The above quote hit home. I’ve been working on a film project that pushes the idea of seeing the concept of ‘sacred’ in different and surprising places, sans conventional religion. I was moved by that part of my work and have been doubly moved by the denouement of this utterly thrilling film.

Who could have thought that the ultra-corporate Marvel Cinematic Universe’s thunder (and love) could have been so covertly whisked away from under its broad, powerful feet? Its marketing millions pushed the return of a once cult, independent director attached to a project that had ‘fat hit’ written all over it. Sam Raimi was entrusted with the less than wonderful Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Those ‘creative differences’ that saw original director Scott Derrickson move away from helming the sequel (he must have read the script) seem justified in hindsight. So how did a movie dealing with multiverses in a significantly less hyped way actually come to be made, and made so well and turn out so surprisingly moving? Can you imagine the brass at any major studio responding to this script? The two directors had one feature credit…

With only Swiss Army Man behind them, the two Daniels Kwan and Scheinert came up with Everything Everywhere All At Once. Who could possibly read the screenplay and say “I can see an extraordinary movie in this…” Well the MCU’s reigning director brothers, the Russos, co-produced it so they must have seen something in it. But a script is one thing. This astonishing movie is something else. Entirely (coming at you with everything, everywhere and all at once).

No, you really don’t want a synopsis. No, I mean it. Do what I did and take a loved one’s advice and go in cold. My written appreciation will be more on the broad themes, its staggering intelligence and virtuoso craft. The impeccable actress (and sublime martial artist) Michelle Yeoh as Evelyn is a harassed mother poring over her laundrette business’ paper receipts in preparation for a stressful meeting with an Internal Revenue inspector played by a made-to-look dowdy and authoritarian Jamie Lee Curtis. Evelyn’s husband played by Ke Huy Kwan (an all grown up Short Round from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and The Goonies) is filing for divorce and the relationships Evelyn has with her daughter, Stephanie Hsu, trying to come out as gay and her father, James Wong (of Blade Runner’s Chew fame) are subtly broken. Evelyn can’t get past the relentless failure of her own life to amount to anything herself or fix what’s in front of her nose. It’s as if she’s on one road, blinkered and unable to exit on many offered off ramps to heal both herself and her family. So right from the start, there are repairs to be made and ten minutes in, I sort of settled into a family drama that had pace, was well written, economical and tender. Then something happens on the laundrette’s security cameras that makes you think “What in the wide, wide world of sports was that?” And then it’s off to the IRS where the first great lurch of a turn occurs and before you know it, you are pleasingly assaulted by some of the most insane action sequences and ideas ever to grace a cinema screen. And I’ve seen episode one of the third season of The Boys… Those who have also seen it will know what I mean if I just say ‘sneeze’. But this isn’t extreme body horror, it’s imagination at warp speed and as my fellow scribe Slarek said in a recent communiqué, considering how often we are thrust into parallel universes, you’re never confused for a minute. As he said “That’s phenomenal filmmaking.”

Responsible for this rare slice of pure invention are the writers/directors known as ‘The Daniels’. The events in the film hinge on the existence of limitless multiverses, each created by decisions made or not made. In Evelyn’s own world, multiple people that exist in different universes can have their skills uploaded with a shock to the system to people in the know in Evelyn’s own. Yes, that all sounds very Matrixy but while there are certainly familiar tropes and elements present and correct, Everything is a unique blend of so many genres and off the wall ideas, that you’ll find yourself laughing at its audacity and silliness and then the next minute excusing yourself because something flew into your eye… both eyes. Add to this, everyone should look forward to watching Short Round expertly aping Bruce Lee’s startling and balletic mastery over his nunchucks in Enter The Dragon with nothing but a stuffed bum bag (or fanny pack as they say in the US). Sublime. Underlining borrowed elements from different genres can be crowbarred in to tired ‘seen it all before’ criticisms. The filmmakers are quite open with their myriad of borrowed ideas (director Ed Wright’s interview with them in this summer’s Sight and Sound is quite explicit on this subject). Of that I can only say this, however facetiously some may take it. Firstly, it’s not what you do (or borrow), it’s the way that you do it. And did anyone have a go at Wordsworth, Shelley, Owen or Donne for using the same, common everyday things called letters of the alphabet to create poems of great artistry, profound diversity of emotional impact and depth? A to Z may be just 26 letters, as common as they come, but in their near infinite variations they can come up with this lot and thousands more…

