Chinese mother knocks out Marvel: go see Everything Everywhere All at Once in theaters

When it was released in the United States in March 2022, Everything Everywhere All at Once broke all records. In just 15 days, the film recorded more than 1.7 million entries and also has dethroned Parasite for a few days in the ranking of the best films of all time on the site Mailbox d.

It must be said thatAll everywhere all at once is an A24 filmthat’s a bit the studio equivalent of Steven Spielberg : Basically, it is to A24 that we owe countless masterpieces. Now you know the commonality between Ex machina, Euphoria, Lady Bird, Midsommar, The Witch or Moonlight.

Suffice it to say that by going to see it, we expected it to be good. Indeed, it was even better than that.

What are you talking about All everywhere all at once?

All everywhere all at once has a main character you never see in action blockbusters. The film completely decentralizes the indestructible figure of the white boy with overdeveloped musculature to prefer that ofEvelyn Wang (performed by the genius Michelle Yeoh)a woman in her fifties, a Chinese immigrant and precarious.

Evelyn is torn between her family she no longer understands, her arduous job in a laundromat, and the chaotic management of her finances. But one fine day, she finds herself immersed in a multiverse. She discovers the more or less strange lives he would lead in each of these parallel worlds… and discovers that the multiverse will become its main weapon to save the world.

A pop culture gem of action, comedy and emotion

Despite its unpronounceable title, All everywhere all at once is a nugget and it looks like nothing else. From the first minutes, the supercharged group announces a film full of a euphoric energy from which we are happy to let ourselves be carried away. The concept of the multiverse allows filmmakers to do this they leave the field completely free to their creativity.

This path open to the imagination leads ideas of characters and sequences sometimes hallucinating or hilarious, sometimes overwhelming. Visually, some transition sequences between universes are also dazzling compared to those of 2001: A Space Odyssey by Stanley Kubrick. As for kung fu fightingwe dare not blink for fear of losing a crumb of these hypnotic choreography.

When the blockbuster tells an intimate chronicle of motherhood and depression

Despite the wealth of parallel worlds he imagines, Everything Everywhere All at Once never loses sight of its main themes. In addition to the quality of the action, the suspense and the entertainment, it’s also a great film about family, identity and the search for meaning in life. Sure, it’s about saving the world, like almost all superhero movies. Only, the real stakes around this immense mission they are surprisingly realistic and intimate.

The theme of the multiverse and its sometimes absurd parallel worlds (for example, there is an alternate reality in which humans have sausages instead of fingers) opens a reflection philosophical. How to find meaning in life when you realize the infinity of trivial details that affect our existence ? How not to be desperate when you start imagining the life you would lead different choices ?

Thereby, Everything also speaks of feeling of emptiness, loss of meaning and depression. If intimate drama works, it’s organized around itEvelyn and her daughter Joy. In the end, all of these extraordinary worlds are just a fictional version of the difficulties they face in their relationship. But by dint of common, unusual or terrifying tests, they will learn to tame, to communicate and to to understand each other.

Featured image credit: © Leonine