Everything Everywhere All At Once: Finding Joy in the Cosmic Washing Machine of Existence

              From the first shot of Everything Everywhere All At Once, this film is a delight. In the span of its 2-hour-plus runtime, the film cartwheels, karate-chops, and cuddles its way across the spectrum of human emotions. That the film succeeds in doing this with total poise and control—even as it addresses the utter chaos that is existence—is miraculous. In fact, though, it isn’t a miracle; it is the result of the perfect genius of its creators.

              Every aspect of the film is so expertly curated to feel real that each key creator behind the film deserves their own special award. Everything—from the dialogue to the acting, from the costuming to the palette to the lighting to the choreography and special effects—is gorgeous, interesting, and necessary to the narrative.

              As the title suggests, this film is about everything, everywhere, and how it is all happening all at once. In a nutshell. Amongst all of that everything happening everywhere, there is Evelyn Wang (Michelle Yeoh), a Chinese-American woman running a laundromat with her self-effacingly sweet husband Waymond (Ke Huy Quan). Evelyn is intelligent enough to recognize just how far the life she has is from the life she envisioned. Her frustration with her reality, however, inhibits her from seeing how the other players in this particular reality are more important than the details of the reality itself.

Evelyn’s frustration with her reality inhibits her from seeing how the other players in this particular reality are more important than the details of the reality itself.

              And the question of this particular reality is an important one, because Evelyn discovers, or rather is thrown into, a complex web of apparently limitless realities, each one the result of minute choices and changes in conditions that ripple out to create whole new universes. The controlled confusion and chaos of this system is the equivalent of a cosmic washing machine.

              Which brings us back to the laundromat, and Evelyn’s discontent with the reality in which she is, apparently, “her worst self.” Aside from her strained relationship with Waymond, which has reached the point of Waymond serving his wife divorce papers, Evelyn also struggles to comprehend her daughter, Joy (Stephanie Hsu), what with her swearing, her tattoos, and, above all, her girlfriend Becky (Tallie Medel). Evelyn’s relationship with Joy is in many ways a reiteration of her relationship with her own father, Gong Gong (James Hong). His need to control his daughter ultimately resulted in disowning her when she made a decision that he disagreed with—the same decision that led her life to the laundromat connected to the dingy apartment she grumbles around in every day now. That decision was to follow Waymond to the United States and the promise of a better, freer life.

              But the collective weight of disappointment and bitterness in Evelyn’s life—both the one at hand and the infinite number of other alternate lives—has disrupted the balance of the cosmos, and its manifestation has taken a form that takes Evelyn completely off guard. So begins a whiplash-inducing epic battle involving Evelyn’s countless alternate selves against the embodiment of chaos and meaninglessness, Jobu Tupaki.

              And Evelyn, well…what is it that she wants? She has people around her who love her and want to help her, but her own frustrations blind her from seeing this, and it would require too many adjustments to her worldview based on thwarted potential for her to be willing to see it. Also, she really wants to not have to do taxes anymore, but this probably goes for all humans everywhere. Learning to jump between “verses” (or the different realities that branch out from each individual decision) is the only way Evelyn can take on Jobu, but learning to resist the temptations of remaining in these alternate existences is fundamental.

It would require too many adjustments to Evelyn’s worldview based on thwarted potential for her to be willing to see what she has around her.

              In other words, the great challenge is knowing that all of these other possibilities exist but still accepting the single reality one is actually living for what it is. This is why the Evelyn in this life, in this universe of all the multiverses, is the key to restoring balance. She must learn to let go of the disappointment of unrealized expectations and not only accept but embrace what is. Moreover, she must learn to see the (J)joy, beauty, and value even in this life where disappointment and rejection have characterized all of her decisions, leading her to become her worst self. If she can manage to find that which is precious even in the most disappointing iteration of her existence, everything can fall back into place.

              Among the many successes of this film is that even the opening 10 minutes, during which all we see are the very mundane details of Evelyn’s life as the disgruntled owner of a local coin laundromat persecuted by the enigmas and injustices of the American tax system, are engrossing. The characters are each so well drawn that their personal and family dramas would promise in and of themselves to make a worthy film. That Everything Everywhere All At Once goes so breathtakingly far beyond this renders it a masterpiece in any universe.