Everything Everywhere All At Once

 Everything Everywhere All At Once

 Watching “Everything Everywhere All At Once” cold, without researching its meaning, can be a confusing mix of images and inferences.  What the hell is this thing about?  Multiverses?  Talking rocks?  An all-knowing bagel? C’mon!

 Seven Oscars for “Everything Everywhere All At Once”

- Best Original Screenplay, Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert

- Best Motion Picture of the Year, Daniel Kwan (producer), Daniel       Scheinert (producer), Jonathan Wang (producer)-

- Best Achievement in Directing, Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert

- Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role, Michelle Yeoh

- Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role, Jamie Lee C  Curtis

- Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role, Ke Huy Quan

- Best Achievement in Film Editing, Paul Rogers

 Why?

  Here is one reviewer’s take:

“In "Everything Everywhere All At Once," nihilism drives Alphaverse character Jobu Tupaki to the brink.

There's no simple way to sum up the Oscar-winning Everything Everywhere All At Once.

 It begins with the premise that a Chinese American immigrant named Evelyn Wang (Michelle Yeoh) must enter the multiverse to stop an alternate version of her daughter, Joy (Stephanie Hsu), from annihilating their world. Evelyn's husband, Waymond (Ke Huy Quan), is along for the ride. (At the Oscars, Yeoh won Best Actress and Quan won Best Supporting Actor. The film also took home Best Picture, Best Film Editing, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay Oscars.)

 EEAAO is two hours of chaos punctuated by absurdist humor and nonstop action sequences, followed by a string of emotional revelations about Evelyn, Joy, Waymond, and the human condition. Without much warning, the film becomes a depiction of how someone — Joy — can be brought back from the edge of their existence. Suddenly, the viewer comes face-to-face with a version of their own emotional pain as the movie's fantastical scenes give way to something far more relatable: an unexpected but masterful story about mental health.”

 

Another reviewer says:

“The Deeper Meaning Behind Everything Everywhere All At Once

Though never expressly stated, Everything Everywhere All At Once suggests that what makes life meaningful is the recognition that because there is no inherent meaning, all things and moments are equally meaningful. It turns out that Jobu Tupaki (a variant of Evelyn's daughter Joy) doesn't want to kill Evelyn, but was just seeking another person who can shift through the multiverse, largely out of hope for some different perspective to make sense or find some meaning in it all. Everything Everywhere All At Once is very thoughtful in its treatment of nihilism and depression, and it never gives an explicit answer to the problem of meaninglessness in an infinite universe. Instead, Everything Everywhere All At Once's meaning reveals itself to be a prolonged argument that, perhaps, the only meaning to be found in life is the people in it, and so the solution is to be present every moment possible.”

 

To get a more thorough picture of what Everything Everywhere All At Once is trying to say, a quick look at absurdist and nihilist philosophies is also in order.

 Ray Gruszecki

March 14, 2023