If there’s anything about Everything Everywhere All at Once that should not come as a surprise, it’s that it writes an obscenely ginormous check and then manages to cash every last penny of it. After all, the film comes from directing duo Daniels (Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert), the masterminds who managed to make Swiss Army Man, a movie about a man who befriends a semi-sentient corpse, actually work.
Indeed, the film’s flawless ambition to delivery ratio won’t come as a surprise, but just about every other thing about it will. Everything Everywhere All at Once follows Evelyn Wang (Michelle Yeoh), a jaded, middle-aged laundromat owner who may or may not be involved in some minor tax fraud. Her tedious, repetitive life is thrown into total pandemonium, however, when her husband, Waymond (Ke Huy Quan)—or at least a version of him—alerts her to the existence of the multiverse on the elevator ride to an IRS meeting. He then explains that a powerful villain named Jobu Tupaki is in the process of constructing a universe-destroying force that only Evelyn has the ability to stop.
And so Evelyn reluctantly plunges headfirst into the multiverse. The facts: There are an infinite number of universes that exist simultaneously, containing just about anything you could possibly imagine. The rules: To acquire different skills, you must picture a universe in which you inhabit that skill, whether it be inhumanly strong pinky fingers or a mastery of knife-fighting. (If you can think it up, it exists.)
What follows, then, are roughly 140 frenetic minutes filled to the brim with dense, complex science, colorful setpieces and scenes that feel like they’ve been pulled straight out of dreams far too abstract to describe. As you can probably gather, Everything Everywhere All at Once is not dissimilar to its title—and a lot to wrap your head around.
From the moment the multiverse kicks into action, and Evelyn is launched into a frantic split-screen-style consciousness that flickers effortlessly between an IRS meeting and the janitorial closet where she is called to action, it is clear that the Daniels aren’t the least bit apprehensive of the possibility that they might overload their viewers. Without a breath’s hesitation, they start to explore the outer limits of the universe through whiplash-inducing montages, while peppering in a generous number of references to classics like 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Matrix and various Wong Kar-wai films. This excessive level of confidence is refreshing. It’s simply up to the viewer to relinquish control, strap into the rollercoaster seat and trust that the ride will take them somewhere transcendent. And it does.
If all this sounds intimidating (which, let’s be honest, how could it not?), rest assured that Everything Everywhere All at Once is grounded by an effortlessly simple emotional throughline. Indeed, the film contains as much emotional maturity as it does cool concepts and ostentatious images (yes, including a giant butt plug and raccoon chef). At its core, it is a story about love and family, carried by the dazzling Yeoh in a subtle and unsentimental performance. Inherent in parallel universes, Evelyn learns, is the notion that a single choice can change the trajectory of one’s entire life. In tear-jerking flashbacks, she recalls the moment that she and Waymond decided to get married—a decision Evelyn’s parents shunned her for. Through these flashbacks, the Daniels ask us if we could watch our lives play out a different way, would we dare to look?