Introduction
Welcome to my corner! This week, I'm sharing my thoughts on the film Everything Everywhere All At Once. Enjoy!
Everything Everywhere All At Once
Everything Everywhere All At Once is a 2022 American independent absurdist comedy-drama film written and directed by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, who produced it with Anthony and Joe Russo and Jonathan Wang. The film incorporates media from several genres and film mediums, including surreal comedy, science fiction, fantasy, martial arts films, immigrant narrative and animation. Michelle Yeoh stars as Evelyn Quan Wang, a Chinese-American immigrant who, while being audited by the IRS, discovers that she must connect with parallel universe version of herself to prevent a powerful being from destroying the multiverse. The film also stars Stephanie Hsu, Ke Huy Quan, James Hong and Jamie Lee Curtis.
Kwan and Scheinert began work on the project in 2010. Production was announced in 2018, and principal photography ran from January to March 2020. The works of Hong Kong film director Wong Kar-wai, as well as the children's book Sylvester and the Magic Pebble and the video game Everything, served as inspiration for several scenes. Also inspired by contemporary scholars such as philosopher Mary-Jane Rubenstein, the film explores philosophical themes such as existentialism, nihilism, surrealism and absurdism, as well as themes such as neurodivergence, depression, generational trauma and Asian American identity. Its soundtrack features compositions by Son Lux, and collaborations with Mitski, David Byrne, André 3000, John Hampson and Randy Newman.
Everything Everywhere All At Once premiered at South by Southwest on March 11, 2022, and began a limited theatrical release in the United States on March 25 before a wide release by A24 on April 8. Grossing $143.4 million worldwide on a $14-25 million production budget, it became A24's highest-grossing film. The film garnered widespread acclaim from critics and audiences, receiving praise for its performances (especially for Yeoh, Quan and Hsu), direction, screenplay, editing, visual effects, emotional depth and innovative storytelling. At the 95th Academy Awards, it won seven out of the 11 awards it was nominated for: Best Picture, Best Actress (Yeoh), Best Supporting Actor (Quan), Best Supporting Actress (Curtis), Best Director and Best Original Screenplay for Kwan and Scheinert and Best Editing. The film also won two Golden Globe Awards, five Critics' Choice Awards (including Best Picture), a BAFTA Award and a record four SAG Awards (including Best Ensemble).
Plot: When an interdimensional rupture unravels reality, an unlikely hero must channel her newfound powers to fight bizarre and bewildering dangers from the multiverse as the fate of the world hangs in the balance.
Acting: Michelle Yeoh played Evelyn Quan Wang. Her four most notable titles currently are Wicked, Kung Fu Panda 2, Everything Everywhere All At Once, and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Other than Everything Everywhere All At Once, my favorite is Kung Fu Panda 2.
Stephanie Hsu played Joy Wang. Her four most notable titles currently are the television series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, The Path, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and Girl Code. Don't ask me why Everything Everywhere All At Once isn't one of her notable titles, it certainly should be. Other than Everything Everywhere All At Once, my favorite is The Wild Robot.
Ke Huy Quan played Waymond Wang. His four most notable titles currently are The Goonies, Everything Everywhere All At Once, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and X-Men [2000] for stunts. Other than Everything Everywhere All At Once, my favorite is The Goonies.
James Hong played Gong Gong. His four most notable titles are Big Trouble in Little China, Everything Everywhere All At Once and the Kung Fu Panda franchise. Other than Everything Everywhere All At Once, my favorite is The Kung Fu Panda franchise.
Jamie Lee Curtis played Deirdre Beaubeirdre. Her four most notable titles currently are True Lies, Halloween [2018], Everything Everywhere All At Once and Halloween [1978]. Other than Everything Everywhere All At Once, my favorite is Freaky Friday.
Technical Aspects: Principal photography began in January 2020, with A24 announcing that it would finance and distribute the film, while Scott Rudin was originally going to be an executive producer on the film, but left because of allegations involving his behavior. Around this time, Kwan and Scheinert were invited by Marvel Studios to discuss the possibility of them developing the first season of the Disney+ television Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) series Loki (2021), which also deals with a storyline involving the multiverse, but the duo, already not really interested in the project, declined as they were about to start shooting their own movie about the same concept.
Shooting took 38 days, mostly in Simi Valley, Cali. Much of the film was shot overcranked at a very high frame rate to accommodate extensive time remapping in post production. The Daniels said the kung-fu fight scenes were shot unusually quickly; for example, the fanny-pack fight was shot in a day and a half. Filming wrapped in early March 2020, during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. The first cut ran around 170 minutes.
Visual effects post-production for the film was done in-house, after the Daniels' negative experience with a dedicated post-production studio for their 2016 film Swiss Army Man. Instead, the filmmakers assembled a small team of eight artists headed by Zak Stoltz, who produced visual effects using Adobe After Effects and Adobe Premiere Pro and used Resilio Sync to share the large amounts of data once the pandemic hit.
For Deirdre's appearance, Kwan discovered a picture of a real IRS agent he found online, which Curtis liked and wanted to emulate. Curtis wanted the character to be as "real" as possible and used her real belly for the film, as opposed to a prosthetic.
For the rock universe scene, Runway AI was used to automate the process of rotoscoping shots filmed on a green screen, creating mattes that then allowed the rocks to be combined with other imagery.
Final Thoughts: Despite it being the most bizarre movie I've ever seen, I love it. I know it won't be everyone's cup of tea, in fact most "ordinary" or "normal" people probably won't enjoy this movie. But, if you're that small percentage of people who love watching weird movies, or just movies in general, do give this masterpiece a watch. Take note, it is rated R.
Where to watch it: According to Google, Everything Everywhere All At Once is not currently available on any streaming service. But you can also purchase or rent a digital copy for a few dollars. I've also donated a DVD copy of the film to the Emil M. Larson Public Library in Clark for you all to enjoy if you choose to.
That's it for this week! What were your thoughts? Feel free to share them with us! You can call us, email us, visit us at the office, leave us a comment or message on Facebook, or even mail us something. Keep the comments, suggestions, questions, submissions, etc. coming our way! We'd love to hear from you!
