TMS Movie Review: Everything, Everywhere, All at Once

(AGBO / A24 Films)

WARNING: Review features a spoiler.

Unlike Valérie Lemercier’s Aline, which was batsh!t crazy in the worst possible ways; Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert’s Everything, Everywhere, All at Once is batsh!t crazy in the best possible ways. After months of built-up hype and anticipation from fans of Kwan & Scheinert [also known professionally as the moniker Daniels]; I can safely confirm the wild, trippy, colorful, out-of-this-world, sci-fi epic lives up to expectations. One of the most original films to come out this season holds its own with completely original characters played by mostly character actors. Everything, Everywhere, All at Once reminds viewers that with the right minds and teams of people in the cast and crew, anything is possible in cinema.

In modern Simi Valley, CA, 50-something Evelyn Wang (Michelle Yeoh) is not having a good day. Her elderly father (James Hong) is visiting America after years of ignoring her, Evelyn’s husband, Waymond (Ke Huy Quan), and their daughter Joy (Stephanie Hsu). Evelyn and Waymond’s local laundromat is on the verge of being audited, Waymond secretly wants a divorce and Evelyn is in denial Joy is a lesbian. Before anything could get any worse, Waymond suddenly hands Evelyn a set of random instructions and a small pair of headphones which—quite literally—rock her world. Jamie Lee Curtis co-stars as the IRS agent scheduled to meet with the Wang family, while Jenny Slate and Harry Shum, Jr. appear in amusing roles.

(AGBO / A24 Films)

Alternate universes and time travel are very tricky to pull off in fiction, especially parallel multi-universes. But the Daniels totally succeed with Everything, Everywhere, All at Once, and were smart to keep the universes always somewhat relevant to Evelyn’s life or past, even in the craziest scenarios. Yeoh is perfect lead casting from the action star background to knowing multiple languages to appearing glamorous to being portrayed as both ordinary and extraordinary. Quan, whom most last saw four decades ago in Steven Spielberg’s Indiana Jones & the Temple of Doom (1984) and Richard Donner’s The Goonies (1985), is now back on the big screen in a wonderful way. Right away we see Quan’s potential and charm as a child actor weren’t flukes, and he can still carry a scene in his first substantial, grown-up role. And just like Yeoh, Quan shows off his own impressive martial arts choreography training many times in Everything, Everywhere.

The Daniels are the same duo who gave us Swiss Army Man (2016), or ‘the farting corpse movie,’ as sometimes referred to; and many bizarrely fascinating music videos, most famously DJ Snake’s ‘Turn Down for What’ (2014). With Everything, Everywhere, All at Once, we get their talents spread far and wide. They’re twice as wacky as the Coen Brothers, but just as accessible to an audience. Besides the impressive special effects, fast editing, absurd humor, unusual twists and wild narrative, we also get one of the most effective and hilarious fake endings in recent memory. If there’s one thing to slightly pick with Everything, Everywhere, it’s that the Daniels—like most talented filmmakers—could trust their editor a little bit more. While still a great screen experience, the pacing and length of the feature could also have easily been tightened by omitting maybe 15-20 minutes.

Nonetheless, for one of the most original, entertaining, strangest, unforgettable movies in theaters right now that also forms into a surprisingly touching mother-daughter tale; consider Everything, Everywhere, All at Once.