Everything Everywhere All at Once

The first two thirds are an example of first-class screenwriting, where unpredictable moments are strung together like on a treadmill and the rolling train of invention cannot be slowed down. I should be rightly impressed by Tohlle, unfortunately the Daniels as engineers on coke get so carried away that towards the end it becomes a poorly controlled propulsion vehicle that derails and smashes everyone in the wagon. It's a shame, because there's a whole sequence of scenes and situations that you've never seen in a movie before, and that's valuable. (30.01.2023)

Unfortunately for me, this highly anticipated film, which I was looking forward to as a potential movie of the year, crossed the line between quirky oddity full of playful ideas and disorganized mess where nothing matters, and not only once. While it always sort of gets back on the track and I was able to follow and enjoy it, I'm used to putting more focused films on a five-star pedestal, films where I can see the filmmakers have things firmly in their hands, and I simply didn't get that impression with Everything Everywhere All at Once, and not only because the finale completely missed me emotionally. The plot gradually gets into such a whirlwind, such a geyser of unlimited imagination, that it's really hard to find any fixed point – not necessarily "logical". Oh, and some of the jokes are trying so hard that it felt embarrassing a few times. I appreciate playfulness and originality, but I would have slowed down a gear or two. (19.05.2022)

It’s no miracle, but it fortunately is an interesting film. Everything Everywhere All at Once is a properly wild ride, where for a long time you have no idea what the they actually want to say, but the gradual unravelling and discovery is damn interesting. Partly, thanks to the awesome action scenes, the clever script, the strong emotional moments and the lots of ideas, but mostly because of the approach of both directors, who push it all into the audience almost to the point of violence. Everything Everywhere All at Once is a film where you have no idea what you're going to see in fifteen minutes, alternating extremely fast paced scenes with slower ones, unafraid to go for the jugular, turning from a wild action sci-fi into an intimate drama about the most ordinary things, and then into a rip-roaring comedy. It's just too much. Two hours and twenty minutes is a subjectively untenable runtime for a film that, while it works on a dramatic level, still runs in a pretty rut despite the original visuals. And on the other hand, the moments where Kwan and Scheinert pour one wild idea after another from their sleeves start to get tiresome after a few minutes. Everything Everywhere All at Once is really interesting, but it needs someone to tell the directors where to add and subtract. Sometimes it's a bit of a drag, despite the imagination, creativity, great actors, action and emotion. (07.07.2022)

That's how you put together a rock, a Ratatouille, and the long arm of the tax authority, and you get something between Don’t Look Back, Rick and Morty and Big Trouble in Little China. By all logic, it should be a disparate hodgepodge of half-baked ideas, allusions to anything, originality at all costs, and stupidity². All this in charge of someone who happened to have a solid budget and an impressive ensemble, but no producer to hold the reins. And that's what it is. However unlikely it may be (or maybe we are happy that it worked in spite of everything), it is, worlds wonder, a cohesive and tightly grasped whole, which is undeserving of only a slightly overblown runtime. Thanks to confident direction, and the aforementioned perfect cast, it handily manages to throw up one bizarre scene after another, as well as wringing out emotions in a brilliantly effective "family members finding their way to themselves and each other" equation throughout. (23.07.2022)

For some people the film of the year, for others an insufferable piece of shit, and for me somewhere in between. It's definitely one of the most original and weird films of recent years, but bizarre and wacky isn't necessarily great. The story is, in one sentence, about a woman who files her taxes while having to save the world through parallel universes. The plot itself is by no means revelatory or sophisticated, I found the acting below average (the Chinese speaking English brought the whole film down a level, the whole acting came off as awkward), the action is quite low and it's not my style. I used to dig Jackie Chan when I was 13, but by the time of The Raid and The Night Comes for Us, this kung fu style, though obviously self-parodying, is a bit boring. The whole world has no set rules, almost nothing makes sense and it's chaos, yes there's a lot of creative invention and a lot of interesting ideas, but at what cost huh? Even beyond the point of awkwardness, cringefest. The film is an homage to Asia, but it mostly takes from it what I like the least: obscure and bizarre madness from Japanese culture and parodies of 80s kung fu and Hong-Kong. It's a shame the film wasn't R-rated, maybe the gore would have given it more aesthetic cachet, but for me it's sadly unsatisfying and the exorbitant footage doesn't add much to it. I didn't even find it funny except for a couple of minor moments (the rock scene) and the light moments that I found entertaining were quite few, certainly less than I expected. The final fight with the quick change of locations was impressive though, and the playful direction pulls it up to at least a better average for me. I won't give more than that, certainly not sober. However, I'm quite surprised at the positive reception, for how borderline it is in places to the viewer's common taste. Story 3/5. Action 3/5, Humour 3/5, Violence 0/5, Fun 3/5 Music 3/5, Visuals 4/5, Atmosphere 2/5, Suspense 2/5, Emotion 3/5, Actors 2/5. (19.05.2022)

