Everything Everywhere All at Once - Review

I finally watched Everything Everywhere All at Once and loved it more than I could have imagined going in to it. It hit all my sensitive spots: martial arts, love and redemption, overcoming hopelessness and depression, and seeing and accepting one another for the beautiful messes that we are.

I know I loved it because I cried. A lot. And I'm going to start attaching googly eyes on everything.

Here are my thoughts - vague spoilers ahead.

All the performances were on point. Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan, Stephanie Hsu, and Jammie Lee Curtis were especially good.

The visuals were delicious, showing tone, mood, and range, and doing a wonderful job of hinting at what was to come. I loved the use of mirrors as windows into other universes, and the rainbow, kaleidoscope effects when both Evelyn and Jobu Tupaki are experiencing all universes at once.

The plot was both predictable and wildly unexpected - a delightful blend of familiar and strange. For instance, I knew early on that whatever great evil Jobu Tupaki was, the great good needed to restore balance would be Evelyn accepting her daughter. But the execution was extremely satisfying and bizarre.

Nothing felt wasted. Moments like Evelyn telling Deirdre that she loved her ended up being part of their real reconciliation and a parallel universe where they were lovers. Or Evelyn's misremembering the premise of Ratatouli leading to a world in which she hurts, then helps, "Racaccoony" and his chef. These initially came in as jokes, but wove back into the main story in crucial, heart-string-pulling ways.

The scene when Evelyn and Jobu are rocks in a lifeless world was strikingly serene. Sometimes the conversations we need to have with one another, to truly understand one another, are the ones we say without words. The ones where we simply are. Silently in one another's presence. 

It felt right that the moment Evelyn rose from darkness on her heroes journey was when she stopped seeing Joy as being damaged by Jobu Tupaki, but that Jobu was Joy. That the Alpha version of her husband, that she loved, the goofy, scared version that she lived with, and the cold,, successful one, were all the same person. That SHE was every version of herself.

That she wasn't saving her daughter from an evil force, but that she and the force were one, and that she was just one hurt person who needed to be seen for and accepted for what she really was. That she was proud of her daughter, that Joy being gay and in love with a white girl was fine, and that it was time to hold and cherish her despite her pain - even the pain that she had caused her. 

I came away with the right reminders:

• We often hurt people when we try to push them into what we think they should be.
• We heal people and ourselves when we see them for who they are and accept them.
• People are never just one thing, but a rainbow of different people, just as a rainbow is refracted white light.
• If we must fight, we should fight with kindness.
• We are all a mess, and that's okay.
• We all need each other - we all need kindness.

I highly recommend Everything Everywhere All at Once to everyone... or at least people who don't mind butt plugs and people being beaten to death with giant dildos. That's at your discretion.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go buy some googly eyes.