A frazzled Chinese housewife being audited by the IRS and fed up with her husband and difficult daughter, suddenly finds herself the lynchpin of reality as the entire multiverse is put into danger. Now, she must call on the powers of her infinite other selves to save the denizens of a countless other realities and make sure that she doesn’t lose the laundromat that she secretly hates.
Honestly, that recap is only a tenth as insane as this movie gets and that’s honestly what I love about it so much. Everything Everywhere All at Once is not only the best movie I have seen all year, it’s the best movie I have seen in years… explodingly original, outlandishly brave in its storytelling, and populated by incredible writing and heartfelt performances. This movie is as deep as it is hilarious, as cringe-inducing as it is heartwarming.
The film stars Michelle Yeoh who is, lets face it, an international treasure already. This movie represents Yeoh’s crowning achievement as she shows a range that puts most other actors to shame. Here, she is incredible. Swinging seamlessly between her haggard housewife persona to Hollywood Kung Fu superstar, to jealous chef, to mentally unstable goddess. Yeoh makes it look absolutely effortless.
Ke Huy Quan makes a welcome return in this movie. Far from his Data/Short Round days, Quan is so wonderfully wholesome and heartfelt in this movie that you just can’t help but love him to pieces. It’s so great to see him again in a movie and I hope we see him a lot more in the future.
Stephanie Hsu rounds out the main cast as the family daughter and I feel like her performance is getting overshadowed when it shouldn’t be. Aside from being the driving force of the narrative, the acceptance of a stubborn mother being the thing that she craves, Hsu also brings an effortless, heartfelt, and heartbreaking performance to this movie.
Jamie Lee Curtis and James Hong also appear and both actors are an absolute riot. I had honestly forgotten how funny Jaime Lee Curtis is.
The originality of this movie and its bravery to not only defy expectations, but EVERY expectation and tell a moving, hilarious, and goofy story is something to behold. This is one of those rare, beautiful films that never tips its hand, is basically impossible to predict, doesn’t hand hold or insult your intelligence, and then has the audacity to tell a high-concept story with emotional payoff that is satisfying and leaves you fulfilled at the end.
Everything Everywhere All At Once has the true potential to be not only the best movie of 2022, but one of my top ten movies of all time, I loved it that much.
Jason Gaston 