By Seth Lukas Hynes
Everything Everywhere All At Once
Starring Michelle Yeoh, Key Huy Quan and Stephanie Hsu
Rated MA15+
4.5/5
Everything Everywhere All At Once is a deeply moving and irrepressibly fun science fiction dramedy.
Evelyn (Michelle Yeoh), an Asian-American mother and stressed laundromat manager, must defend the multiverse from a grave threat, take on the abilities of other versions of herself and put her life back together in the process.
Yeoh delivers a remarkable and extremely versatile performance of weary wit, compassion and fighting physicality. Key Huy Quan is also fun and versatile as Waymond, Evelyn’s husband, who alternately plays a meek straight-man, an ultra-capable agent and a beacon of kindness.
Everything’s madcap energy serves a tragic, beautiful allegory about a tired woman and her overwhelming life. Every Evelyn permutation helps us know her better and keeps us deeply invested in her struggles, including her fractured relationship with her daughter Joy (Stephanie Hsu). The narrative’s web of realities is also focused around a handful of core universes, meaning you are never disoriented despite the constant universe-hopping.
The plentiful action sequences are frenetic, vibrant and full of physical comedy. I can’t discuss the villain without blowing a shocking but very logical surprise, but can mention Jamie Lee Curtis’s memorably crazy performance as one of the henchmen. The ultimate antagonist of Everything is nihilism; as such, it’s wonderful to see a film that so passionately endorses kindness, love and dignified acceptance.
Everything is a thoroughly absurd movie, with wild scenes such as a heart-to-heart between two rocks and a universe where humans evolved with hotdogs for fingers, but director duo Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (collectively known as Daniels) somehow conjure incredible pathos and subtlety from their ludicrous imagery.
A fulfilling family drama woven from dozens of universes, Everything Everywhere All At Once is playing in most Victorian cinemas.
– Seth Lukas Hynes
