FILM: Everything Everywhere All At Once

Everything Everywhere All At Once was fun, funny, and heartfelt. From the trailer, the film looks like some strange mix of The Matrix and Kung Fu Panda, not the sort of thing we’d usually go for, but from reading some reviews (and seeing that this got really high scores on both critic and popular ratings), we decided to give it a try. It turns out that it’s really a mix of The Matrix, Kung Fu Panda, and It’s A Wonderful Life, and if you can’t imagine what that creative blend would be like, that just attests to the unique creativity of this film. On one level, it’s a story about an immigrant family with a small business struggling to make ends meet, and questioning some of their life choices. On another level, it raises questions about how humanity can rise above the nihilism that ought to be inherent in contemplating what a small speck in a vast universe we are. And on another level, it’s the story of an overburdened laundromat owner (Michelle Yeoh) as being the unlikely superhero the multiverse needs to counter the ultimate evil in the form of an everything bagel, while avoiding the menace of an IRS tax auditor (hilariously portrayed by Jamie Lee Curtis). I'm glad that we made the choice (at least in this universe) to see it.