Everything Everywhere All At Once Provides A Fresh, Creative, and Thrilling Multiverse Ride

       When thinking of the concept of a multiverse, one generally pictures it as being tied to the comic book film genre with Marvel utilizing it in films including Spider-Man: No Way Home or Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness. It's usage within the superhero genre makes it even more surprising to experience the same concept in a completely different genre. With Everything Everywhere All At Once, the film combines both Sci-Fi and adventure to create an unusually thrilling multiverse experience that's boasted by a career-best performance from Michelle Yeoh. 

      Everything Everywhere All At Once's plot revolves around a middle-aged Chinese immigrant (Michelle Yeoh) finding herself being overwhelmed by life including trying to navigate her relationships with her husband (Ke Huy Quan), her daughter (Stephanie Hsu) and her father (James Hung), along with dealing with a hostile IRS agent (Jamie Lee Curtis) auditing her business records and threatening to close down her laundromat. In doing so, she is visited by a different version of her husband who informs her that she's the last person whose able to save the multiverse. Everything's plot is one that's unexpectedly funny, thoroughly entertaining, and surprisingly heartfelt with its exploring of themes regarding midlife crisis, maternal love and acceptance. The film proves to be extremely effective in showing a different side of the multiverse concept, while maximizing the talent of its main cast and filmmakers to their fullest potential. From fantastic acting to deeply emotional storytelling and carrying a stunning visual flare that's combined with martial arts, Everything everywhere All At Once delivers on its main titles promise while presenting itself as being one of the years pleasant surprises.

      In terms of acting, Everywhere's cast deliver fantastic performances with Michelle Yeoh giving what's arguably a career-defining performance as dissatisfied laundromat owner Evelyn Quan Wang, whose experiencing a midlife crisis. She commands the screen with not just bringing her trademark martial arts skills into play, but demonstrating strong dramatic range. Stephanie Hsu hugely impresses as Evelyn and Waynond's daughter Joy, whose revealed as being a threat to the multiverse. Her performance is not only scene-stealing but she shares terrific chemistry with Yeoh, making their mother-and-daughter dynamic relatable to audiences. Key Huy Quan is terrific as Evelyn's meek and goofy husband Waymond with his best moments being when shifting between multiple versions of Evelyn's husband. Veteran actor James Hong does a fine job playing Evelyn's demanding father Gong Gong. Jamie Lee Curtis is solid in a surprising yet strong supporting role as an aggressive FBI inspector Deidre Beaubeirdra with other noteworthy supporting roles including Tallie Medel as Joy's girlfriend, Becky. Overall, Everywhere's cast bring much energy, enthusiasm, and realism to the story with everyone essentially being on their A game here. 

Directed by filmmaking duo Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, the talented duo do a fantastic job of bringing the stories multiverse to life in a way that is visually striking with breathtaking imagery. The action sequences consist of thrilling martial arts violence which showcases characters being injured, killed, and stabbed with bizarre bits including a character stapling a paper to their own forehead. The pacing goes back and forth between different universes, giving the movie a trailer like feel with a zany mood. Some of the films bizarre sequences include a fight scene involving a butt plug, characters having hot dog fingers, and one including talking rocks. The soundtrack helps in bringing the films most fantastical elements to life with the music giving off a unique sci-fi action feel that blends operatic, post-rock, and electronica influences together. As for overall directing, the pair do a marvelous job of crafting a visually stunning world, that's over-the-top in the best way combined with rampant quick cuts which delivers a whiplash feel. In a cinematic era which finds innovativeness to be a rarity, the duo do a highly commendable job of bringing a different type of multiverse to the screen. 

      For a story that's multiverse centered, it carries a tremendous amount of heart behind its narrative with Evelyn's character experiencing all the different versions of her life that both showcase missed opportunities, as well as making her appreciate those surrounding her. The story is very much one that revolves around themes regarding life choices, the realization of ones mistakes and their full potential, fate, family, and ultimately feeling needed. The films humor is cleverly inserted into the films action with quirky bits including Evelyn's character performing random tasks in order to fully access her multiverse abilities. Her character is shown to be running a run-down laundromat along with her struggling financially due to drowning in IRS bills. Her relationship with Joy serves as being the heart of the film with both carrying not only enormous amounts of pain from familial relationships, but love for each other nonetheless. Evelyn's character is presented as being full of regret regarding not living the life she originally envisioned to have, as well as not meeting the expectations of her demanding father. This is subtly shown through her relationships with both Waymond and Joy with the latter being shown to slip further into darkness while her mother taps into all her unused potential from the multiverse. What makes Everywhere's script such a brilliantly clever piece of writing is how well layered it is. While it may seem that the script juggles numerous themes and subplots simultaneously, it's actually meant to appear as such to show how chaotic Evelyn's life is as she connects with different universes of herself. 

      One of the more noteworthy aspects of Everything is how personal the filmmakers make the story feel. The film offers audience an experience that's visually dazzling while boasting powerful themes pertaining to self-discovery along with familial dynamics that'll make them appreciate their loved ones a little more. With bearing a high concept such as the multiverse, Everything All At Once makes effective use of it in a way that's both refreshing and emotionally satisfying while bringing out the best from its main cast.

Final Verdict: SEE IT