Ray Richmond: Is ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’ a lock to sweep the Oscars – or might a backlash arise?

Ray Richmond
·5 min read
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Has there ever been a more perfect title for a film during awards season than “Everything Everywhere All at Once”? It vividly describes how the movie has dominated since 2023 dawned, earning accolades everywhere and seemingly all at once – well, except for the Golden Globes and the BAFTAs, anyway.  I feel like the Daniels could melt down their trophies and start their own precious metals concern. It wouldn’t shock me to learn that “Daniel” has shot to the top of the list as favorite new name for a male baby, and that Elton John’s tune “Daniel” is suddenly number one again 50 years after its original release.

This is indeed a very good time to be Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, the two-headed beast who wrote and directed “Everything Everywhere.” They’re on track to personally win three Academy Awards on Sunday (for picture, directing and screenplay), coming off a weekend when their film cleaned up at the Indie Spirit Awards, the WGA Awards and the ACE Eddies. The weekend before, it took home a haul from the SAG Awards as well as its allotted number from the DGA and PGA Awards. It’s enough to make your head spin right off your neck into the multiverse.

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SEE ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’ eyes an unprecedented above-the-line Oscar sweep

Rarely has a film and its cast and crew been more teed up for a monster night at the Oscars. The sense of irresistible inevitability is simply overwhelming. If you’re nominated against “EEAAO,” especially the Daniels, you may have to fight the urge to stay home rather than be a party to what feels more like coronation than competition. It seems as if it’s going to require a miracle/act of God to even partially derail this freight train.

Or maybe all it would take is a mini-backlash.

Along those lines, allow me to toss out a possibility that’s been consuming me, because clearly this is all I think about.

SEEOscars: ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’ could become 13th film to win Best Picture + Best Actress

Let’s say you’ve been following awards season and you’re an Oscar voter who has witnessed the juggernaut of accolades for “”EEAAO” piling up. Maybe you’re a bit of a procrastinator who hasn’t yet filed your ballot, because you’ve had until today (Tuesday) after all. Is it possible you’ve grown a little bit tired of the movie, and its writer-directors, winning everything in sight – honored by the actors and writers and directors and producers guilds as well as the editors and those with a spirit of independence?

Maybe you’re thinking that the wealth should be spread around somewhat less unanimously. If so, you may not believe that going with the pack is essential. Even if you agree that “Everything Everywhere” deserves to be honored with every trophy within a thousand-mile radius, the fact it’s been so feted at the expense of everything and everyone else strikes you as overkill and you’d like to do your part to balance the scales a tad.

I’m not a voter, but this was what I was thinking about while watching the Independent Spirit Awards and the WGA Awards over the weekend. Even Kwan and Scheinert seemed to be growing overtaxed by the whole thing, with Scheinert in particular forgoing his chance to weigh in from the stage at the WGAs and permitting his filmmaking partner to speak for him and their movie. His body language said, “Well this is an honor and thank you ever so much, boys and girls. But seriously, it’s enough already.”

SEE Oscars Best Picture nominee profile: ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’ hopes to make the most its 11 bids

Again, all measurement metrics and momentum indicators tell us that “Everything Everywhere” can’t lose. Right now, in our Gold Derby combined odds, it’s a foregone conclusion that “EEAAO” will take home Best Picture, and Best Director, and Best Film Editing, and Best Supporting Actor for Ke Huy Quan (the biggest lock of the night). It’s also better than even money for Best Actress for Michelle Yeoh and Best Original Screenplay. And it’s got a decent shot in Best Supporting Actress, where it owns 40% of the nominations in Jamie Lee Curtis and Stephanie Hsu.

It wouldn’t surprise anyone at this point if “EEAAO” were to win seven Academy Awards this weekend. The shock would come were it to earn fewer than a handful. The latter is still possible if enough voters perceive the film’s landslide of honors in the leadup to have been extreme rather than persuasive, which could indeed happen. Is it likely? No. But as a proud pessimist who is always measuring the potential for something to go horribly wrong even as it’s going utterly right, you can never say never. Or at least, almost never.

PREDICT the 2023 Oscar winners by March 12

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