Everything Everywhere, All at Once - Laundry and Taxes
The other night I watched Everything Everywhere, All at Once for the third time. The first time I went to see it was earlier this year with a very close friend, the second time I saw it was with new friends a few weeks later and this third time was the first time I watched it alone. It isn't often that a film manages to feel so important in each one of those situations, as the title suggests, it manages to capture that overwhelming feeling of Everything yet adapts to whatever situation I was in. Everything Everywhere, All at Once is a film grappling with themes and ideas so big and so often ignored whilst also balancing a truly personal message, playing around with family drama through that crushing personal idea of coming to terms with our place in the universe. We all know that feeling of being out of your depth, of facing the weight of all that surrounds us suddenly baring over us and turning towards nihilism as the only answer. Nihilism is a theme that cinema is soaked in, so many narratives adore exploring the dark and defeatist perspective on the world that is so easy to fall into. But very few offer an argument to this sentiment.
Perhaps I am getting ahead of myself here, it's hard to talk about this film without talking about Everything, so I should settle back and resist that urge to ‘big picture philosophise’ and give some context. I’m going to take you back to 2016, when a young Jo decided to watch a film titled Swiss Army Man because he heard the score was by an artist he really enjoyed with no expectation of what he was in for. That is a film I hold very close to my heart, it's one of the reasons I got into film and that's all down to how well it balances nuance with levity and absurdity. Ambition is always admirable in film because of the visceral potential of cinema in the ways it can elicit emotion so effectively, we all cried at something like Bridge To Terabithia because it knows how to take control of your emotions. I am a notoriously emotional person, there are some films that can make me cry by playing vague sad music on top of vague sad imagery, yet that is what a lot of films tend to do anyway; you can always just play Sufjan Stevens over footage of an actor crying and you’ll probably elicit enough emotion to suggest some sort of meaning, However to be able to hit those emotions whilst also toying with the ridiculous and battling with big concepts people often feel scared to think about, is nothing short of admirable. Needless to say, when the directors of Swiss Army Man, known simply as Daniels, announced another film I was more than excited to see where they would take me.
The multiverse is a huge concept at the moment, writers and philosophers have been playing with the idea for centuries but it has become a common concept within media as of late. For a modern writer it is a very effective writing tool, something like Rick and Morty utilises it to keep the options open for the crazier sci-fi concepts and the elevated stakes, however something like Marvel has utilised it as an attempt to expand their Intellectual Property. However it began as a concept drenched in philosophy, when we talk about the infinite possibilities of our own life how can that not cause self reflection? The multiverse is too big to not be thought about personally. How on earth do our decisions matter if there are infinite versions of ourselves making these decisions? What makes this life we live special, if we could have done it differently and lived a better life? This is the conversation multiverse stories have been improvising for a while and it is also what Everything Everywhere, All at Once is tackling, however it is tackling this by actually trying to answer some of these questions with sincerity and personable honesty.
The plot centres around Evelyn Wong (Michelle Yeoh) as she struggles with an impending audit and a family which seem incapable to reach through to Evelyn. It is a family setup that feels wonderfully sympathetic and slightly overwhelming, modern life can often feel like you’re constantly running through a laundromat solving problems that feel far more important than the people around you. The film basically tells you its message almost immediately, whether it be the multiverse or your laundry and taxes, neither is more important than the people around you. It’s succinct and dismissive to try and dull down what this film is saying with something as simple as ‘value those around you’ but at risk of this review never ending and me delving into far too many spoilers, that is the thing that stuck with me the most. Perhaps it’s a sentiment that I’m feeling especially drawn to at the moment, feeling a need to value what we’ve got in a time where it feels like there is far too much happening around us. It is these kind of vague philosophical ramblings that Everything Everywhere, All at Once inspires, it manages to stay in your head and maintain a bold emotional power over the viewer, I find myself constantly thinking about specific moments and resisting the urge to shed a tear.
If you haven't seen Everything Everywhere, All at Once, this piece so far doesn't quite prepare you for what this film actually is, which is ridiculous, over the top and fundamentally silly. This is a life changing film that tackles tough subjects and elicits some pretty powerful emotions yet it is simultaneously an energetic masterpiece in the absurd. There are action sequences in this film that are some of the most breathtaking pieces of modern choreography, there are jokes in this film that will leave you bewildered and utterly confused. Yet that's what carries the film, the ability to approach emotion without relying on the conventional tone for drama, certain emotions aren’t restricted to certain tones. Contrast is key to a film like this, you've got to be able to not take yourself seriously in order to take yourself seriously. There is merit alone in how this film portrays the sci-fi concept of the multiverse or how it manages to effectively create thrilling action and hilarious comedy. But in the end this all adds to the experience to the point where that climax will have you reeling with emotion.
There's an essence of understanding when talking about a film like this, I can see why people might struggle to relax into something this absurd. I recommend it with the acknowledgement that you have to relax into it, the film asks a lot of a viewer to the point where in order for it to land you have to fully commit to the absurdity you are witnessing. The reason I mentioned at the top of this piece the fact I'd seen this with different people because I found it fascinating the moment this film clicked with certain people. There was an underlying sense of bewilderment every time, we walked out the cinema feeling overwhelmed and, to an extent, exhausted. But every time there was an acknowledgement of emotion, it's a film that stays with you and manages to stimulate the senses in such a specific way that leaves most people with this unique sense of cathartic sadness mixed with melancholic joy. I sobbed my eyes out when I watched it alone, I knew what I was in for and I let the film take over me after months of talking about those emotions, the fact it still manages to pull them off blew me away.
If you couldn't tell by my previous post, I'm in an emotional state of valuing the connections I have with people at the moment. I found myself eager to watch this film recently to remind me not to dwell on the decisions I've made and feel gratitude for what I have right now. The state of Everything feels very melancholy at the moment, we live in a time of cynicism, I find myself fearing what is to come and questioning how we ended up at this point and that is due to a myriad of reasons beyond my control. However I am reminded of the people in my life who let me forget that feeling for a second or make that feeling a little easier to get through, I can stare into that Everything Bagel, yet something brings me back to what matters every now and then. Everything Everywhere, All At Once is a beautiful exercise in the grandeur whilst revelling in the little things. Whether it be a googly eye, whether it be a little moment you share with a new friend or a profound moment you share with an old friend. There's always a reason to take time in the universe we are in right now and there's always a reason to keep going.
Thanks for reading.