I honestly don’t even know where to begin with this essay, but I’ll try. This movie was a wild ride. I really don’t think I’ve seen anything like this before. I don’t know how I’ll emotionally recover from this one. This movie had so many things from sci-fi, fantasy, drama, comedy, poignancy, kung-fu, and so, so much more. At the time I’m writing this, I still haven’t seen Doctor Strange and The Multiverse of Madness, but I have a feeling I’ll be underwhelmed after seeing Everything Everywhere All At Once (Update: I have watched Dr. Strange 2 and while it was a lot of fun and I loved Sam Rami's direction especially, I really wish they explored the multiverse more like they did here). EEAAO is amazing! It’s as good as everyone says it is. From the acting to the visuals, to the action, and more. There’s something for everyone in this film and the directors nailed it.
The film tells the story of Evelyn Wang (played by the great Michelle Yeoh), a woman who is struggling with paying taxes for her laundromat and with her relationship with her family. Initially, things seem like a simple family drama story as Evelyn is growing more distant fromm her husband Wayman (a terrific comeback from Ke Huy Quan after a good decade) and her gay daughter Joy (Stephanie Hsu). As the story continues, however, the film's directors, Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (also collectively called Daniels), cleverly put in hints of something very unusual happening in the background which becomes more noticeable on the second viewing. Not everything is as it seems. Suddenly on their way to the IRS with Waymond and her father, Gong Gong (played by the legendary James Hong), Evelyn gets summoned to the multiverse and is told that she is the only one who can save it from the evil entity called Jobu Tupaki. And that’s all I can say before I end up accidentally spoiling things.
There’s a lot that goes on in this film. I mention all the genres in this film before, but there is an ultimate underlying message in the midst of this insanity; well, multiple, really. Evelyn is struggling in life; she feels like she wasted her potential in a variety of ways. Working at a laundromat with her husband has become too mundane and stressful for her. She starts to wonder what would happen if she made different choices that allowed her to express her potential. She’s also struggling with accepting that Joy is gay as well as telling her traditionalist father this. Joy is struggling as well in terms of her strained relationship with her mother. Joy feels left out, ignored, and doesn’t feel like Evelyn cares anymore. Waymond is struggling to have the happy life he imagined with Evelyn during their early days. Now that decades have passed, things aren’t the same anymore. Any kind of action Waymond tries for Evelyn and Joy keeps being shot down by Evelyn. All in all, there is too much going on and no one knows how to properly handle it.
The movie is so dense with its themes that it can take multiple viewings to understand all the messages, but the movie is ultimately about love, generational trauma, and nihilism both the positive and negative sides of it. In terms of nihilism, Joy, ironic to her name, is on the negative side while Evelyn, later on in the film, understands the positive side of it. Joy is depressed knowing that her mother doesn’t like the life she is living and can’t bring herself to accept it. To Joy, nothing matters and she feels like she might as well die to get those feelings off her chest. Life is dull and bad; joy is meaningless; nothing matters. Evelyn is too focused on everything else going on in her life from taxes to potentially losing the laundromat to her problems with her marriage and daughter. To Evelyn, nothing matters except for that. Waymond is the most positive one out of the trio. He has an optimistic outlook on the world and does his best to make sure his family sees it too, primarily Evelyn. One of the things he does is that he puts these cute googly eyes on various things from laundry machines to items around the house to bring some levity to their lives. These googly eyes become Evelyn’s third eye in a way. She sees the good side of nihilism: life is mostly good and worth living for and suffering is temporary and fixable. Simply put: Be kind.
When it comes to love and generational trauma, I think that there’s something in this film that resonates with a lot of people. I don’t think I’ll explain it here because it goes into heavy spoilers, but anyone who has parents, especially a mother, and anyone who has any kind of generational trauma will relate to this. I know I did. I do love my mom and she loves me, but our relationship has gotten rocky over the past few years. Various reasons are a part of this (being generations apart is definitely one), but let’s just say most of those reasons are entirely out of our control and have been for a while. If I had any control at all, I would do everything I can to make sure that my mom and I would have better, more stable lives where we understood each other better rather than headbutting each other at almost every turn. Love and kindness can ultimately lead to understanding and vice versa. It doesn’t always work, but understanding each other, at least at ground level, is a good start. I highly doubt I’m the only one in this situation as the Daniels saw this to be a good enough situation to make a movie about it. Some movies nowadays are also touching on this subject like Pixar’s Turning Red and Disney’s Encanto. This is a good thing since it’s a difficult subject to tackle, but it is an incredibly important one to learn. Not everything will work out like a fantastical sci-fi/fairy tale can. The least we can do, however, is give it a chance.
Before I end this essay off, I need to mention one more thing that really resonated with me in this film. Midway through the movie, we learn that the Evelyn we're following is the worst version of her because she doesn't excel in anything and wasted a lot of her potential that other versions of her have followed. Our Evelyn is the most normal, mundane version of herself. However, our Evelyn is the only one able to save the multiverse because she has so much unrealized potential. Now, in the situation she's in, Evelyn can fulfill every ounce of potential she has to save the universes. I come back to this scene because I see myself in Evelyn. I love writing, drawing, videography, building, puzzle-solving, acting, voice acting, and more. But, these things are merely hobbies that I feel like haven't been used fully yet. Life keeps putting obstacles in my way to prevent this. It bothers me more than anyone else. I hope to one day fulfill that potential to turn my worse self into my best self.
Ultimately, I had a great time with EEAAO! It was an incredibly fun and well-crafted film with so many messages that resonate with the world. Sure, nothing matters, but that’s not always a bad thing. It doesn’t have to be. We can live in the moment and choose what matters. It’s worth embracing the small, happy moments we have in our lives. We can turn into our best selves whenever we want. What we can also do with this insane film is enjoy the awesome martial arts, the story of the multiverse, the concept of becoming our best selves, and the family dynamics throughout. And then, we can go home, think it over, learn some lessons, watch the film again via streaming, rinse and repeat. We can think about the “what if” of our lives as much as we want. At the end of the day, we should make the best out of the lives we live now.
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