Oscar Voter Takes On ‘Everything Everywhere All At Once’

As far as I can tell, three Best Picture contenders have been released so far this year: “Top Gun: Maverick,” “Elvis,” and “Everything Everywhere All At Once.” It doesn’t mean all three will be nominated for the big prize, but that’s where we’re at right now.

The only pundit out there brave enough to discount “Everything Everywhere All At Once” from their Oscar predictions is Anne Thompson. In Thompson’s early Best Picture predictions, NOT ONCE did she mention “Everything Everywhere All At Once” as a possible contender. In fact, she decided to add it as a “longshot” a few days after her piece was published.

An Academy-voting screenwriter of several top-tier dramas in the ‘90s, emailed me today about my famous (or infamous) mixed review of “Everything Everywhere All At Once”. He seems to be in agreement about my qualms in regards to this frenetic film:

Hi, Jordan — I just want to say kudos for calling out this empty drivel of a movie. I really don’t get the praise either. Even the action scenes were impossible to follow without getting a mind-inducing headache. Did the filmmakers just spitball the entire movie? It sure looked like it — there was no discipline to the screenplay, no nuance to the damn thing, just an assaultive barrage on the senses. You have to take Ritalin to follow this trivial movie from beginning to end. I get it that the message is “love conquers all” even in a universe devoid of meaning but that’s pretty schmaltzy stuff. Cringe.

My reply:

At its core, it’s an action movie with fantasy elements. The problem is that I just didn’t get enveloped in the MTV-style editing, nor did I feel my pulse pounding whenever Michelle Yeoh fought one of the baddies. There’s most definitely some witty humor, and it does work whenever The Daniels decide to give their film time to breathe, problem is they don’t. They have major ADD. They need to stuff every zippy frame with an assortment on nonentities. The whole multiverse aspect is purely a plot device. It’s artificial, and there’s barely any meaning to it’s existence. It zaps the tension away, and the viewer is just left bored for an excruciating 140 minutes.

I still think “Everything Everywhere All At Once” will get a Best Picture nomination because the film Twitter hive will push for it. It’s their darling, and everybody needs to be onboard this train or else you’re just not cool, man. There’s no two ways about it.

Some pundits, like Anne Thompson, aren’t fully convinced that it’s a legitimate Best Picture contender, but who are we kidding here? I’ve never seen this many actors/filmmakers gushing over a film since … ever? They include, Jodie Foster, Miles Teller, Riz Ahmed, Sian Heder, Guillermo del Toro, Scott Derrickson, Sam Rockwell, Edgar Wright, SZA, Andrew Garfield, Reese Witherspoon, Kogonada, Keke Palmer, Barry Jenkins, Lilly Wachowski, Florence Pugh and Mike Flanagan.

‘Everything Everywhere’ topped our mid-year critics poll last month, appearing on 40% of the lists submitted. It’s also an indie smash at the box-office, and A24’s highest-grossing movie of all-time with a cumulative intake of $110 million worldwide. Yeah, Oscar will come calling for this movie by next year, maybe even a Best Actress nod for Michelle Yeoh.