Everything, Everywhere, All At Once:

I'm not going to lie to you, when the subtitles appeared at the bottom of the screen through a cacophonic cloud of Chinese chatter, I nearly switched off 'Everything, Everywhere All at Once', at once. I would like to say I was provoked out of solidarity for my illiterate brothers & sisters around the world, but in truth, I nearly missed out on watching one of the coolest films I've seen in a long time, simply because I was feeling too lazy to read. (Maybe a bit like you and this article?) Ok, and a little bit of me worried that the Chinese government might try to brainwash me through subliminal messaging and as a result, I'd find myself outside in the garden in my underpants at 2am, digging a tunnel to Beijing with no memory of how I got there. Well, it is 2023 afterall.

Luckily for my paranoid, non-bilingual arse, the movie quickly switches to English for the majority of its running time. So if you're like me and only speak Chinese takeaway, then don't worry you can still have your:

11. Mind blown miso soup

23. Scrambled brains on prawn toast

47. Perception expanding pork dumplings

60. Multidimensional Mongolian beef.

It must be mentioned though, that this movie is so "heavy" it's possible that you will still need the subtitles and your 'stretchy pants' on, in order to devour the deliciously epic concepts expressed in this interdimensional masterpiece of cinema. (Man, I really want some Chinese food now!)

So what makes Everything Everywhere all at once worth eating, I mean, watching?

"With every passing moment you fear you might have missed your chance to make something of your life."

Boy, this line in the movie hit home hard as I sat in my underwear alone, eating ice-cream for dinner for the third Saturday night in a row. A depressing dissatisfaction with one's life is the driving force at the heart of this visionary film, which see's our protagonist Evelyn, played by Michelle Yoah, battle with feelings of inadequacy and failure whilst trying to hold a life together that is pulling her in all directions.

In an ever increasingly competitive world, brimming with seemingly endless opportunities and possibilities for some, yet crippling debt and disillusion for others, we all might question from time to time if we are living our best life. (Well, are you?)

Well, in Everything Everywhere All At Once it is made perfectly clear to Evelyn that she is literally the worst version of herself that exists or has ever existed across all dimensions of reality. What a stinger! Yet the purpose for her enlightenment on the matter and her journey thereafter, is the subject of this rollercoaster of a movie which explores the possibility of endless possibilities.

Despite the revelation that you suck, sounding like the worst news you could hear, particularly from a weirdly possessed version of your annoying husband who can now dimension hop! Evelyn's suckiness at life actually turns out to be the very thing that can save it from destruction, along with the rest of the universes within the multiverse as well. Ok, ok, but how? And what do I mean by dimensions of reality? And dimension hopping? What are we dealing with here, an omnipotent space rabbit?

Unless you dabble in theoretical physics, quantum mechanics or your hobbies include the late night, weed fuelled exploration of YouTube "rabbitholes", then the multiverse theory might be something you have not come across before. In a nutshell the multiverse theory states that there could be an infinite amount of universes containing an infinite amount of you, in which every possibility, every potentiality that could ever be, regardless of how unlikely or unusual, exists and thrives. (Even a reality where you have hotdogs instead of fingers)

Evelyn's interactions with the different versions of herself she meets/becomes, whilst she travels around the multiverse, give her a new perspective on herself and her life, enabling her to overcome and ultimately defeat the forces that are restricting her ability to grow and flourish. (more about those in a minute)

"This movie is like, if The Matrix and Rick&Morty had a baby and then that baby took acid whilst listening to the music from the T.V show Goosebumps." N. Body, 2023.

By "downloading" abilities from more experienced versions of herself in other dimensions, Evelyn is able to assimilate their strengths and use them to evade destruction. Whether it's channelling the Kungfu mastery of her alternate kick ass self, or singing the pants off an operatic ballad like the professional singer she could have/did become (just somewhere else). Michelle Yoah's Evelyn is able to evolve from the failing version of herself that we first meet her as, into her ultimate composition. Using digital headpieces straight out of a call centre office as an unlikely counterpart to interdimensional travel, the main characters wear these retro looking devices to facilitate the 'matrix-style' downloading/travelling process. Except these interdimensional manifestations and the ability to "hop" to other dimensions, can only be fully conjured using methods straight out of slapstick comedy routine. Paper cuts, snot licking, pulling out your own teeth; like a hidden level or a weird hack in a video game, performing strange actions out of the ordinary allows access to specific, often surreal realities. The limitless creative potential on offer when exploring a concept as epic as the Multiverse Theory, is demonstrated wonderfully in Dan Kwan, Daniel Scheinert and David Goyer's vision; the creative team behind Everything, Everywhere, All At Once.

So why must Evelyn become the ultimate version of herself? Well, in order to defeat, now wait for it; herself as her dark/evil opposite who has taken the form of her rebellious teenage daughter and created a bagel with literally everything on it, a bagel which threatens to implode and destroy everything, everywhere, all at once. Like a mushroom lasagne made from some potent magic mushrooms, this movie is layered and trippy as fuck. On one level, it's your classic good vs evil story, a battle between light and dark which has been raging since time began. On another level it's about Evelyn relinquishing herself from her past mistakes in order to restore happiness and peace in her life. On yet more levels, it's about her relationship with her lesbian daughter and her conservative father and the battle between traditional values and the modern world. The "everything bagel" and its unstable cataclysmic potential, is metaphoric of Evelyn and her daughter's crumbling relationship, which is only just saved from the bagel's 'event horizon' in time by the power of love and forgiveness. Love and its ability to transcend dimensions of space and time, along with the notion that it's never too late to change yourself and your life, is ultimately the conclusion to this brilliant movie which combines stunning visuals, fast paced action and slapstick comedy to deliver an exciting representation of what a Multiverse might look like.

So, if you usually spend your Saturday nights licking toxic toads, dropping tabs of acid or huffing paint in the pursuit of a profound psychedelic experience, maybe save yourself some money and try watching, Everything, 'Everywhere, All At Once' first. Trust me, you won't be disappointed.