How Michelle Yeoh proves that she deserves 'Everything Everywhere All at Once'

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There are two reasons to watch “Everything, Everywhere, All at Once.”

One is the sheer, unbridled joy of filmmaking on display, courtesy of writers and directors Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, who collectively go by Daniels. Their mastery of seemingly every known genre is on display throughout the film, which is about what the title says it is (really) — sometimes in the same scene. Their enthusiasm doesn’t always fully connect with the audience, but it’s never for lack of trying.

The second and more important reason to watch is Michelle Yeoh. In fact, she is worth it all by herself. She’s good in every movie she makes (lately films like “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” and “Crazy Rich Asians” but going back to “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” and “Tomorrow Never Dies”).

But this movie is hers from the start, and she makes the most of it. Because of course she does. What a joy that is it to see. She plays Evelyn Wang, a woman surrounded by disappointments, or so she thinks.

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Stress is mounting for Evelyn and Waymond, with an IRS audit looming

Stress is mounting for Evelyn: her husband, Waymond (Ke Huy Quan) has filed for divorce just to get her attention; her disapproving father Gong Gong (the great James Hong), who abandoned her when she married Waymond, is coming to visit for his birthday; and her relationship with her daughter Joy (Stephanie Hsu) is strained at best.

In addition, Joy wants to use the party as the occasion to come out, and introduce her grandfather to her girlfriend, Becky (Tallie Medel). Evelyn shudders to think what Gong Gong will make of this.

On top of all that, the IRS is auditing the family, courtesy of the professionally unpleasant Deidre (Jamie Lee Curtis, delightfully annoying), and threatening to take the laundry she and Waymond own. It’s on the way to meet Deidre, in fact, that the normally meek Waymond, riding with Evelyn in an elevator, suddenly puts earpieces in Evelyn’s ears and explains what sounds like nonsense to her. Something about other realms, the metaverse, something. He writes out cryptic instructions.

When the doors open he is back to wimpy Waymond. But everything changes in an instant when, under attack, Evelyn has to carry out the bizarre instructions Waymond has given her. Waymond himself springs into action, wielding a fanny pack as a deadly weapon. Evelyn will have to fight, also.

"Everything Everywhere All at Once" made its world premiere at South by Southwest Film Festival on March 11, 2022.
"Everything Everywhere All at Once" made its world premiere at South by Southwest Film Festival on March 11, 2022.

If that sounds sudden and disjointed, well, yeah. As it happens, Evelyn is just one of many Evelyns in one of many parallel universes. She will have to access them, jumping from one to another, if she is to defeat Jobu Tupaki, who is trying to destroy the realms.

It’s a lot. It doesn’t always make sense. But it is fascinating — and fun — to watch. In various worlds, Evelyn is a movie star, a singer, even Deidre’s lover in a world where people have hot dogs for fingers. In one realm she is a rock. It sounds absurd because it is, and then it turns out to be the setting for one of the more genuinely moving scenes in the movie.

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Michelle Yeoh has long been underserved by Hollywood

There are plenty of moving scenes. Because the heart of the film, beneath all of the surreal scenarios, is Evelyn’s relationship with her family, her life and herself. 'I’m not good at anything,' Evelyn complains at one point. Exactly, she’s told — that’s why you’re capable of anything.

Only place to go from here is up.

Quan, who played Short Round in “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” and Data in “The Goonies,” then worked little afterwards, makes a welcome return to film. Like everyone else in the multiverse (which is, after all, everyone) he must transition between different versions of himself.

Stephanie Hsu gets to wear outfits you'd never dreamed of in "Everything Everywhere All at Once."
Stephanie Hsu gets to wear outfits you'd never dreamed of in "Everything Everywhere All at Once."

Even better is Hsu, decked out in amazingly over-the-top costumes. She must convincingly go back and forth between versions of herself while also maintaining the contradictory draw-her-near, push-her-away relationship she has with her mother.

Ah, but Yeoh is magnificent. Whether she’s brushing off her martial-arts chops, playing broad comedy or inhabiting the role of a mother who struggles to find her own sense of worth and thus struggles to make her daughter feel worthy, Yeoh is a magnetic presence.

You only have to watch for a minute or two to confirm that she’s been vastly underserved by Hollywood, which after this should rush to offer her more and bigger work. Offer everything, everywhere, all at once. She deserves it.

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How to watch 'Everything Everywhere All at Once'

Available on Showtime. Buy on Prime Video, Apple TV+ or Hulu.

'Everything Everywhere All at Once' 4.5 stars

Great ★★★★★ Good ★★★★

Fair ★★★ Bad ★★ Bomb ★

Directors: Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert.

Cast: Michelle Yeoh, Stephanie Hsu, Ke Huy Quan.

Rating: R for some violence, sexual material and language.

Note: In theaters April 8.

Reach Goodykoontz at bill.goodykoontz@arizonarepublic.com. Facebook: facebook.com/GoodyOnFilm. Twitter: @goodyk. Subscribe to the weekly movies newsletter.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: How to watch Oscar winner 'Everything Everywhere All at Once'