
I’m sure if you told the original 36 member of The Academy that a movie that includes a universe where people have hot dogs for fingers is the current frontrunner for Best Picture, they would have probably been left speechless. Current members of The Academy might also be speechless. But there is so much behind the zaniness that is “Everything Everywhere All at Once” that makes it the perfect choice for Best Picture.
“Everything Everywhere All at Once” (which I will be abbreviating as “EEAAO” from now on) follows the story of Evelyn, Waymond and Joy Wang as their laundromat business is being audited by the IRS while their family is struggling emotionally. During their meeting, Evelyn is greeted by Alpha-Waymond of another universe, telling her she is the only one who can prevent the multiverse from falling to Jobu Tupaki whose goal is to create a toroid singularity. Evelyn and Alpha-Waymond are able to verse-jump to different versions of themselves within the multiverse, harnessing the powers of those other versions to defeat Jobu and save the multiverse.
Science-Fiction films occasionally get recognition at the Oscars but only when they are big budget films that can usually, on the surface, appeal to a general audience. That on top of the categorization of being an “absurdist comedy” usually does not get a huge population of people to check it out. But “EEAAO” is a different kind of science-fiction film, as it includes strong themes of family, the meaning of life, and valuing you at your current moment in life. And because everyone can relate to something the movie is trying to portray, along with it being a little crazy, it is no surprise that it made over $100 million, becoming A24’s highest grossing film of all time.
But a lot of movies, especially recently, have explored the same themes. Why is this on different? I feel like one of the main reasons is because of this mix of genres it plays with. It has your important family moments — Evelyn not fully accepting of Joy’s girlfriend or what Joy has done with her life, Waymond wanting a divorce as he is not feeling important anymore, the possibility of losing their business, and Evelyn still wanting to impress her judgemental father. There is so much that can be pulled out of this film aside from the fun antics of the multiverse and that is why everyone can love it. We have all gone through something that our main characters — either their main forms or one of their multiverse forms — have gone through and really makes us think about our decisions. The multiverse personas we see arise because of the decisions the main characters make at some point in their lives. One of the major ones that stands out is Evelyn deciding not to immigrate to American with Waymond. In this universe, Evelyn becomes a Kung-Fu movie star and Waymond a successful business man, but both end up alone. It is when we see clips from this universe that show us how just because you are rich and successful does not mean you end up with the perfect for you. These scenes are some of the most heart-breaking to me, and Ke Huy Quan’s performance is what sells it. Do not be surprised if someone who loves this movie starts crying when you mention taxes and laundry.
I also love the idea that Evelyn of the main universe is chosen to defeat Jobu Tupaki because she is the one that is the least stable in her current life out of all of the other Evelyns. She is “the greatest failure” and therefore the best one to save the universe. I love this idea of the person who seems the least likely to do anything right is the only one who can do anything. It takes the trope of The Chosen One — someone who is destined to do great things — and flips it to be more realistic. I cannot connect to a character who is naturally born great on a deep level, but I can connect to the one that is a complete mess. There is so much going on in our lives that sometimes it feels like we cannot do anything right. I have felt like this many times in my life. But seeing that feeling being used as a strength makes me feel validated as a person when I think everything around me is not going the way that it “should” be. There is power behind not feeling like everything is in your control and that is the beauty of life and my personal biggest takeaway from the film.
The reason why these themes hit home for myself and many others is because of the performances. Michelle Yeoh (Evelyn), Ke Huy Quan (Waymond), Stephanie Hsu (Joy) and Jamie Lee Curtis (Deidre, the IRS worker) have all won awards for their respective roles along with the whole cast walking away with the Screen Actors Guild award for Best Ensemble. All of this recognition is very well deserved because you connect with the characters no matter what multiverse version was currently on screen. It’s hard enough to play one character as well as the cast did, but the fact that they have to jump back and forth between completely different versions of the characters they are playing is a task. And everyone does it to 110%. My personal favorite of the bunch, Stephanie Hsu, uses her background as a Broadway actress to propel her first film performance to all new heights. Quan’s performance also makes me cry every time I think about it and I cannot wait to (hopefully) hear his future Oscar speech this Sunday.
“Everything Everywhere All at Once” touches upon deep themes and meanings while keeping you entertained with the current trend of the multiverse by turning the idea on its head, and that is why I think it should win Best Picture.
This one is for the weirdos.