DISCLAIMER: I shall in no state or form disclose any spoilers in the film, since every scene, every sequence, and every act have to be experienced through your own eyes, and not through my words. Yet, during my writing, I may spew little dialogues from the movie here and there that have moved me and made me write this piece. If you feel it has given away something, then please kindly forgive me. I’m trying to indulge you in this roller-coaster experience but not to spoil the ride. So, buckle up! And read it in its entirety, I’d really appreciate it since it is coming from a place that pumps blood and passes Oxygen and nutrients to every body tissue.
There are many movies that have moved me to tears, feel sick, made me calm/angry, feel powerful, and whatnot. But there are only a handful of movies that have resonated with my principles in life, the kind of lifestyle I lead (or aspire to lead) every step of the way. And among those few, is the Daniels’ (Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert) directorial Action-Adventure-SciFi movie, EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE.
The movie is about a Chinese-American family who runs a laundry business and lives a “mediocre” and unsatisfying life individually (and collectively too). What happens to them with a Sci-Fi intervention is the story that follows. I’m not going to say anything more than that because it leads up to certain imagery based on what I write and that might alter the visual experience which I just had. Yes, I’m writing this right after watching it before I forget what this movie has done to my mind.
Every line in the movie, every phrase of it, I had experienced in my life and/or in my mind. I always had these questions, “Does it matter?”, “Why should only I have to go through all of this?”, “What if I had chosen another path?”, and so on and on and on. There were times when I used to be zoned out while writing my homework, editing photos/videos, designing an illustration, or eating pizza. Zoned out to a dream? No. Zoned out to an imagination? Cannot really say. Zoned out to another world? Can’t comment! In those moments, I could vividly see myself wearing a different dress, having a different lifestyle, talking differently, but reacting to the same confusion that I used to have at that instant during my ‘zoned out’ phase.
Sometimes we wonder, is this all necessary, do we really have to go through what we are going through, can’t we just give up and be a freefall because that seems easier than this herculean task of surviving day-in and day-out? I think most of us have had these questions which we later conceded as “silly”. But those questions were just sitting there, somewhere in a darker room of our minds. It never lured us to go faulty nor did it ever leave. So, when the Daniels made this movie, I think they have awakened their sleepy, but ever-present, questions, written down line-by-line, answered them with some borrowed wisdom and finally sprinkled them with a visual spectacle. And this masterful mix of elements (which only Professor X could handle until now) made this movie worth watching, multiple times.
I felt one of the Daniels embodied Ayn Rand and the other Daniel took the form of Yuval Noah Harari and started discussing the aforementioned questions that almost every Homo Sapiens had which might’ve resulted in having a fountainhead of answers/wisdom. Not just the philosophical aspect but also technically this movie has aced it in almost every department. The editing was slick, the VFX was brilliant, music was appropriate – now am I sounding like Anupama Chopra? Shit! Well, heck it. Who cares! Anyone who writes a piece about movies would mostly be a review or an analysis. But I am writing this just to transform my emotions into words (which is very difficult, I know, but I’m trying).
The genre of the movie was dealing with almost EVERYTHING, yet the end result was straightforward. In the movie, there were many pop culture references almost EVERYWHERE, yet it had its originality. A lot was happening in the movie ALL AT ONCE, yet the story was simple.
But does all of this really help? No.
Nothing matters. But it doesn’t hurt to Be Kind.