And that’s just in English…

So… Never mind the borrowing, feel the feels. Evelyn is drawn deeper into the situation with the help of her husband of the Alpha Universe (think The Matrix’s ‘real world’) who inhabits her own universe’s husband at certain times to guide her. The big bad, Jobu Tupaki, struts her way through universes laying waste to versions of Evelyn looking for one specific aspect of her character for her own needs. At this point, there’s no trouble guessing who the often-masked big bad actually is, a minor pleasure in the scheme of things in this extraordinary movie. Our own Evelyn has something that sets her apart from all of her counterparts (this reason in itself makes you smile with surprise) and so she sets off through the universes training herself to be ready to take on Jobu Topaki. Names are always carefully chosen and pored over by writers and despite myself, I kept thinking the Asian themed ‘Jobu Topaki’ must be in some way (in another universe?) related to L.A. Confidential’s ‘Rollo Tomasi’… Has to be. The big bad is capable of destroying universes because she has come to the conclusion that if everything is possible (check out the hot dog fingers universe, see next paragraph) then nothing actually matters. And if nothing matters, the destruction of everything is simply another option for her to choose. She suffuses all that evil into a hum drum object (well, at least it’s dark). The terrible stakes aren’t quite as fiercely taken seriously as this hum drum object is a sooty-black bagel albeit the most dangerous bagel drawing you in with the helplessness of it all… but wait. There is an answer to the darkness and the chaos… But that’s for you to discover.

I’ll make this my only small ‘spoiler’. In one universe (regardless of the immensely attractive pull of the ‘Raccacoonie’ universe), the dominant human species has boneless fingers of some abnormal length or as they say in the movie, ‘hot dog’ fingers. Watching Jamie Lee Curtis play one of my favourite pieces of music (Clair de Lune) on the piano with her toes, nails painted green, while her extended wobbly fingers, wobble ineffectually is a delight. But the kicker is that she is in a loving relationship with hot dog fingers Evelyn which manages to be emotionally engaging while you stifle hysterics not being able to take your eyes off the twenty digits flailing randomly as they hug each other. Just as you think this one-off universe is there for laughs and a sly injection of real feeling, we get a perfect parody of 2001: A Space Odyssey’s Dawn of Man sequence and how the dominant ‘hot doggers’ thrash their ‘normal fingered’ counterparts at the water hole. With their hot dog fingers… Lethal, if somewhat wobbly weapons. The beautiful irony - which may or may have occurred to the filmmakers is that the turning point of man’s evolution Stanley Kubrick-style was a bone found and turned into a weapon. The weapon in Everything’s case was entirely boneless. That’s just too lovely not to be the original intention. Go, both Daniels, go!

As a film music enthusiast, I’m always after that rare cue or score that will utterly transport me emotionally, stripped from the film the music is intended to support. It is ironic indeed that one of James Newton Howard’s most applauded cues is buried in a mediocre film. The majestic Flow Like Water accompanies a small bald boy making faux Tai Chi movements to summon water to protect his city in M. Night Shyamalan’s woeful The Last Airbender. I’d say those cues come along once every two years or so. With movies, it’s even rarer to see something so original, so creative and so nuts just to hit you right between your ‘googly’ eyes with little or no warning. Am savouring the idea of revisiting Everything Everywhere All At Once with loved ones. You should too.

* https://www.flickeringmyth.com/2022/07/exclusive-interview-everything-everywhere-all-at-once-directors-dan-kwan-and-daniel-scheinert-a-k-a-daniels/

** The Hollow Men – T. S. Eliot

*** Ozymandias – Percy Bysshe Shelley