Welcome to Everything Everywhere All at Once, the film that boldly states that life is essentially best described as being “where everything’s made up and the nothing really matters” – and knowing the perverse sense of humour the directors have demonstrated in the past, I’d be surprised if the bastardization of this iconic catchphrase Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (affectionately known together simply as “Daniels” for our convenience), the film is an explosive, over-the-top existential masterpiece that wears its heart on its sleeve, and makes it very clear that it doesn’t aim to be like anything we have seen before. Even the detractors of this fascinating work have struggled to compare it to anything else, precisely because whatever impelled the filmmakers to construct a film about the concept of multiverses (which a cursory glance at the production of this film will note that they were developing long before the recent wealth of stories that utilize the idea), it was certainly not based on anything all that concrete. Much like their previous work, the irreverent Swiss Army Man, Kwan and Scheinert took what was essentially an extended anecdote and transformed it into something much larger, drawing on their own keen interest in subjects surrounding existentialism and the human condition – and as charming as their prior triumph may be, they are offering something much more complex here. In Everything Everywhere All at Once, they take many intriguing ideas and expand on them, mostly in ways that the viewer would not necessarily expect. This only serves to prove the fact that the most effective works are often those that take us by surprise – and while there was very little effort put into hiding the true nature of this particular film, there are still numerous details in both the premise and execution that keep us engaged and interested, easily making this one of the year’s most thoroughly entertaining and wonderfully meaningful films.

When dealing with a film as incredibly original as this, we often encounter something of a problem that have plagued many writers and theorists over the course of history – when confronted with a piece of art that doesn’t fit into any particular mould, how does one begin a conversation about its merits? Everything Everywhere All at Once is one such example – we can speak about how it is a darkly comical story that uses common mainstream tropes to explore some interesting themes, such as family or identity (common ideas that we frequently find in such stories), or we could start a discussion about the more complex concepts that inspired the narrative. We could even spend a considerable amount of time looking at it from a formal level, focusing on the impressive craftsmanship that extends from conception to execution, with the cinematography and editing being some of the very best of the past few years. Yet, there are all very traditional components of your garden-variety critical conversation – and as much as we try to be objective in this field, Everything Everywhere All at Once is a film that warrants so much more than just tradition, especially since it is a film that stands in such firm defiance of any recognizable conventions. In centring a discussion on the film, we look at it through a postmodern lens, since despite the term often being carelessly tossed around to describe anything even vaguely off-kilter or unconventional, Kwan and Scheinert have made something that borrows heavily from the postmodern movement, at least on a theoretical level. I’m drawn back to Jean-François Lyotard’s description of postmodernism as “incredulity towards metanarratives”, the most concise definition of a movement that quite ironically avoids such neat, compact descriptions – and from here, we can shape our understanding of a film that exists to show that metanarratives (in the broadest sense, but applicable to anything from something as small as story structure to as grandiose as world religion) are merely constructions, and that good art often exists to subvert the idea that such stringent rules need to be followed – and bringing it into the more intimate space that we encounter in this film makes it truly existential.

The metanarrative that Everything Everywhere All at Once is showing its disdain towards is difficult to glean at first, but we soon come to learn that this is a film based on the very simple belief that absolutely nothing in life matters, and that is perfectly fine. The directors are working from a story that is essentially based around a more functional kind of nihilism. We often tend to think of this school of thought as being the philosophy of depression, the kind of dismal, bleak outlook that is often repulsive to anyone with some semblance of joy in their lives. Yet, there is always value in every kind of philosophy, and this film is drawing on a version of this idea that is far more endearing. It’s not enough to say that life is meaningless, because this is just the terminal point of any robust conversation, especially since we have been searching for the meaning of life for as long as we have been conscious. This film centres its discussion less around the fact that we are living a single bleak existence, and more on the bold belief that we exist across an infinite amount of universes, and much like infinity, our minds simply cannot comprehend the interminable nature of what existence is – so rather than try and make sense of it, we should simply surrender into the madness and just embrace it. Everything Everywhere All at Once uses many different narrative techniques – it has a solid story that the viewer can grasp onto (since even the most curious minds still want something that makes some kind of sense in terms of a storyline), but it filters it through the lens of a more surreal sensibility, one that feels complementary to the off-the-wall nihilism. It’s an oddly uplifting film, precisely because it isn’t intent on making us feel isolated from any positive emotion, but rather finding the beauty in the absurdity, which this film is implying is certainly a cause worth celebrating – and seeing how it is crafted here, it is quite difficult to disagree with this perspective.

However tempting as it may be, we should avoid becoming too overly academic or theoretical about this film, since it is still constructed as a piece of entertainment, and should be appreciated not only for its wealth of impressive ideas, but also for the way in which they manifest. Nestled right at the heart of Everything Everywhere All at Once is a tour-de-force performance by the absolutely incredible Michelle Yeoh, who once again proves how she is quite simply one of the greatest actresses in the world – and considering how much her career has leapt globally, this is an even more appropriate description. One of the rare performers working today that has been able to master both characterization and physicality when it comes to her work, her talents are put to exceptional use here. Playing Evelyn Wang, as well as an infinite number of versions of the same woman in an endless stream of alternative universes, Yeoh is giving the performance of a lifetime – and there is not a single moment in this film where it registers as even slightly inauthentic. Not too many of her peers have been able to become so ingrained in a film, absorbed by the story to the point where they are almost unrecognizable, but yet still stand firmly as an unequivocal star, and Yeoh does so much with what is a truly challenging character. Much like the philosophical underpinnings, we can spend the entirety of a discussion on Everything Everywhere All at Once waxing poetic about Yeoh and her staggering work, but the film utilizes more than just their leading star, with everyone in the ensemble delivering stellar work. Ke Huy Quan makes a triumphant return to the screen after two decades of retirement from acting, also being cast for both his acting talents and physical prowess, while Stephanie Hsu confirms herself to be one of the most promising young actresses of the present moment, turning in a performance that is likely going to help her register as a major talent of her generation. The legendary James Hong proves that he is undeniably the hardest working man in showbusiness with his scene-stealing performance, and Jamie Lee Curtis joins in by playing the frumpy IRS agent who somehow becomes a much more sinister figure through some bewildering developments, all of which Curtis takes in her stride. Yet, every performance inevitably serves to draw attention back to Yeoh and her absolutely magnificent work, which anchors the film and single-handedly makes Everything Everywhere All at Once such a riveting production.

