EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE (Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, 2022) is, above all, a breathtaking cinematic experience, which summons almost all of our senses to enjoy it in its fullness.
Michelle Yeoh leads with unshakable mastery the group of no less efficient actors who transpose the Daniels' vision to the big screen. Newcomer Stephanie Hsu is surprisingly convincing in the role of Jabu Tupaki; Ke Huy Quan (the boy from INDIANA JONES AND THE LOST TEMPLE and THE GOONIES) proves to be a talented and versatile actor; in turn, the legendary James Hong, who is already 93 years old, and Jamie Lee Curtis, who manages to be, at the same time, hateful, comical and touching, show that without committal and without complexes, as in any profession, there is no way to get good results.
The film itself requires concentration and open-mindedness, as it is unlike anything I've ever seen. Assuming that there are several universes and that it is possible to jump from side to side, accessing the selves of other universes, the story unfolds at a hallucinating, captivating, touching and even philosophical pace, launching lines of thought such as "Nothing matters" ; "kindness" as a form of struggle; see the good side of things as a life strategy, not necessarily as naivety. Almost from an existentialist or Beckettian perspective, we can consider that what the film proposes is that at the base of our existence there is nothing and it is our choices and the freedom to choose some things over others that define the human condition.
The film uses impressive special effects, which serve the story, but without neglecting the message it intends to convey. And here, the one that seems to me the most profound is related to the fact that the protagonist believes that she has done nothing with her life, because when she gets to know her other selves from other universes, she considers that they had fuller and more interesting lives (although they lacked the most important thing: a family). In fact, when someone tells the protagonist "in another life, I would have loved to do laundry and taxes with you", we have the film deciphered.
Michelle Yeoh leads with unshakable mastery the group of no less efficient actors who transpose the Daniels' vision to the big screen. Newcomer Stephanie Hsu is surprisingly convincing in the role of Jabu Tupaki; Ke Huy Quan (the boy from INDIANA JONES AND THE LOST TEMPLE and THE GOONIES) proves to be a talented and versatile actor; in turn, the legendary James Hong, who is already 93 years old, and Jamie Lee Curtis, who manages to be, at the same time, hateful, comical and touching, show that without committal and without complexes, as in any profession, there is no way to get good results.
The film itself requires concentration and open-mindedness, as it is unlike anything I've ever seen. Assuming that there are several universes and that it is possible to jump from side to side, accessing the selves of other universes, the story unfolds at a hallucinating, captivating, touching and even philosophical pace, launching lines of thought such as "Nothing matters" ; "kindness" as a form of struggle; see the good side of things as a life strategy, not necessarily as naivety. Almost from an existentialist or Beckettian perspective, we can consider that what the film proposes is that at the base of our existence there is nothing and it is our choices and the freedom to choose some things over others that define the human condition.
The film uses impressive special effects, which serve the story, but without neglecting the message it intends to convey. And here, the one that seems to me the most profound is related to the fact that the protagonist believes that she has done nothing with her life, because when she gets to know her other selves from other universes, she considers that they had fuller and more interesting lives (although they lacked the most important thing: a family). In fact, when someone tells the protagonist "in another life, I would have loved to do laundry and taxes with you", we have the film deciphered.