just when we think the Daniels’ will run out of wacky ideas, they prove us wrong in the very next scene.

But aside from all the mind-bending visuals and the trippy action sequences, the film, first and foremost, has a humongous beating heart at its core. Sure, this may technically be a “multiverse movie,” but it’s mainly just a movie about an aging woman who goes on a powerful journey of self-discovery along with her family. By the time the film comes to a close, nobody is the same person they were at the start of the film.

I really have to hand it to Kwan and Scheinert for writing such a bold and daring script. So much of this film could have gone wrong under the control of a different writing and directing team, but these two definitely knew what they were doing and they handled it with so much care. Even though it can certainly feel way too long at times, there’s barely a scene that feels unimportant in the grand scheme of things.

In addition to the film being crafted amazingly, it also features stellar performances, mainly from Michelle Yeoh who delivers a career-best performance, and one that she definitely should get an Oscar nomination for. She is able to pull off so many different scenes that require a lot out of her, but she always makes it look easy. How does she do it? Stephanie Hsu and Ke Huy Quan also do some genuinely marvelous work on this film, while Jenny Slate and Jamie Lee Curtis get incredible supporting roles.

Everything Everywhere All At Once is an insane mind-bending journey of self-discovery, hilarity, and heartwrenching emotion, executed wonderfully by Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, and featuring masterful performances.