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EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE (2022) - If nothing else, Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (collectively Daniels) certainly must be credited with a truth in titling nod for their movie - It certainly (and repeatedly) lives up to its moniker.
Scraping away all of the noise, EVERYTHING actually has a very basic premise which could have resulted in some poignancy. A Chinese-American couple, Evelyn (Michelle Yeoh) and Waymond (Ke Huy Quan), are having marital issues which extend to communicating with their daughter Joy (Stephanie Hsu). Adding to the discord are a crusty IRS Agent (an almost unrecognizable Jamie Lee Curtis) who has the family business under audit, and Evelyn's father Gong (James Hong; a fine presence here) -- who she also has parental issues with.
Unfortunately, Daniels have piled on a Multi-verse plot which combines elements of THE MATRIX, SLIDING DOORS and the recent SPIDERMAN: FAR FROM HOME. Instead of having three Spidermen, we seemingly have dozens of iterations of Evelyn. What the Daniels don't bring are a clear clean narrative, genuine insight or a semblance of drama (something the other three pictures all had). Certainly, Daniels get points for a few amusing bits and pieces along the way, but no matter how many hot dogs, bagels, pet rocks and raccoons that are fetishized here, the characters get lost in the sound and fury. Also noteworthy is that any faintly clever notion will be repeated and repeated -- so it's safe to take refreshment breaks. It's like an old Warner Brothers cartoon, except that Chuck Jones and Tex Avery could express their craziness in a tidy 7 minutes, not the elephantine 132 here (a couple of times, audience members got up thinking it was over; and, at the end there was audible sighs of relief that it actually was).
The cast is game (dozens of Michelle Yeohs isn't a bad thing) and the effects are quite good for a fairly modestly budgeted effects extravaganza. As noted at the outset, there is an actual family story to be told here (and, eventually, does), but for all of Daniels' fancy tricks, the ending could much more cogently been arrived at with little if any of the sound and fury. After all the convoluted metaphysical happenings the big takeaway is the simplest of homilies. Indeed, one could eliminate almost the entirety of the almost two hour SFX sideshow and arrive at the very same life lesson with only a couple of 'verses' - or, even just one.
Scraping away all of the noise, EVERYTHING actually has a very basic premise which could have resulted in some poignancy. A Chinese-American couple, Evelyn (Michelle Yeoh) and Waymond (Ke Huy Quan), are having marital issues which extend to communicating with their daughter Joy (Stephanie Hsu). Adding to the discord are a crusty IRS Agent (an almost unrecognizable Jamie Lee Curtis) who has the family business under audit, and Evelyn's father Gong (James Hong; a fine presence here) -- who she also has parental issues with.
Unfortunately, Daniels have piled on a Multi-verse plot which combines elements of THE MATRIX, SLIDING DOORS and the recent SPIDERMAN: FAR FROM HOME. Instead of having three Spidermen, we seemingly have dozens of iterations of Evelyn. What the Daniels don't bring are a clear clean narrative, genuine insight or a semblance of drama (something the other three pictures all had). Certainly, Daniels get points for a few amusing bits and pieces along the way, but no matter how many hot dogs, bagels, pet rocks and raccoons that are fetishized here, the characters get lost in the sound and fury. Also noteworthy is that any faintly clever notion will be repeated and repeated -- so it's safe to take refreshment breaks. It's like an old Warner Brothers cartoon, except that Chuck Jones and Tex Avery could express their craziness in a tidy 7 minutes, not the elephantine 132 here (a couple of times, audience members got up thinking it was over; and, at the end there was audible sighs of relief that it actually was).
The cast is game (dozens of Michelle Yeohs isn't a bad thing) and the effects are quite good for a fairly modestly budgeted effects extravaganza. As noted at the outset, there is an actual family story to be told here (and, eventually, does), but for all of Daniels' fancy tricks, the ending could much more cogently been arrived at with little if any of the sound and fury. After all the convoluted metaphysical happenings the big takeaway is the simplest of homilies. Indeed, one could eliminate almost the entirety of the almost two hour SFX sideshow and arrive at the very same life lesson with only a couple of 'verses' - or, even just one.
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