This weekend I rewatched Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert’s “Everything Everywhere All At Once.” It’s time for me to weigh in on this one as I waited and waited to post thoughts on it.
It’s also been, more or less, agreed upon that if there is one Best Picture contender to have been released so far this year then it’s this one. I don’t know if older Academy voters will go for this outrageous movie, but its incredible success at the box-office will definitely push it forward.
The film premiered at South by Southwest in March to rapturous praise. It’ll probably top our mid-year critics poll next week. It’s blowing minds nationwide, but it didn’t do anything for me. It just felt messy. Maybe that was the point. I can't say I loved the film, but it's well directed and well-acted, with a special shout out to the film’s top-notch tech departments.
So, am I missing something here? Clearly. It didn’t do a damn thing for me. Yes, the cast is great, the photography nicely chosen, Chinese culture effortlessly represented, etc. But it felt as though the Daniels were just throwing every idea at the screen, and the result felt rather shallow, especially at a whopping 142 minutes.
Now, I’m not going to imply that the praise stems from this being a minority story, inventively told, with a dash of social commentary added in for good measure, because there are way too many people creaming their pants over this film and it can’t just be a virtue signaling thing. It’s very well made, I’ll give it that, and its success is somewhat groundbreaking for Asians in Hollywood, so I’ll let it slide.
The top-billed performances are also fantastic (especially Michelle Yeoh), the fighting choreography is visually inventive, and it’s just a very ambitious venture for these indie filmmakers. The first hour is actually fairly solid, but, boy does it also overstay its welcome.
The anxiety-ridden immigrant family at the center of the film just want to get their taxes done, and the subtle absurdism in this first stretch of the film is wonderfully told. Then, at some point, multiverses pack onto other multiverses, hot-dog fingers show up, not to mention a black hole bagel becoming central to the story and it inevitably becomes pointlessly complicated. The emotional aspects at the climax also feel too obvious and unearned. Dare I say it, the film is a plasticized depiction of generational trauma.
It’s all so very densely packed and gimmicky as well. The confetti puke was a nice touch, I’ll admit that, ditto the costume design. However, this is the most “millennial” movie I have ever seen, as a certain philosophy ruminates throughout the film. Cue in the nihilism. The movie basically says the world is a place that’s chaotic and void of meaning, so any kind of social development or progress is just an illusion, unless, of course, you learn to love. It might just be the most Reddit-approved movie ever made, and its very nihilism, despite the trite messaging, renders it almost meaningless.
In the end, what do we finally get from this film? An overabundance of slapstick, a fetish for over-the-top fighting, multiverses stamped upon more multiverses, and a soapy message about family and love. It doesn’t help that the film goes from one scene to the next without any consequential dramatic stakes to hold onto.
This is an ice cold film, delivered in a relentless ADD-infused assault on the senses. Ironically, Kwan has admitted he wrote the film as an attempt to recognize and understand his previously undiagnosed ADHD, but why should we suffer in the process?
There’s nothing cinematic about what the Daniels have done here, rather, it feels like a 140+ minute music video devoid of the exact thing it tries to preach for: human feeling.