Everything Everywhere All At Once
CERT 15, 139 minutes, in cinemas 13 May ★★★★ STARRING: Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan, Stephanie Hsu, Jamie Lee Curtis DIRECTORS: Dan Kwan, Daniel Scheinert
THE PLOT: Chinese immigrant Evelyn (Yeoh) had big hopes and dreams when she came to live in America, but is disappointed by her work managing a laundromat and family life. Husband Waymond (former child actor Quan, who starred in The Goonies, in a rare adult role ) wants out of the marriage, her demanding father Gong Gong (James Hong) has arrived from China, and she only has criticism for her lesbian daughter Joy (Hsu). Life gets complicated when she’s told that many parallel universes exist, in which she and her family live totally different existences – and she must learn to jump in and out of those other worlds to prevent a powerful version of Joy from destroying the multiverse. WHAT’S RIGHT WITH IT? Writerdirector duo Kwan and
Scheinert (known as “Daniels”) proved with US indie flick Swiss Army Man that they have playful, inventive minds. But whereas that film also irritated and dragged, EEAAO wins with clever twists, hilarious moments and riotous action sequences, while also anchoring the drama with flawed, vitally human characters that you root for and care about.
WHAT’S WRONG
WITH IT? You may agree that a densely packed 139 minutes of Everything Everywhere All At Once really does offer too much of a good thing.
VERDICT: Rightly hailed in the US as this year’s most original movie, and a real word-of-mouth hit at the box office, this giddily enjoyable ride from the Daniels is not to be missed. CHARLES GANT