Despite the amount of coverage Daniels’ (aka Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert) Everything Everywhere All At Once received as it picked up plenty of ‘gongs’ in 2023 awards season I pressed play on it knowing very little beyond the fact it had something to do with multiverse theory and starred Michelle Yeoh.
As it began, with the feeling of something like a quirky family comedy drama about a Chinese-American family living above their laundromat, I wondered if I was even watching the correct film but, as Yeoh’s Evelyn and her husband Waymond (Ke Huy Quan) along with her father (James Hong) headed for an appointment with Jamie Lee Curtis’ unlikely IRS tax auditor, Deirdre Beaubeirdre, things began to develop.
Honestly saying too much more of the plot will spoil much of the surprise but even by this point a sense of chaos had developed which only grows as the film goes on as the style and tone shift to include everything from sci-fi to Kung-fu, all still rooted in the same family ‘dramedy’.
Amazingly Daniels manage to wrangle this, as characters jump between costumes and locations in a blink, into not just a film that makes sense but one that flows brilliantly and knows when to slow down just enough to keep us on board without losing momentum.
Added to this are a string of action sequences that always fit together seamlessly with some of the best fight scenes I’ve seen in a major film in quite some time including some marvellously unlikely choreography, particularly when the tax inspectors awards get involved – believe me you have to see that sequence to believe anyone put it in an Oscar winning film.
Performance-wise it’s clear why Michelle Yeoh was so justifiably rewarded as she manages to take on possibly the most literally multi-faceted role ever committed to film and make it not just work but finds both the truth and heart of it in the midst of the chaos.
Stephanie Hsu, as Evelyn and Waymond’s daughter Joy, is almost her equal and, visually at least, even outdoes Yeoh as her costumes chop and change more than the scenes do.
Also very good is Quan, who made his name as Short Round in Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom four decades ago, and he manages to find a gentle centre of things that is as unexpected as it is well handled and it’s always a treat to see 94 year old James Hong on screen and that’s no different here, and he’s remarkably active throughout considering his age.
Then we come to Jamie Lee Curtis who’s Deirdre is variously hilarious, terrifying and heartbreaking and almost entirely against type for, realistically, most Hollywood stars (and she is far better served here than any of the recent Halloween movies).
After all of this, as the film begins to feel like an infinitely layered onion, Everything Everywhere All At Once concludes with a message that balances positivity, kindness and acceptance without ever feeling cheesy or sentimental bringing itself back around to where it started but with an extra level of knowledge that is what it feels like all films should do, but few truly ever manage.
And, yes, it very much outdoes Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness in not just its multiversal conceit but its action sequences too – though maybe that’s an unfair comparison (or maybe not).
Tommy Girard 