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Everything Everywhere All At Once is not really an easy film to describe, but can be if I was to just say “because Multiverse”, and if you’re familiar with this concept.
Opening with a scene with a mix of English and Chinese dialogue, even within the same sentence, Evelyn (Michelle Yeoh – Boss Level) is in the process of getting a divorce from husband Waymond (Ke Huy Quan – best known as ‘Short Round’ from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, many years ago), while living in a messy apartment with a messy life, all above the laundromat they operate as a self-employed business. However, self-employment means annual trips to the tax office…
In the middle of an appointment with the ball-breaking Deirdre Beaubeirdre (Jamie Lee Curtis – Halloween Kills) – who’s calling her out for adding in fake receipts that she shouldn’t be classing as a business expense – what I can only describe is that weird stuff starts happening, throwing Evelyn around the tax office, before she’s informed “Alternative life path scanning”, and is issued with new instructions as to how her life will be shaped, but she’s not allowed to tell anyone…
In short, the way it works in Everything Everywhere All At Once is that there are many multiverses, and Evelyn is basically, the chosen one. There are branching universes which happen every time you make any sort of decision, and our lead made her mark elsewhere at a time and place, but can we get to find out what that is?
Well, it’s telling that at one point, she says “This doesn’t make any sense!”, to which comes the reply, “The less sense it makes, the better”. Yep, bear that in mind.
Meanwhile, the mysterious Jobu Tupaki is looking for her, and that’s the person who can see all the multiverses at once, and it all started with the Alphaverse in a film which has elements of The Matrix, Quantum Leap, Back to the Future, and any film or TV show that jumps forward and back in time.
The widescreen aspect ratio for Everything Everywhere All At Once is a mix of 1.85:1 and 2.39:1, but also a few others inbetween such as old-style 4:3, and if you pay attention, you’ll see the screen changing between these ratios, expanding and contracting as it goes. Hence, it’ll be shown best on a 1.85:1 screen at your cinema, since when it goes to 2.39:1, that is within the 1.85:1 image.
The film was only showing on screen 8 of the Odeon Trafford Centre which is a 2.39:1 screen, so the 2.39:1 scenes will effectively be windowboxed and a fraction of what they could be shown at, had the film stuck to that as an aspect ratio.
As for how the film is, well, the special effects you see in the trailer are quite an innovation at first, but after an hour, it really does start to overegg the pudding… and it goes on for almost 2.5 hours… but don’t forget the googly eyes…
So, this film is worth checking out, but try and get a comfy seat in the cinema for the long running time, unless you’re in the aforementioned auditorium where the seats haven’t been changed in well over a decade. Well, except in those ones where they’ve upgraded to Dolby Cinema, and they charge you a fiver extra for the privilige.
And to my end credit adventures… well, there’s no mid- or post-credit scenes, but I still was the only one who stayed until the end. I saw two cleaners come in, but they didn’t switch the lights on until the credits had actually finished. I recognised at least one from my time watching The Batman, as the woman who switched the lights on the second time, so she must’ve recognised me also 😉
Everything Everywhere All At Once is in cinemas now, and you can pre-order it on Blu-ray and DVD.
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 139 minutes
Release date: March 13th 2022
Studio: A24
Format: 1.85:1 (most scenes), 2.39:1 (some scenes), 1.33:1 (some scenes), 2.00:1 (some scenes) (ARRIRAW (2.8K) (3.4K), Anamorphic Hawk Scope)
Rating: 6.5/10
Directors: Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert
Producers: Daniel Kwan, Mike Larocca, Anthony Russo, Joe Russo, Daniel Scheinert, Jonathan Wang
Screenplay: Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert
Music: Son Lux
Cast:
Evelyn Wang: Michelle Yeoh
Joy Wang: Stephanie Hsu
Waymond Wang: Ke Huy Quan
Gong Gong: James Hong
Deirdre Beaubeirdre: Jamie Lee Curtis
Becky Sregor: Tallie Medel
Big Nose: Jenny Slate
Chad: Harry Shum Jr
Rick: Biff Wiff
TV Musical – Queen: Sunita Mani
TV Musical – Soldier: Aaron Lazar
Alpha Jumper – Trophy: Brian Le
Alpha Jumper – Bigger Trophy: Andy Le
Security Guards: Neravana Cabral, Chelsey Goldsmith, Craig Henningsen
Police – Confetti: Anthony Molinari
Police – Salsa: Dan Brown
Police – Luchador: Anthony Nanakornpanom
Alpha Jumper – Jogger: Cara Marie Chooljian
Alpha Jumper – Edgelord: Randall Archer
Alpha Jumper – SWAT: Efka Kvaraciejus
Alpha RV Officer: Peter Banifaz
Alpha RV Officer: Audrey Wasilewski
Kung Fu Master: Li Jing
Young Boy Waymond: Dylan Lau
Maternity Doctor: Boon Koh
Laundromat Police: Timothy Eulich
District Manager: Daniel Scheinert
Kung Fu Competitor: Michiko Nishiwaki
Opera Evelyn: Jane Lui (voice)
Raccacoonie Puppeteer: Jason Hamer
Raccacoonie Puppeteer: Timothy Ralston
Raccacoonie Puppeteer: Hiroshi Yada
Lunch Lady: Elle Alexander (uncredited)
Dominatrix: Amanda (uncredited)
Movie Theater Goer: Emmett Ferguson (uncredited)
Chinese Choir / Movie Producer: Waymond Lee (uncredited)
Raccacoonie: Randy Newman (voice) (uncredited)
Pedestrian: Pablo Ramos (uncredited)
Chinese Choir: DY Sao (uncredited)
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.