An insurmountable pile of ideas, where the good ones are too short and the bad ones – or empty, bizarre ones – are too many. The more that was piled on the relatively trivial (although undeniably archetypal) central plot, the more I wished it had stayed with the quiet contemplation of two stones. (12.03.2023)

I thought such an unrestrained eruption of creativity was possible only in animation and I’m terribly glad that Dan and Daniel have shown me how wrong I was. On the other hand, no one has ever approached the medium of film with such hyperactive playfulness as they have. While their meta-work is essentially cinematic (in terms of the story being told, the narrative processes and the references), it also personifies the internet in its Web3 phase, with all of its fascinating beauty, pioneering potential, non-linear hypertextual nature and terrifying intangibleness far beyond the possibilities of a single person’s perception. After all, the creative approach of the disparate and yet extraordinarily symbiotic creative duo of Daniels fulfils the principles of decentralisation and blockchain interconnectedness. Everything Everywhere All at Once continues on the path marked out in the field of feature films by the animated movies Spider-Man: Parallel Worlds and The Mitchells vs. the Machines, but its concentration of online popular creativity, both audio-visual and graphic as well as narrative, is breathtaking and rocks the senses by adapting them to the much more production-intensive format of a live-action film. Perhaps it is thus not a coincidence that everything here ultimately revolves around family, though in a completely different and wonderfully imaginative style in terms of family dynamics in relation to the traditional roles of villains and heroes who have to evolve in order to overcome evil. In addition to that, Everything Everywhere All at Once gives Michelle Yeoh the role of her life, in which she puts the experience of all of her previous on- and off-screen roles to good use. (15.07.2022)

A woman is trying to pay her taxes… An unexpectedly playful take on parallel universes. Unfortunately it’s unnecessarily long and at times unnecessarily self-indulgent in its weirdness at the expense of a fairly standard story. Swiss Army Man held together much better and it was also more fun. Here they should have trimmed in places and add a little in others to create a coherent ride across what could have been. Kwan and Scheinert put so much into it that I felt terribly overwhelmed by the lines. Michelle Yeoh is fantastic in all her versions and enjoys every one of them. Ke Huy Quan seized the opportunity to play a role tailor-made for Jackie Chan and got the most out of it. I need a few more viewings to take it all in, but for the first time, so far, excellent entertainment that lacks something short of perfection. It’s like a doughnut without the dusting. (29.01.2023)

What happens when you mix some of Marvel's stinking failed comic book movies with a bit of The Matrix, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, an attempt at a revolutionary depiction of a story about family values (not) fulfilling their potential and totally WTF (read modern) pop culture moments? An absolutely frenetic travesty, where nobody knows what will happen in five minutes, but at the same time nobody really cares. (09.03.2023)

Der Titel lügt nicht. Aber all das, was überall und gleichzeitig passierte, hat mich eher erschüttert als betört und ich habe nicht einmal am Ende ein Auge zugedrückt, als sich herausstellte, dass es Sinn machte und die Autoren offensichtlich wussten, was sie taten und warum. Wenn sie es zum Beispiel nur anderthalb Stunden lang gemacht hätten, wäre es für mich verdaulicher gewesen. Ich habe mich darauf gefreut, Michelle Yeoh ist großartig und genretechnisch ist es schön breit, wie wenn es von Bong Joon-ho inszeniert und geschrieben worden wäre... Aber bei weitem nicht so gut. (22.02.2024)

Das kreative Duo der Daniels, das hinter dem verrückten, extrem interessanten und unterhaltsamen Swiss Army Man steht, hat mit seinem neuen Film ein wenig den leeren Marvel-Filmen den Mittelfinger gezeigt und bewiesen, dass man auch mit einem zehnmal kleineren Budget viel größere und vollwertige filmische Magie und Spielereien mit dem Multiversum machen kann. Es ist eine epische Show und alles ist, wie man so sagt, etwas "all over the place", sodass man sich davon ziemlich überwältigt fühlt und beim ersten Anschauen wahrscheinlich nicht alle Details erfassen kann, was die Schöpfer verfeinert haben. Ich hätte mir etwas mehr emotionale Beteiligung im Finale gewünscht, die bei mir überhaupt nicht aufkam. Trotzdem muss ich definitiv die wirklich interessante und unterhaltsame Show hervorheben. Und ich muss auch sagen, dass ich noch nie einem deutlicheren Schauspielcomeback gesehen habe als das von Ke Huy Quan (Goonies, Indiana Jones und der Tempel des Todes) hier. Mann! (19.05.2022)

