Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022) Review

Time: 139 Minutes
Age Rating: Violence, offensive language, sexual references & content that may disturb
Cast:
Michelle Yeoh as Evelyn Quan Wang
Stephanie Hsu as Joy Wang
Ke Huy Quan as Waymond Wang
James Hong as Gong Gong
Jamie Lee Curtis as Deirdre Beaubeirdra
Tallie Medel as Becky
Jenny Slate as “Big Nose”
Harry Shum Jr. as Chad
Director: Dan Kwan, Daniel Scheinert

When an interdimensional rupture unravels reality, an unlikely hero must channel her newfound powers to fight bizarre and bewildering dangers from the multiverse as the fate of the world hangs in the balance.

Everything Everywhere All at Once was one of my most anticipated movies of the year. The immediate thing that made me interested was the fact that it is directed by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, who directed Swiss Army Man which I really liked. Then there’s the trailer itself, the movie looked wild and creative. Then there was so much hype and acclaim upon its release that I ended up lowering my expectations before watching just in case they didn’t live up to all the praise. Yet I was pleasantly surprised.

I will say this, I would recommend going into it not knowing too much. With so many comic book movies and shows utilising it in their universes, the idea of a multiverse is very common these days. However, EEAAT has to be the best multiverse movie so far. Part of that is that it doesn’t have ties to fulfilling franchise requirements, it is very much its own thing. Also, it actually uses this trope have its take on generational trauma. You can already tell going into it (even just by the trailer) that the movie is bonkers, and it certainly is; very eccentric and possibly learning into absurdism. At times it feels like its being random for the sake of being random, but I still liked it, and it’s endlessly creative. There’s a lot of quirky humour that I found funny, however you’ll probably figure out early on whether its for you, because I can already tell that it’s not for everyone. However, it is also surprisingly sincere and heartfelt throughout, even existential, compassionate and strangely relatable. Even with the multiverse aspect, it still works as a hard-hitting family drama, and it really all comes home in the third act. There’s a good mixture of emotions of humour and drama and overall, it works. As for issues, with everything that happens in this one movie, it can be overwhelming and hard to process. In some ways, it takes on a bit more than it can handle, which messes with the pacing, especially in the second act when a lot is happening.

This is Michelle Yeoh’s movie and she’s spectacular in the lead role, conveying a wide range of emotions and works sells the drama, action and humour. This isn’t just her though, the whole cast is great, especially Ke Huy Quan, Stephanie Hsu, James Hong and Jamie Lee Curtis.

The Daniels directed this phenomenally, it was quite an experience watching it in the cinema. Its style is visually kinetic and energetic from beginning to end. Sometimes it pays homage and tribute to different types of films including 80s Hong Kong action flicks to even Wong Kar-wai films. The action is greatly choreographed and filmed, and its quite entertaining to watch. The editing is perfect and helps the movie to be even better, and the score from Son Lux is great too.

Everything Everywhere All at Once was quite an experience. Bonkers, absurd and entertaining, yet heartfelt and sincere, it really surprised me. It was written and directed excellently by the Daniels, and the performances were all great, led by a phenomenal and career best Michelle Yeoh. It really does feel like a movie that I need to take some time to process, I was just overwhelmed by the end, and I think I’ll need to watch it again. I’m also aware that this movie won’t be for everyone, but for me, it’s already one of the best movies of the year.

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Crazy Rich Asians (2018) Review

Time: 120 Minutes
Age Rating: Contains coarse language
Cast:
Constance Wu as Rachel Chu
Henry Golding as Nick Young
Michelle Yeoh as Eleanor Sung-Young
Gemma Chan as Astrid Leong-Teo
Lisa Lu as Shang Su Yi
Awkwafina as Goh Peik Lin
Harry Shum Jr. as Charlie Wu
Ken Jeong as Goh Wye Mun
Director: Jon M. Chu

Rachel Chu (Constance Wu) is happy to accompany her longtime boyfriend, Nick (Henry Golding), to his best friend’s wedding in Singapore. She’s also surprised to learn that Nick’s family is extremely wealthy and he’s considered one of the country’s most eligible bachelors. Thrust into the spotlight, Rachel must now contend with jealous socialites, quirky relatives and something far, far worse — Nick’s disapproving mother (Michelle Yeoh).

Crazy Rich Asians was a movie I had been hearing about for some time. Romantic comedies are probably one of my least favourite genres of movies but some of them are great like 500 Days of Summer and The Big Sick. Obviously one of the things that stood out about this movie is that it has a mainly Asian cast and done by a major studio, and so I was interested in checking it out. Crazy Rich Asians is a pretty solid romantic comedy that can feel very familiar to other romantic comedies. However it is definitely something significant for representation, is quite funny, has a lot of heart to it and it is definitely worth checking out.

Crazy Rich Asians is actually based on a book of the same name (which was also followed by two sequels), however I haven’t read it so I can’t really say how the film adaptation differs from the novel. Like I said, this is a romantic comedy, and a lot of the tropes associated with romantic comedies are present here. It’s also not one of the more unpredictable romantic comedies out there and doesn’t really do anything too differently from others (outside of the different culture). Even with a different setting and maybe slightly different characters, it does still feel very familiar a lot of the time. On top of that, I will admit that the first half is nothing too special but decent and it’s the second half is where it picks up. It is genuinely heartfelt however, especially towards the third act. It’s also quite funny (as to be expected) and the dialogue is really good. At 2 hours it does feel a little overly long, I’ve only seen the movie once and I can’t pick any particular scenes to cut out, but there is definitely a length or pacing problem. It’s probably why the film improved in the second half, at that point it picked up in the story a lot.

The whole cast are great in their roles. Constance Wu and Henry Golding are likable as the leads and share some very strong chemistry. Other actors like Michelle Yeoh, Gemma Chan, Awkwafina (she in particular is a standout here) and others do great work as well.

Director John M. Chu hasn’t done a lot of great work, the only other film of his that I’ve seen was Now You See Me 2, but he also directed Step Up 2, Step Up 3, Step Up Revolution, GI Joe Retaliation and Jem and the Holograms. However, I think he did a solid job with Crazy Rich Asians. One thing that Crazy Rich Asians really does well is show off the culture really well, from the locations, the music, the food (so much food), all the culture is on display and I’m glad that they really took advantage of that for the movie. The only bad aspect of the direction was that there was one scene early on involving texting/social media with this weird editing and visual effects which really felt out of place from the rest of the movie. You’ll know which one it is and it really stands out but it’s a minor issue nonetheless.

Crazy Rich Asians is funny and heartfelt and worth watching. It’s second half is better than the first, and it’s not that different from other romantic comedies (falling into many of the same tropes and clichés) but overall it’s still good. It’s also undeniably significant with all the representation. I’m glad to hear that there is a sequel in the works already, and I’m on board for it.