Surreal deal
EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE Cert
15 ★★★★ In cinemas now
Take note of the title – there’s a lot going on in this frenetic multiverse flick. Already a whopping hit in the States, it’s high-concept sci-fi, a touching family drama, a slick martial arts movie and a comedy that takes so many surreal detours it makes Vic & Bob look like Hale & Pace.
If writer-directors Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert had lopped a good half hour out of the middle, it would have been an instant classic.
But you can forgive the film-making duo for getting over-excited. After their irritating debut (quirky cult hit Swiss Army Man), this is a remarkable achievement – a mid-budget movie that topped the US box office.
Michelle Yeoh plays exhausted Chinese-american Evelyn Wang who runs a failing launderette and has troubled relationships with husband Waymond (Ke Huy Quan), gay daughter Joy (Stephanie Hsu) and elderly father Gong Gong (James Hong).
Her life is so mundane, it comes as a big surprise to learn she’s the key to saving the entire multiverse.
On her way to a crunch meeting with a gruff tax auditor (an amusing Jamie Lee Curtis), a different Waymond arrives with an important message from a reality called the “Alphaverse”.
Evelyn is living the worst version of her life.
With a mysterious villain threatening to destroy every universe, she must “verse jump” into her other, more successful life paths to acquire the skills to fight back.
From here, everything goes nuts. We get kung fu fights involving sex toys, and trips to alternative realities where rocks talk, people have hotdogs for fingers and chefs are controlled by raccoons.
Some of the jokes become very repetitive but Yeoh holds together this 139-minute assault on the senses with a sympathetic and acrobatic turn.
It’s highconcept sci-fi, drama, a slick martial arts movie and a comedy