Unique Sci-fi Masterpiece of the Decade: Everything Everywhere All at Once
Science fiction movies portray advanced technology and extraterrestrial animals in scenarios ranging from time travel to alien invasions. This trope was used in Everything Everywhere At Once.
You don't get to see jaw-dropping performances every day. And it's rare for a film to successfully combine comedy, action, sci-fi, and a heartbreaking family scenes in a two-hour running period. Everything Everywhere all at once does this in the most unique fashion.
The movie centers on Chinese immigrant Evelyn (Michelle Yeoh), the proprietor of a failing laundromat. Waymond, Evelyn's husband (Ke Hoy Quan), and Evelyn learn that they are in trouble with the IRS.
Waymond's entire personality abruptly transforms as they are traveling to a meeting with the IRS. He explains to Evelyn that he is not actually her husband, that he is from another universe, and that he must protect her from Jobu Tupaki, a supernatural being.
Before being abruptly transported into another universe, Evelyn considers all of this to be nonsense. She learns that her husband is truly from another universe and that he is equipped with a gadget that enables him to access the consciousness of other versions of himself and to absorb all of their skills, including their combat prowess. or lung function. Evelyn finds herself on a mission to stop Jobu from destroying not just the multiverse but also herself. She soon realizes that Jobu is far closer to her than she initially assumed.
The theme of accessing the multiverse is already a popular concept in Sci-fi but EEAAO (Everything Everywhere All at Once) depicts the concept in an entirely different way which we have not before. The ability to access the other versions yourself in other timelines and also merge with their consciousness, also being able to draw out objects from other timelines, we witness the characters use their abilities to do so much more than just the normal fight scenes we normally see.
One of the multiverse concepts which goes by “Once”, it is used to tell various stories of Evlyn, Waywong, and Joy( Stephnie Hsu). no matter how fast-paced the movie, also the stories blended seamlessly and fit into the overall narrative. What we can define as peak cinema is when we explore the relationship between Evelyn and Joy through the multiverse point of view which witnesses tear-jerking moments between the two of them.
Something else that stands out in Everything Everywhere All at Once is the use of symbolism especially the bagels, googly eyes, and the use of circles in the movie. The thin line between ridiculousness and meaning. The googly eyes are white with a black center, whereas the villain Jobu Tupaki's bagel is black with a white core. This creates a visual contrast between the two symbols. The googly eyes and bagels are apparent opposites, but when put side by side, they represent the Chinese theory of yin and yang, which encourages balance and the way that opposing forces in nature—and a multiverse—complement one another. These are what the symbolisms in Everything Everywhere All at Once mean.
Beyond the bagels and gooey eyes of Everything Everywhere All at Once, circles may be found all across the film. When Evelyn first enters the IRS headquarters, Deidre, the inspector, circles her paperwork in black ink and instructs Evelyn that she will need to submit more precise documentation for the year.
Evelyn's plans are never carried out as expected, yet time marches on nonetheless. Even in her failing laundry below her house, washing machines' circular windows spin nonstop throughout the day and all year. In a less subtle example of Everything Everywhere All at Once symbolism, Evelyn recognizes the circle-like nature of her life when she delivers a less-than-inspiring speech at a birthday party for the laundromat she manages, declaring, "Another year, pretending we know what we're doing, but really we're just going around in circles."
Another point worth noting is that every character is so well written and all gave Oscar-worthy performances from the actors and actresses portraying them. The special effects artists need to be given Nobel prizes because of pulling off this masterpiece without a blockbuster budget. The concept of taking powers or bringing heroes from other timelines is common but Everything Everywhere All at Once breaks the bank by giving us a look into the stories and choices that other characters in the timelines made.
As we await the Academy Awards to take place on the 13th of march Everything Everywhere All at Once has already been nominated for and won various awards such as Amanda's awards for best foreign film and American Film Institute Awards and many others.
A24 has produced some notable movies in cinema but we can say that Everything Everywhere All at Once is the finest in the arsenal. There is so much to say about the movie that it cannot be put into words. That’s just how good it is, peak cinema.
By Akang Samuel.