POP CULTURE
It’s a thought we’ve all had before. Is this what I’m supposed to be doing? Did I take a wrong turn somewhere along the way? An entire subgenre of mumblecore indies has blossomed from such universal ennui. At first glance, the Daniels’ deceptively straightforward Everything Everywhere All at Once might be one of them, an Oscar- awardee, no less. ALL AT ONCE
by Marya E. Gates
EW THINGS IN LIFE ARE CERTAIN besides death, taxes, and maybe the never-ending task that is doing laundry. At least that’s where the characters in writer/directors Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, collectively known as Daniels, new film “Everything Everywhere All at Once” find themselves initially. That is, until they take an emotional, philosophical, and deeply weird trip through the looking glass into the multiverse and discover metaphysical wisdom along the way. In this love letter to genre cinema, Michelle Yeoh gives a virtuoso performance as Evelyn Wang, a weary owner of a laundromat under IRS audit. We first meet her enjoying a happy moment with her husband Waymond (Ke Huy Quan) and their daughter Joy (Stephanie Hsu). We see their smiling faces reflected in a mirror on their living room wall. As the camera literally zooms through the mirror, Evelyn’s smile fades, now seated at a table awash with business receipts. She’s preparing for a meeting with an auditor while simultaneously trying to cook food for a Chinese New Year party that will live up to the high standards of her visiting father Gong Gong (James Hong, wiley as ever). On top of juggling her father’s visit and the tax audit, Evelyn’s sullen daughter Joy wants to bring her girlfriend Becky (Tallie Medel) to the F
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EC Magazines | London-L.A. Edition 2023
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