Throughout the film, we’ve come to realize that Kwan and Scheinert were not all that interested in playing by the rules, since Everything Everywhere All at Once is about as unconventional a film as one can get (with the exception of a few works that are designed to be intentionally shocking or provoking), and it is essentially redefining what cinema can be, insofar as it is actively trying to transcend those boundaries. You can’t follow conventions if what is guiding your film isn’t only the frequent disillusionment with previous conventions, but also the active search of new ideas, bespoke ways to tell stories – these methods quite simply did not exist between the directors took the leap and did it themselves. It may seem like this film bears similarities in terms of narrative and tone, but it is an almost entirely unique piece of cinema that proves that we still have room for originality, granted that we are giving a platform to those original voices that deserve the space to tell their stories, and on their own terms. There is always space for works of art that challenge the status quo, or aim to dismantle it entirely – it’s just a matter of seeing it for what it is, rather than attempting to shoehorn it into a category in which it doesn’t exist. Everything Everywhere All at Once proves that not only are there audiences for such stories, but these films can be genuinely successful all on their own, without needing to be tethered to any discernible logic, outside of the one constructed specifically for the film – and it can be a bit of a challenge to fully grasp the full extent of the film, with the sheer volume of information, as well as the rapidity at which it is presented to us, being intentionally quite overwhelming – and considering how much of Everything Everywhere All at Once depends on the viewer being able to temper our need to always apply logic, even in places where it isn’t necessary, it can be truly liberating to just allow those organic connections to be formed between ourselves and the film, since it’s in these moments that we are likely to find the most potent and useful commentary, which is most certainly going to differ between each individual viewer.

Needless to say, the moment we let go of the need to rationalize this story and instead start to allow it to speak to us on a much deeper level, everything will start to fit into place, which is the moment the film truly begins to achieve a level of brilliance – there’s a membrane that exists between the audience and the screen, a division that, regardless of how intimate and personal a film may be, has always existed, despite the attempts of many filmmakers to penetrate it in their efforts to truly capture reality on screen. Everything Everywhere All at Once is not a film that strives for realism, nor is it the kind of story that necessarily calls for us to adhere to its very evocative socio-cultural commentary. Instead, it presents a particular argument and in the process invites us to engage in conversation with these themes – naturally, by virtue of the medium, this seems like a one-sided affair, at least in terms of how we’d normally consider such a dialogue. Yet, if we think about the sheer number of people who will encounter this thought-provoking scenario, and how nearly all of them will come away having been somewhat invested in the commentary, it starts to become clear how Everything Everywhere All at Once is a film all about negotiating our existence, which is implied to be a lot more complex than it appears on the surface. It’s not so much a matter of saying that life is meaningless as it is a fervent call to arms for every viewer (and by extension, every human being) to set out to find meaning in this meaninglessness – and this is the exact kind of intentional contradiction that may cause some detractors to view the film as overly verbose to the point of stumbling over its own audacity. However, as we’ve seen many times before, it takes a lot of work for a very ambitious work to completely fail, and there is barely a moment here that feels anything close to unnecessary.

As a film lover, I found Everything Everywhere All at Once to be an absolute blast, a well-crafted science fiction film with incredible performances and a great approach to its thematic material. However, as someone with a deep investment in postmodern literature and existential philosophy (as I assume most of us are to some degree), the film works on a very different level. There’s a degree of frustration that comes from watching this film – not directly from the project itself, but rather the realization that we are not likely to find many more examples of a film that is so thoroughly and unequivocally focused on exploring issues much deeper than the most fundamental themes. This is an exceptionally challenging film, one that is so precise and meticulously woven together, that it frequently feels like it is going to fall apart at the seams, since modern mainstream cinema (as progressive as it may be) doesn’t have the capacity for such stories. We are far too restricted by a core set of themes, anything that even begins to question these is immediately labelled as being too artistic, and thrown into the suitably-named arthouse category, which is technically true, but has become a symbol of “othering”, where anything that is even vaguely different is immediately considered to be potentially divisive. Even looking at this film from a very formal perspective, we simply can’t categorize it under any genre or movement, since it doesn’t really fit anywhere. Not even the catch-all classification of absurdism seems to do the film justice, since it neglects the fact that there is still a very sobering message anchored within reality present at the heart of the film. Absurdism is a movement built on the principle that logic isn’t an inevitability, but rather an option – and while we are wired to follow a certain kind of humanistic decorum, there is nothing philosophically that implies that this is some universal truth. If anything, the very existence of any universal truth should be dubious – and Everything Everywhere All at Once is very much inclined towards such beliefs. It isn’t often a film so deeply and thoroughly invested in provoking the very depths of our consciousness comes around – so for it to be delivered in the form of a genuinely entertaining, well-made psychological thriller with broad strokes of comedy and romance only proves that cinema can challenge every convention and still leave us in awe – and few films have been able to stir as visceral a reaction as this one, which is destined to become a truly essential text of both modern cinema and contemporary philosophical debate.