Everything, Everywhere, All At Once -- Movie Review

I really liked the movie Everything Everywhere All At Once.

The mindplay of the main character reflects the inner life of the average individual. We often live out our lives in our heads, trying to imagine what would have happened if we had made different choices, taken different career or relationship paths.

Movies like It's a Wonderful Life and Back to the Future give us a glimpse into the kind of worlds that can emerge if we had the chance to change the past to influence the future.

But EEAAO did something very different. The main character, Evelyn Wang, gets to live out multiple scenarios, go on different paths, try different life scenarios.

It was dizzying, but it was entertaining and very powerful. The IRS lady, played by Jamie Lee Curtis, was really funny. I just loved how the movie intertwined different lifespans, scenarios, and characters throughout. At one point, she is working as an expert chef, and then she talks about the Disney movie Ratatouille, but she calls that movie's man character "Racacoonie."

Then she reverts back to that lifespan with the other expert chef, and she sits on his head to help him get his pet racoon back, so that he can continue being an expert chef:

My favorite scene occurs outside of the movie theater in Evelyn's "Famous Actress" life.

Waymond Wang, in that life, is living as an independent businessman (and bachelor). He's suave, debonair, cool, and unflappable. He's well-dressed and smoking.

Completely unlike the real-life Waymond, whom Evelyn had married.

After the movie, he shares with her:

Such a moving, yet innovative and unorthodox way of saying "I love you!"

And those three words describe EEAAO perfectly. 

I loved this movie, and it deserved the multiple awards it received on Oscar night.

The award victories were particularly special because Ke Huy Quan won Best Supporting Actor. For all intents and purposes, he was a washed-up has-been. He struggled to get steady work after his child-actor stardom, and in many cases, he was reduced to bit parts as a stereotypical Asian character.

After all those years, he came back and won an Oscar. AMAZING! 

 Check out his interview with CBS Sunday Morning here:

   

 Check out his acceptance speech here:

 

 

For good mearsure, eere's a great review that I found on Reddit, too:

Meaning Of The Chinese Title: "天馬行空"
by u/l3nto in eeaao

Here's the whole post:

I finally had my Chinese parents watch this since I loved this movie so damn much. My dad made an observation on the Chinese title "天馬行空" that is displayed alongside the English title at the end of the movie. It's a Chinese idiom meaning something like a "horse flying in the sky" which means something impossible and existing in imagination. Kind of like English's "when pigs fly" but more in a daydream kind of way with less negative connotations.

I think one of the possible interpretations of the movie is that the entire multiverse is Evelyn's imagination asking "what if", and a way to escape from the stressful and disappointing life Evelyn is living. She ultimately comes to peace with Laundromat Evelyn, so either way, whether or not you choose to see Evelyn and her daughter as omnidimensional goddesses or this is all simply Evelyn daydreaming, I feel like the themes fit well for both.

Just wanted to share this since I was wondering about the title myself!