Everything at once – Introduction:
Everything Everywhere at Once broke the bank at this year’s Academy Awards with seven statuettes. In the 21st century, only two films (“Slumdog Millionaire” and “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King”) have managed to win more Oscars. It’s no wonder the gilded production by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert returns to Tree City cinemas this weekend. Is the film, which has won almost all the important awards in recent months, really an Oscar-winning cinematic phenomenon? We check.
Check where they play “everywhere at once”
Everything Everywhere at Once broke away from the Academy Award-winning pluralism that the American Film Academy has been adhering to in recent years. One could get the impression that sometimes they tried to sprinkle the gnomes on as many titles as possible so that no one would be harmed.
Cold calculations aside this time around, the duo’s film The Daniels and Netflix’s German war drama “Same in the West” have won nearly half of the Oscars overall. Excluding categories in which both titles could not be considered (short films, documentaries, or animation), the remaining films were awarded with only seven Golden Knights. The supremacy, which was probably expected, given the results of the polls, festivals and competitions leading up to the Oscars.
From a Chinese laundry to a crazy multiverse
Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert chose a completely unexpected form for their story. In gritty and truly suspenseful style, the director duo navigates “everything everywhere at once” between alternate worlds that could be saved from destruction by the average owner of a small laundromat. Evelyn (Michelle Yeoh) For years, he ran a modest family business, trying to juggle professional duties and family life. And it’s not an easy task when you have to take care of a slightly sloppy, though good-natured husband on a daily basis (Ke Huy Quan), taming a rebellious daughter (Stephanie Hsu) and the care of his stern old father (James Hong).
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Additional troubles are caused by a heartless employee of the tax office (Jamie Lee Curtis) searching for tax irregularities, which threaten to shut down the entire Wang family’s sole source of income. However, everyday worries and difficulties are nothing in the context of an interdimensional catastrophe that Evelyn can prevent. More precisely, its various versions that exist in alternative realities. Using the skills and talents of her alter ego, the woman must stop a creature seeking to reset all worlds. Provided that our heroine believes in the existence of the multiverse and that it is not at the same level as she thinks.
Being average isn’t a bad thing
Because “everything everywhere at once” is basically the praise of mediocrity. With this absurd, surreal, insane, and utterly chaotic story (both literally and figuratively), The Daniels tries to instill in our heads that we don’t have to fear that we’re not special, all-encompassing individuals. Evelyn comes to terms with her different identities and sees herself as an action movie star or a top chef. In theory, these are her best releases. Versions of the successful woman that the main character never managed to achieve.
Is it really? Or maybe we can’t see and appreciate our own achievements because of fear, peer pressure, and low self-esteem? In this completely unrealistic story, Kwan and Scheinert smuggle in several worldly and surprisingly accurate observations about the modern world, pervading everything everywhere at once. The outpouring of facts, impulses, emotional triggers, and judgments can be overwhelming. Just like this movie scene looks like.
Bread, sausage, “Matrix” and kung fu
Getting to the heart of the “everything everywhere at once” story is so difficult that the filmmakers don’t give us enough time for it and they can’t stop at some point. This will be very difficult, since from the very first minutes The Daniels throw us on a roller coaster, putting the speed to the limit and deliberately not fastening the belts. So, the first quarter appears to be crucial. If we survive and don’t fall over the barrier, there is a chance that this crazy journey will bring ultimate satisfaction. However, if we immediately feel dizzy, lose orientation and desire, then it is not worth going further. Then there are people with sausages instead of hands, mortal dildos that suck up all the facts… cake or rocks that talk to each other without words.
This is just a small part of the ridiculous ideas Kwan and Schinert throw out like stream of consciousness. Two geeks fascinated by pop culture who watched a lot of Marvel Cinematic Universe films, “The Matrix”, kung fu fighting games and… “Ratatouille”. And this is not a criticism of exceptional directors and screenwriters at the same time. You have to be crazy, uncompromising and devilishly clever to first combine several genre conventions in one film, and then carelessly and casually parody them. Plus, the pace is so insane that after a few minutes of counting we’ll try to catch our balance.
A lot of everything at once and a lot of Oscars
It is a pity that while working on a movie like this balance The creators themselves did not. The main problem with this production is its title. There really is too much of everything all over the place and unnecessarily at once. Bombarding the viewer with such an exorbitant number of frames and visual embellishments simply blurs the message, which, due to its simplicity, contrasts sharply with the form, and therefore appears dull, plain and utterly superficial. The Daniels family themselves are to blame, because the script for “everything is everywhere at once” seems as if they are besting each other in the number of on-screen nonsense. So much so that it’s sometimes hard to find arguments for not treating this movie as a shell.
Cowan and Schinert’s work does not deserve such a harsh assessment. It’s a utterly modernist, pop-culture-infused spectacle, appropriate to the realities and pace at which we work on a daily basis. Is it the movie of the year? Comparing “Everything Everywhere At Once” to “Fabelmen” or “Inisherin Ghosts,” Daniels’ production seems utterly empty and superficial.
Despite the obvious mess, it definitely deserves a statuette for the original screenplay (it’s a bunch of ideas already used in cinema, but entirely originally composed) and an Oscar for Michelle Yeoh, who finally has someone writing a role for her well-deserved talent. Ke Huy Quan has already won his award with one monologue, but very emotional. I can’t stand Jamie Lee Curtis, especially in the context of Kerry Condon’s role in “Ghosts…”. In exchange, I would give the editor two Oscars and an imminent transplant of new eyes, because the old ones must have worn away from the number of frames viewed and the cuts made. Conclusion? Two Oscars a long way off.
However, that doesn’t change the fact that “everything is everywhere at once” is the kind of phenomenon and phenomenon that deserves attention and at least an attempt to meet the challenge posed by Cowan and Schinert. And that there is too much of everything everywhere and at the same time? This is the reality we live in. Who would want to see a movie called Nowhere, Never, today?
Rating: 7/10
