journal features

movie review - Everything Everwhere All at Once

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-eight years and a million words

Kokubunji, 2022.09.11

On the surface, this is a sci-fi movie about a woman in her fifties that is asked by an other-dimension version of her husband to join an epic struggle to save the multiverse. The threat is none other than their daughter, and the stakes are the sanity and security of all the countless realities. But under the hood it's really about the relationship between the mother and daughter. It's one of the most inventive and brilliant stories I can recall, and I am in awe. I cannot overstate how well-crafted this is, depicting a difficult story with such ease that you have to stop and think about to really comprehend what they've done. I mean, how did they storyboard something that at times changes scene and setting several times a second.

The lead is played by the superb Michelle Yeoh who disappears into countless versions of Evelyn Wang, the co-owner of a struggling laundromat. Her husband is played by Ke Huy Quan, who you might remember from "Raiders of the Lost Ark". Jamie Lee Curtis and James Hong lead a supporting cast that throws absolutely everything at this story.

The last couple of years have been a nightmare. But this was a transcendent pleasure.

A favorite. Strongly recommended.

rand()m quote

One day you will take a fork in the road, and you're going to have to make a decision about which direction you want to go. If you go one way, you can be somebody. You will have to make compromises and you will have to turn your back on your friends. But you will be a member of the club and you will get promoted and get good assignments. Or you can go the other way and you can do something [...] for yourself. If you decide to do something, you may not get promoted and get good assignments and you certainly will not be a favorite of your superiors. But you won't have to compromise yourself. To be somebody or to do something. In life there is often a roll call. That's when you have to make a decision. To be or to do.

—John Boyd, US Air Force