‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’ Review: The Most Amazing Movie of the Year

We’re only a quarter of the way through 2022, but I am already fairly confident in saying that Everything Everywhere All at Once is the best film of the year. Not only that, it’s one of my favorite films of all time. The directing duo of Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert delivers as close to a perfect film as you can get. Everything Everywhere All at Once is an action-packed trip across the multiverse that not only dares to be weird but also centers around a heartfelt story about family and love at its core. There’s nothing quite like it.

Evelyn Wang (Michelle Yeoh) runs a laundromat with her husband Waymond (Ke Huy Quan) but they’ve been struggling to pay their bills and are so behind on their taxes that the government is threatening to take their business, which they also happen to live in a small apartment above. Meanwhile she also struggles with connecting with her daughter Joy (Stephanie Hsu) who is growing increasingly frustrated with her mom and her antiquated ways. Everything is a chaotic mess that gets a whole lot more chaotic when a Waymond from an alternate universe finds Evelyn and tells her that she is the key to saving all of the multiverse.

Everything Everywhere All at Once is a bizarre movie, and I have no doubt that it will not be for everyone. Thanks to superhero films the idea of the multiverse is all the rage these days. Spider-Man, Doctor Strange, The Flash; they all deal with alternate and slightly different versions of themselves. Everything Everywhere takes that and runs with it to weird places. I’m not just talking slightly different variations of characters. There’s universes where everyone has hot dogs for fingers or ones where they’re rocks. There’s so much more as well. Half the fun of the movie is not knowing what’s going to happen and literally anything can and does happen. Like with their previous film Swiss Army Man, Daniels aren’t afraid to go strange with the film.

Evelyn and anyone else who has access to this advanced technology developed by the Alpha Universe, who were the first to make contact with others outside of their own universe, are able to tap into the abilities of their variants. Evelyn taps into an alternate version of herself who works as a sign twirler to learn to fight off a group of people out to get her by using a riot shield to keep them at bay.  The only thing is that in order to do access the skills of their variants they have to do something out of the norm to hone their focus. Alternate Waymond, for instance, has to give himself five papercuts in order to access one of his variants. And that’s pretty tame compared to some of the other things other characters have to do, but it’s best if you experience that for yourself. Most the stuff that happens in the film makes absolutely no sense in any other context yet Daniels make it work brilliantly in Everything Everywhere.

That’s because despite all the chaos happening across the various universes, everything always comes back around to family at its core. Evelyn desperately wants to be able to connect with both her husband and her daughter. He life is falling into chaos and that’s even before she learns of the other universes. She’s fighting to save multiverse, yes, but it’s her family she’s fighting for first. Michelle Yeoh is absolutely fantastic. It’s also to see a phenomenal return to acting for Ke Huy Quan as well. Both are able to bring so much depth and variety to their performances, especially since they’re playing multiple versions of themselves. Little changes in things like walking and speech patterns help convey which variant you’re seeing. Everything Everywhere is a masterclass of acting all around.

Everything Everywhere All at Once is a film that must be experienced. It’s full of action, surprises, and heart. I suggest going in blind because the less you know about the film beforehand the better. Just keep an open mind and you’ll be plenty shocked. There’s nothing like Everything Everywhere, and Daniels have skyrocketed to top of my favorite film directors. I just hope it won’t be another six years before we get another film from the duo.