Die Macher von Swiss Army Man haben das Bizarre auf eine höhere Ebene gehoben und den ultimativen Wahnsinn erfunden, bei dem plötzlich alles und überall möglich ist. Ich verstehe, dass der Film angesichts des Erscheinungsjahres und des Themas des Multiversums dem Vergleich mit dem neuen Doctor Strange (und dem MCU im Allgemeinen) nicht entgehen kann, aber ich persönlich sah VVN als das am ursprünglichsten konzipierte Familiendrama (f*cking ever), bei dem die Fantasy-Action sowie die bereits erwähnte Beziehungsebene vergleichsweise die erste Geige spielen. Der Umgang mit dem Multiversum hatte definitiv seinen Reiz, und ich mochte das scheinbar "kitschige" und absichtlich absurde Konzept - ob es nun die Kostüme/Ähnlichkeit von Jobu Tupaki, die Beschwörung von Sprüngen zwischen Dimensionen und verschiedene andere Ideen (Rakakun usw.) waren. Aber wie ich bereits erwähnt habe, war die Linie mit den problematischen Familienbeziehungen ebenso wichtig und hatte Tiefe und, dank des unkonventionellen Konzepts, einen Multiversum-Touch. VVN ist zweifelsohne Wahnsinn hoch x, stellenweise ist es sehr geskriptet und fast schon uncool, aber ich habe diesen bizarren Ritt genossen. P. S. Rocks rock! (19.08.2022)

An anthem film of the attention deficit era, and I can totally see its success in that. However, we Rick & Morty guys already kind of know all the problems with the multiverse, and we've had the improbability drive joke before. However, we haven't seen a live-action Spongebob since practically Scott Pilgrim. Moreover, the existence of this movie creates a desirable bit of reference material on how a realistic, chaotic, creative mind works in the face of a calculated studio pretense of chaos. But again, let's not make this into some smarmy punk; the film is ultimately conservative in its values, elegant, and by the end I was just half-asleep waiting to see if Vin Diesel would come out and tell us something about family. Of course, the moment one rock starts sliding towards the other rock and the other rock yells "Leave me alone!¨ I spit my beer out four rows ahead of me, so four stars alright. PS: if there is somewhere where the employee of the month award looks like a butt plug, shoving it up your ass is definitely not the most unlikely thing. My... my friend said so. PPS: The magic of the cinematic projection was accelerated by the fact that the switching from English to Chinese, or the complete absence of English subtitles in scenes where they speak but don't speak at the same time (you have to see it, sorry), caused some guy to have to translate half the movie silently into his seatmate's ear, occasionally spraying her face in bursts of unexpected laughter. It was probably the most romantic cinematic moment I've ever experienced. (22.07.2022)

When I saw The Matrix for the first time over twenty years ago, I was absolutely blown away. It was original, great, and blew my mind. I feel that the creators of this film were going for the same thing, and the academics bought it. I'm more reserved because I was bored by this blend of The Matrix and Doctor Strange, and I did not understand why I had to suffer for over two hours just to find out that truth and love win over lies and hatred. The academics were apparently impressed by the effects and some kung fu action, but I was disappointed by the overall uninteresting story, elements borrowed from other movies (I mean, I've even seen a dildo used as a weapon in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels), and I seriously did not enjoy watching the main antagonist, for whom it was definitely not her first bagel. The muscular pinky and stones were hilarious, but the anal plugs were a disappointment, and overall, it was nothing special. / Lesson learned: When choosing a movie, don't rely on the Academy. (06.04.2023)

It's wonderfully endearing in the climactic scenes (the raccoon, the fight with the leather fanny pack, and the fight with the dildos in the hallway) and despite the ambitious concept of a slightly different multiverse, it mostly holds together quite well. The best part is the middle part, or rather the second half of the first chapter, the ending is conciliatory, it warms the heart and that's how it should be. Now just somehow incorporate it as a side storyline into the MCU multiverse and there could be an infinite number of sequels. Aside from the MCU and The Matrix, I was also occasionally put in mind of Inception. Very nice bit of up-to-par silliness. [80%] (04.09.2022)