1 August 2022 -

Everything, Everywhere, All at Once

SPOILER ALERT - Don’t read further, if you haven’t seen the movie and wish to not know the key events.

My verdict: 10/10 - I love it; would definitely enjoy these few specks of time again!

Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022) is by far my favorite movie of 2022…well at least up until May 2022. It’s also my favorite treatment of ‘multiverses’.

Essentially, this is a love story; love your family – i.e. your loved ones, and love your ownself, especially your imperfect self, that in spite of all the flaws we may have, we are still worthy of being loved.

The film posted a grand philosophical question: If you could be anything (or be anywhere) you wish to be – if you know that life could perhaps be better than it really is at the moment, what would you do? How would you make changes to your life? (..or can we really do anything about it – the movie actually suggested that NO, you can’t really re-live a new life, at least in this movie. One can only temporary ‘experience’ how an alternate reality feels).

The film explored answers to this big question through relationships between Evelyn, the lead protagonist, and her family members, primarily her gentle, yet struggling husband, Waymond, and rebellious lesbian daughter, Joy.

Granted (well, taught) an ability to ‘verse jump’, Evelyn was able to aquire skills from different versions of her self to help her deal with any challenge she was facing. While the key threat posted in the plot was to stop the antagonist from executing the presumably evil plan, the key story line actually focused on Evelyn’s self discovery. As she naviated through different alternate realities of her possible selves, she found answers to help amend her relationships with Waymond and Joy.

A Gullible husband – To Evelyn, marrying to Waymond was a mistake and she regretted not listening to her father. Waymond’s gentle personality seems like a weakness to her. Later, it turned out Waymond played a role of ‘Jiminy Cricket’ of this story. His lines basically sum up key lessons Evelyn has gone through throughout the film.
An outcast daughter – Evelyn not only found it hard to accept Joy’s homosexuality, but also simply struggled in general as a parent, dealing with a teenage, rebellious daughter. Yet, she later realized the essence of being a parent; a trial and error, and a learning journey. She realized she would never let go of her ‘Joy’, reciting the mistake, in her point of view, her father did when he let her run away with Waymond–giving up on his own her.

Key lessons and action items I reflected upon watching this film for the second time (and I must admit I don’t mind watching this over and over again!)

LIFE IS IN OUR HANDS. EXPLORE POSSIBILITIES, YET BE THE CHANGE YOU WISH TO SEE - Would knowing all the possibilities in your life make any differences? The film gave Joy the task to show us how one, assuming having experienced all possible choices would feel. Perhaps everything, after all, doesn’t really matter. Why then should we care? This reminds me of Paradox of choice - Having more choices may actually make us less happy! Perhaps the key to happiness is to realize that even we may not have full control of our life, we do have full control of how we react to what life presents to us. While it is yet to know if we could be ‘everything, everywhere, all at once’, we could be happy with our presence, as of now. Life won’t be perfect. But, that doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy it.
BE KIND - Waymond argued to Evelyn (and presumably also broke the wall, talking directly to the audience) that although his approach to deal with challenges may be perceived as naive. It’s actually his chosen way to ‘fight’ — strategic and necessary. He reminded us that we all have different way to fight our battles. It’s easy to judge others based on own standards, our version of life. When Waymond attempted to start a divorce, his motive was revealed later that rather than just parting their ways, he learned from his friends that taking a break from a relationship could perhaps save their relationship. So, again, even through a divorce, it still shows how much Waymond cares about Evelyn’s feeling. This is just his way to fight. He said this following line at the middle of the final climax action scene; he esssentially summarize how he deals with challenges in his life to us all:

Waymond: I know you are all fighting because you are scared and confused. I’m confused too. All day… I don’t know what the heck is going on. But somehow… this feels like it’s all my fault. When I choose to see the good side of things, I’m not being naive. It is strategic and necessary. It’s how I’ve learned to survive through everything. I don’t know. The only thing I do know… is that we have to be kind. Please. Be kind… especially when we don’t know what’s going on.
EMPATHY, COMMUNICATION & RELATIONSHIPS - I find it’s intially easier to relate given my Asian background. It’s not very common to be ‘expressive’ with our love. Perhaps like fighting, there are diverse ways to express love. But the message on this matter is deeper as the story progresses. I feel like it is a subtle suggestion generally, but, living together in a society, especially from different backgrounds and interests, it’s easy to make assumption about each other’s ‘common senese’. This film uses the context of parenting and family relationships to demonstrate the power of communication. The alternate reality of Joy, who happened to be treated initially as the main antagonist, did not seek revenge or anything from her mother who ‘pushed’ her to reach the set ‘expectations’, in this case perhaps by parents. Rather, she has been searching for her mom, and wanted Evelyn to go through the same experience so that her mom understand the challenges she has been through. Joy simply needed someone to listen and undersant her struggles. Perhaps that is also what we all need in our life – a companion with empathy.
ACCEPT WHO WE ARE – OTHERS AND OUR SELF - It seems like this refers to how Evelyn accepted her husband and her daughter for who they are. To some extent, I agree. But ultimately, I think the most important point is to accept ourself. Like Waymond from another universer told Evelyn in the present world, she is capable of anything because she is living the worst possible version of herself. Three is tons of room for improvement! That being said, what if we are currently being the worst possible self version we could ever be; If we know all the possible selves we could have been, would we change anything about our life? I feel like this point is left open-ended by the filmmaker for us to define our own answers. But, what I deduced for myself, I think it’s utmost important for us to learn to ‘hug ourself’. By embracing our own imperfection, that’s how we become ready to be vulnerable and extend our love to others.

This movie reminds me of Stephen Sonheim’s Into the Woods, which from my interpretation, also attempted to present answers to the grand question: How to navigate our life?

Let me end with my favorite dialogue between Evelyn and Joy, her daughter. Perhaps this is a thesis of the whole film?

Evelyn: And of all the places I could be, why would I want to be here with you? Yes, you’re right. It doesn’t make sense…. Maybe it’s like you said. Maybe there is something out there, some new discovery that will make us feel like even smaller pieces of shit. Something that explains why you still went looking for me through all of this noise. And why, no matter what, I still want to be here with you. I will always, always, want to be here with you.

Joy: So what? You’re just gonna ignore everything else? You could be anything, anywhere. Why not go somewhere where your daughter is more than just this? Here, all we get are a few specks of time where any of this actually makes any sense.

Evelyn: Then I will cherish these few specks of time.

On a technical note, this is produced by the Russo brothers, who also directed Marvel’s Avengers Infinity Wars and Endgame.

category: thoughts inspirations
tag: movie family relationship philosophy review

Paul Kasemsap

พรพิพัฒน์ เกษมทรัพย์

Everything, Everywhere, All at Once

SPOILER ALERT - Don’t read further, if you haven’t seen the movie and wish to not know the key events.

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