Movies these days have become pretty stale. Whether it’s a remake, sequel, spin-offs or a cinematic universe, there’s not a lot of room for truly unique ideas for films. In this dark sea of mediocrity there’s usually a few films that act like lighthouses of good and unique ideas, “Everything Everywhere All at Once” (2022, directed by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert) is one of those films.

Honestly, the less one knows about this movie the better, so if one wants to jump in blind it might be best to skip this review until after watching the flick. Either way this review is going to try to keep details to a minimum for the sake of the viewing experience.

The film follows Evelyn Wang (played by Michelle Yeoh) a middle aged Chinese immigrant in America who lives in and owns a failing laundromat. Wang is constantly overworked and worrying about a plethora of other things in her life. 

While in a tax meeting (to make sure she isn’t foreclosed) she’s caught up in a bizarre adventure involving other universes in which her life ends up in dramatically different places than her own, based on the decisions (no matter how little) she could have made in her past.

This movie’s script has a little bit of everything: comedy, well choreographed fight scenes, and a heartwarming message to pull at the heart strings. What’s so impressive about that is how it manages to balance those different themes without them coming off as disjointed.

The fight scenes are equally brutal, weird, and fun to watch. Whether it involves a wheelchair turned exo-skeleton, deliberately trying to get a paper-cut, or the use of a fanny pack as a deadly weapon, they’re well done and pretty imaginative.

The whole cast does a great job portraying their characters, but the main characters of the Wang family do a stand out job.

Michelle Yeoh not only makes the audience sympathetic for Evelyn Wang, she does a good job showing what she goes through on a daily basis, but does well portraying the different versions of her character throughout the different timelines and what-ifs.

Evelyn’s eternally happy and optimistic husband, Waymond (Key Hu Quan, AKA Short Round from the second Indiana Jones movie), is a joy to watch. Every scene he’s in, he just lights up the room in this aura of kindness and optimism. The audience wants to see more of him whenever he’s not on screen because he’s just such a nice guy and a joy to be around.

Stephanie Hsu, as Joy Wang, Evelyn’s daughter, is a pretty funny character whose antics get a laugh of the audience throughout the entire film, but at the same time is given some pretty heavy scenes and nails them.

It’s not surprising that all of these actors (with the addition of Jamie Lee Curtis) all earned Oscar nominations for acting in this film. 

James Hong, as Gong Gong, Evelyne’s father, is a jerk but is given enough comedic and human elements to make him not totally unlikeable. And at the same time it’s made pretty clear that his more rude actions are not done out of malice and that it’s mostly a generational thing.

Despite all the screwball comedy and over the top action scenes, the movie still has enough heart and a touching enough message to make some people cry (not me though, I became jaded and killed my emotions a long time ago).

The sound track is also imaginative, usually classical songs rearranged and remixed to fit whatever scene they’re a part of. As with the actors, it’s not surprising that the soundtrack also got an Oscar nod for best original score.

Along with the 5 previously mentioned nominees (Michelle Yeoh, best lead actress; Key Hu Quan, supporting actor; Stephanie Hsu, supporting actress; Jamie Lee Curtis, supporting actress; best original score) the movie has also gotten nominated for best picture, best director, best original screenplay, best costume design, and best film editing, all of which the movie definitely earned. 

The song “This is a life” from the film also was nominated for best original song, rounding out the nominations at 11, which leads all other films in Oscar nominations this year. It is also worth mentioning that Malaysian-born Michelle Yeoh is the first woman who identifies as Asian to earn a nomination for best lead actress.

Though, if the film has one flaw it is that it can become quite complicated and confusing on what exactly is going on and who’s supposed to be who if you’re not 100% paying attention. 

So if one, say, has a mother who likes to play on their phone while watching movies, maybe don’t watch this one with them, or you’ll have to pause every five minutes to explain something the plot already explained earlier. But of course, this is purely a hypothetical.

“Everything Everywhere All at Once” is a very weird and out there film well worth watching if someone is looking for something actually unique and interesting to watch.