Across The Multiverse —Multiple Aftertaste Notes of “Everything Everywhere All At Once”
“What if?”
That question might be more familiar these days following the raising popularity of comic book movies adaptation. What a time to be alive, right? Who knows that some people that might be labeled as nerd or geek, are probably the biggest source of entertainment (including money for the studios) these days.
What if we do A instead of B at that point of time?
Will we end up to point X instead of Y?
Will our life turns differently?
The next question will be, is every decision has their on path? Just like when you read “choose-your-own-adventure” book like Goosebumps by R.L. Stine. In the concept of multiverse, every little decision we choose has their on path. Just like when you are reading this one, or even when I write this one, whether you and I continue or not, each will have their own path.
I am not sure if this is planned, but the fact that Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and Everything Everywhere All At Once are released in the same year (2022) is a gift for cinema. I am already curious about Everything Everywhere All At Once (EEAAO) since the release of the trailer in December 2021. And yeah, I wish more people can watch Everything Everywhere All At Once despite the probable lower popularity than blockbuster movies.
The movie stars Michelle Yeoh — a wonderful actor with talent ranging from kicking-asses in various action movies to intimidating mother — as Evelyn. In the trailer, we can see that Evelyn is an immigrant in America facing a financial problem and got no time to save the world with his from-another-universe husband.
Just like the title, this movie is separated into three acts. Everything, Everywhere, All At Once.
Beware, these notes contains heavy spoiler.
Everything
This part felt like an honest representation of a woman juggling everything, every curve balls thrown into their plate. The very-cluttered apartment, aging parent, your child turns to teen, struggling laundry business, not-so-helpful husband, stupid customers, you name it. The first 10 minutes is so great to depict Evelyn’s family chaotic dynamic. We are thrown into her family messiness with just enough information on the character of her daughter Joy (Stephanie Hsu), her husband Waymond (Ke Huy Quan), and her father that they call Gong Gong (James Hong), which means grandpa.
For me, I think from the first 13 minutes we got some hint that this movie has a great visual comedy that reminds me of Edgar Wright’s Cornetto Trilogy. And then we were shocked with the initial introduction of multiverse in this movie by the drastic change of Waymond in the IRS (Internal Revenue Service) building elevator. He suddenly became sharp and setting up some devices for Evelyn. The fast-flashback of Evelyn’s life is also heartbreaking once you take a closer attention.
There are few seconds the moment she was born and the doctor said to her father (Gong Gong):
I am sorry, it’s a girl.
I also believe that some father out there still expecting their first child to be a boy. Which might be an unhealthy dogma.
And then we continue with the introduction of Ms. Deirdre, portrayed by the fascinating Jamie Lee Curtis, the IRS auditor with multiple “Auditor of the Month” award on her desk. We knew that Evelyn will face a great challenge to do her task properly.
In that crucial moment, Evelyn is still distracted with her first experience with the multiverse. Her mind was divided in between the meeting with Deirdre and the other meeting with the-more-awesome version of her husband. In the “Everything” part, we also start to see the incredible effects instilled in this movie. This is the part where I’d like to highlight that Marvel’s Multiverse of Madness had eight times bigger budget than Everything Everywhere All At Once. I have to say that it’s a really inspiring and a marvelous (pun intended) achievement this smaller budget movie can achieve. Even though you haven’t watch the movie, the little sneak peek from The Daniels here are highly worth to watch. The creative ideas of Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert are magically executed by their team to deliver a mind-bending cinematic experience.
In this “Everything” part, we got into more details about the multiverse concept as explained by the-more-awesome which we can start call Alpha Waymond because he came from the Alphaverse. Alphaverse is the universe that make the first contact with other parallel universe. However, there is a dangerous being called Jobu Tupaki making chaos in various universe with no one knows his/her motives. Alpha Waymond believes that Evelyn is the person that can save the multiverse.
I guess it’s not The Daniels if there is no mind-blowing absurdity in their movies. Alpha Waymond explain that people from the Evelyn have met thousands of Evelyn, and Evelyn can access other Evelyn memories, emotion, and skills.
However, it’s not that easy to access your other self in other universe, or in the movie it’s called Verse Jumping. You need to do something weird and unfamiliar — really weird, something out of your normality — so you can verse jump to other you and access their life. Something that you don’t usually do can help to access a very different version of you.
A little side note, because I’ve been thinking this for a quite few days. For me, verse jumping is like a metaphor of doing something out of our comfort zone. You might heard that a lot too, right?
“Get out of your comfort zone.”
It might sound cliché and cheesy. But, as I try to think more about it, that quote feels like the right way to move to another universe, to another version of ourselves. It might be as simple as allowing yourself to fall and to get hurt while learning to ride a bike. And then you can jump to the new version of you who can ride a bike.
That’s a good thing to learn. Verse jump. A subtle metaphor.
So far, I’ve mentioned visual comedy, sci-fi, drama, and wild creativity. The next great things about this movie is the combination of effects, camera movement, and the action. It really feels like The Matrix (1999), Kung Fu Hustle (2004), and Kingsman (2014) are having a three-some and EEAAO is their love-child. The choreography, the camera-movement, the props used in the action scenes, the right-amount-of-slow-mo, are allextraordinary. It’s hilarious and funny at the same time.
