"Everything Everywhere All at Once" review — multiverse action flick is a unique delight

“Mrs. Wang, are you with us?”

This film was featured in my Best Films of 2022 list.

Evelyn Wang (Michelle Yeoh) isn’t doing very well. Every day, it seems like something goes wrong in the laundromat she owns with Wayne, her husband (Ke Huy Quan). Someone has put their shoes in a washer or the coin machine has eaten someone’s twenty-dollar bill. Meanwhile, chaos brews in Evelyn’s personal life: her aging father (James Hong) is coming from China to visit and the relationship with her daughter, Joy (Stephanie Hsu) grows ever more strained, all the while Chinese New Year looms around the corner. Unbeknownst to Evelyn, her husband is planning on filing for divorce. And to top it all off, the Wangs’ laundromat is being audited by the IRS. So, to say that Evelyn isn’t doing very well is probably an understatement if anything. This is where she gets a visit from a version of her husband from one of the infinite alternate realities in the multiverse with a message of doom.

The sophomore feature from filmmaking duo Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (collectively known as “Daniels”), Everything Everywhere All At Once sends its audience on an energetic, surprisingly heartfelt, and ultimately unforgettable journey into the vast expanses of the multiverse. Lead with a superb cast of players and more than enough visual finesse for one universe, the film is relentless ambitious in the best possible way. It explodes with possibility and excitement as it jumps from one piece of visual delight to the next. People explode into confetti and fingers become hotdogs. It’s outstandingly funny but comedy delivered with earnestness and heart. It’s a beautiful story about family, immigration, and overcoming generational prejudices as much as it’s about the consequences of putting literally everything on a bagel. The lighting, the sound, the cinematography, the costuming, the production design, and the rest of the film’s craft come together to form a truly special film. 

The film’s centrepiece is the incredible performance from Michelle Yeoh. Yeoh’s Evelyn is charming while also being terribly tragic. With very little left in her life that remains stable, Evelyn faces it all with her chin held high. Or, at least, she’s trying. So when the alternate universe version of Wayne comes knocking, it’s all just a little too much to handle. Wayne tells Evelyn that a cosmic villain known as Jobu Tupaki is coming to destroy her universe but Evelyn just doesn’t have the time to help him. Ke Huy Quan shines as Wayne. An emotional heavyweight in Everything Everywhere, Quan’s softspoken delivery mixed with Wayne’s incredible martial arts abilities makes for an entertaining combination, to say the least.

(Left to right) Stephanie Hsu, Michelle Yeoh, and Ke Huy Quan in Everything Everywhere All at Once. Image: A24. 

The other main player in the Wang family drama is Joy, played by Stephanie Hsu in, other than a bit part in last year’s Shang-Chi, her feature film debut. Joy is frustrated with her overbearing mother. It’s a clash as old as the idea of immigration. Joy is trying to forge her own identity in America and not be tied to what her parents brought over from China. The latest challenge, trying to introduce Evelyn’s father to the idea that his granddaughter is dating a woman. Hsu is incredible here but especially proves her salt as the film’s main antagonist, Jobu Tupaki. Hsu is delightful throughout with her varied, eclectic roles.

In every field, the creative craft of Everything Everywhere exceeds and delivers. Everything works together in such an organic, specific, and intentional way that makes the film feel so precise. No moments in the film are wasted. Larkin Seiple’s cinematography is rich and detailed, basking in brilliant washes of colour. Editor Paul Rogers keeps the film moving at a frantic clip with the sequences set across the bizarre realms blending into each other logically and clearly. Costume designer Shirley Kurata certainly had her work cut out for her with a constant stream of colourful costumes and intricate designs. Of course, there’s the phenomenal score by experimental band Son Lux. Everything Everywhere All at Once is a piece of pure, unadulterated maximalism but it makes no apologies for it. 

The secret to the success of Everything Everywhere might just be the power of Daniels. Kwan and Scheinert, in their writing and direction, channel an eclectic batch of influences ranging from The Matrix trilogy, to classic Hong Kong martial arts films, Stanley Kubrick, and even the work of Wong Kar-wai, specifically In the Mood For Love (2000). Their playful homages and fond remembrances of past work are brought together under a distinct creative vision. They are aware of every reference but never let those references become the identity of the film. Instead, they inform the spectacle of the multiverse.

An alternate version of Evelyn learns kung fu. Photo: A24.

The logic of the film, too, works like none of the contemporary multiversal films. Its strange rules regarding travel between the many alternate realities amount to more than just convenient portals and lead to some of the film’s best moments. Of course, I would like to dive into specific details, but part of the joy of this film is being taken by surprise by its absurdity. However, what makes the film’s premise and comedy work is that it is firmly rooted within the immediate and understandable reality of the characters.

The film adheres religiously delivers to its premise — it is an overwhelming feature — and delivers some delightfully ambitious filmmaking, but it grounds it all in the universe we know and love. Despite the pieces of the film being as complicated and varied as Wayne’s map of the multiverse, it all comes back to its central drama. In a world of infinite possibilities, Kwan and Scheinert manage to find the beauty in little moments, in forgiveness, in change, and in learning to become a better person. That’s the magic of Everything Everywhere All at Once: it never forgets the real people who drive its story. 

In a moment where multiverse stories are all the rage, Everything Everywhere is the alternate we so desperately need. Strip away its sci-fi elements and the core of the film is human and understandable. It’s the story of a family, a dysfunctional family that may be the key to saving the multiverse from destruction, but a family nonetheless. It’s about the clash between parents and children, differences in generations, and collapsing relationships. It’s the story of immigration and Chinese-American culture. It’s about finding the love you’ve lost along the way and learning to understand the inherent absurdity of life. And, of course, it’s also the story of saving the cosmos from certain doom.

Score: 5

Everything Everywhere All at Once is now playing in theatres.

Everything Everywhere All at Once information
Written and directed by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert
Starring Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan, Stephanie Hsu, Jenny Slate, Tallie Medel, Harry Shum Jr., James Hong, and Jamie Lee Curtis
Released 8 April 2022 (Canada)
139 minutes