‘Everything Everywhere All At Once’ Is a Truly Unforgettable Moviegoing Experience

It’s difficult to talk about this film because you should enter the theater as unprepared as possible. I saw the trailer, but I don’t think it explains very much other than the basic plot. Tax season is upon us! Screw H&R Block. Make sure to save some time for Michelle Yeoh in the Daniels’ kinetic and beautifully bonkers new film, Everything Everywhere All At Once. You want a multiverse? This is a multiverse!

Yeoh plays Evelyn Wang, a tired and frustrated owner of a laundromat that she shares with her husband, Waymond, played by Ke Huy Quan. As they are getting ready to celebrate the Chinese New Year, they are preparing for an overdue audit, and their daughter, Joy (Stephanie Hsu), wants to introduce her girlfriend to Evelyn’s father, played by James Hong.

When Evelyn and Waymond visit the IRS, Waymond’s body is taken over by Alpha Waymond (stay with me). He explains to her that every choice you make splinters off into another universe, and members of the Alpha Universe created technology that allows them to connect with their counterparts across a variety of lives and universes. Alpha Waymond informs Evelyn that the multiverse is on the verge of collapse, and she must prepare to fight the power-hungry Jobu Tupaki to save it.

Over the course of the film, Evelyn jumps through the different lives she could’ve lived. In one universe she is a chef and in another she is a starlet ready for the red carpet. Maybe she is a kung fu action star or an opera singer? Editor Paul Rogers makes you feel like you are riding a rollercoaster but the bar isn’t fully secured. Scenes and events smash into each other so joyously that you can’t help be deliriously gobsmacked by how these universes bend in on one another.

At the center of the storm is Michelle Yeoh, an actress who criminally hasn’t been given the roles she consistently deserves. Her grace, strength, an vulnerability come center stage as a woman who mourns the lives she didn’t know were possible. Not only does she get to lift herself to newer dramatic heights, but she is afforded the opportunity to be silly and over-the-top in a way that I don’t think we have seen before. Michelle Yeoh is magnificent.

As Joy, Stephanie Hsu is a strong counterpoint to Yeoh’s Evelyn. The pain she feels from a seemingly distant mother is palpable, and the number of varied roles she plays throughout is impressive. She gets to wear some extravagant costumes from designer Shirley Kurata (check out her work on HBO Max’s Genera+ion and see how we all failed that show), and she looks devilishly fierce doing it. Ke Huy Quan will break your heart, and you will never look at Jamie Lee Curtis the same way again.

Everything Everywhere All At Once is a movie that we will be talking about all year, and that’s not just because of Daniels’ directorial prowess. It is about a woman seeing how her choices affected her life, but it is also joyously stupid and silly and emotional. It’s so nimble and sly while being devastating. It lives in that beautiful realm where your heart connects with your head, and you just keep wanting to talk about it. This film defies genre and your expectations.

Do your taxes. See Everything Everywhere All At Once. Don’t regret the choices you’ve made in your life. Embrace the mess you’ve made.

Everything Everywhere All At Once goes wide on April 8.