In the middle of this movie, it’s easy to guess that Jobu Tupaki is actually Joy, Evelyn’s daugther. From that point, the movie gets more emotional. Especially once Alpha Gong Gong explains that Alpha Evelyn is the one who creates Jobu Tupaki. Alpha Evelyn pushes Alpha Joy too far in exploring the multiverse and broke her own daugther. Alpha Joy transforms into Jobu Tupaki who is able to tap every consciousness of her version at her will and at ease.
She is literally everything everywhere all at once.
The people in The Alphaverse believed that Jobu wants to destroy the multiverse.
While things getting more emotional, it also get more absurd. Because Evelyn learns that she needs to push herself further to balance Jobu Tupaki’s power. There are multiple verse jumps with various absurd acts that might make you laugh but also disgusted. Haha.
With everything absorbed, we enter the everywhere part.
Everywhere
The “Everywhere” part bring us deeper on the emotional journey. As we learn that Evelyn managed to reach equal power with Joy. I guess in this “Everywhere” part, Stephanie Hsu shines bright with her multiple transition between Joy and Jobu. Between the clueless and hurt Joy and the intimidating and angry Jobu. Hsu delivers the teen angst and hurt kid emotions really well.
However, we learned that Jobu actually needs someone who can see what she sees, who can feel what she feels.
Deep inside, Everything Everywhere All At Once is a story of a parent-child relationship. It really got me wondering, Parent-Child relationship is probably the first and longest relationship anyone could have.
Yet, ironically, sometime it is not the healthiest one.
And most of the time, it hurts.
It’s kind of sad that it’s considerably a privilege to have a healthy relationship with our parent.
In interview with Walter Chaw, Daniel Kwan (one of the Daniels), mentioned that:
This film was instrumental for me on that journey,
forgiving my parents.
That’s not an easy thing to do, I believe.
When we are at the most flashing and probably defining part of the movie, we jumped to the rock universe. Jobu and Evelyn had a deeper conversation, as a rock. This is one of my favorite moments of this movie. With minimal sound, and only rocks in the sands with text explaining their conversation.
The pictures below are from @filmtakes’ Twitter.
I really need to pause on that part.
Yet another reminder of how small we are.
Jobu actually doesn’t want to destroy the world. She just need to escape. She just wants to vanish from this world, vanishing together with her mother. She think that’s the only way to get out of the madness of the world.
So, what will Evelyn do next? Will she falls with the nihilism of Jobu? Does she believe that nothing matters and she is able to end it once and for all?
And then the unexpected magic happens. With the Wong Kar Wai moments and dramatic kindness of Waymond. I really like how the “Average Waymond” actually shines with his kindness in this movie, especially near the climax.
Can we just stop fighting?
I know you are fighting because you are scared, and confused.
I am confused too.The only thing I do know, is that we have to be kind.
Especially when we don’t know what’s going on.Please, be kind.
Meanwhile, in another universe, The CEO Waymond delivers the most romantic lines and moments that I’ve bawled my eyes for the most so far this year.
I would have really liked just doing laundry and taxes with you.
I have not been too long (a decade-ish) with my partner today, however that line hits so hard. It feels like the reality of long-term relationship. It’s not always sweet everyday, it’s not always shiny. It’s the small silly moments that sparks you together. It really got me thinking the small moments I have had and the moments that I often take for granted.
But, again, the star and the heart of this movie is truly Evelyn with all her struggles and decision as a daughter, a wife, a mother, an immigrant, and a person. The resolution she had and the decision she made are very touching.
All At Once
The closure act is actually very short. I felt that Evelyn family already at peace and at ease from “what if” questions. You can also felt that the color tone of the family changes, the color grading also changes.
Just like one part in the movie, we might felt that we are the worst version of ourselves in this entire multiverse. However, as the background music in the end sing: this is our life.
And as Alpha Waymond said:
Every rejection, every disappointment,
has led you here, to this moment.
By the end, it feels like Evelyn subliminally asks an important question to the audience.
Why don’t we cherish these few specks of time?
Gratitude
Thank you for The Daniels and their team for making this movie! In one of the podcast I listened to few days ago, it’s mentioned that they write this since 2016 on the aftermath of Trump’s election. They wrote this knowing that the world will change, and it’s getting harder being a minority, being trapped and not acknowledged. Somehow, the fragmented stories inside this movie could also relate to any kind of person. You can really feel the love poured into this creation. It’s profound, and fun.
In the same interview with Walter Chaw, The Daniels shared their gratitude as well on how this movie speaks to many people in their own way.
Even though you might not relate with the messages that I felt and have different interpretation of the movie, that’s OK. The movie itself has been a joy to watch, and it’s one of the most touching movies I have watch in the past five years. We can laugh, amazed, confused, and cry with this movie.
I enjoy these multiple aftertaste and would like to thank anyone who read this far. :)
I love the fact that this movie got more recognition and deeply hope that it can be released in Indonesian cinema.
As I re-watch this movie again, I understand that the core message is clear, but yeah, it’s not easy;
be kind.
I’d rather take myself less seriously, in a sense of deeper understanding that I am not the center of the multiverse.
Shout-out also to G.T for spreading the hype about EEAAO for months and finally jumped into medium-verse to wrote this wonderful review:
Arigatou!
