It feels like a rare event that I stumble across a film that I can truly regard as creative. A film that stands out in almost every way in a sea of, well, visually pleasing and interesting films that are released for our eyes to feast upon around the world. That isn't to say that there are few creative films, but that Everything Everywhere All at Once really felt like something different, something I had never really seen before and likely won't see something similar to for a long, long time. Everything Everywhere All at Once is a film that surprises even more so when taking into consideration this tricky era of filmmaking and film financing, where many creations are either somewhat low budget, or geared more towards a series so that it can be stretched out into a viewing experience over on some streaming service.
Everything Everywhere All at Once is a true blockbuster. A film creative and with a great budget that was made to be as cinematic as possible. It is astonishing that this film managed to get financed. But also, and in the best way possible, incredibly surprising to see that it did not flop; seeing praise from around the world, to which it fully deserves. Releasing at precisely the perfect time, in the worst time. Perhaps also quite funny regarding its multiverse concept.
Though, this is far from similar to today's multiverse franchise blockbusters that have attempted to string together their poorly-written franchises so that they can avoid stagnation and boredom in their audiences and keep printing their billions of dollars. Though I suspect we have already started to see fatigue in that area. Which brings me to the idea that filmmaking, with Everything Everywhere All at Once, might finally be seeing its 'return to norm' phase, rejecting the franchised, the soulless, the lazy big budgeted cash-grab, and taking once again a liking at creativity, significantly smaller budgets in comparison, and fresh stories.
Everything Everywhere All at Once may very well be a sign, and leading participant, of a shift in cinema back to its roots.
Everything Everywhere All at Once
This is a film about tradition, culture, and family struggles. The ways in which generations clash with their varying complexities that infiltrate their ways of life, thought, and actions. We see a struggling family that has moved and started anew elsewhere, operating an independent business that is failing.
There are many theories as to what this universe we live in, born from even, actually is. Where it came from, and what may happen if there are others like it. String theory suggests that the universe is merely one of many universes each connected by some means, whether 'wormholes' or black holes, or perhaps even through multiple dimensions not visible to us for any reason -- some theorise that multiple dimensions are visible before our eyes, but we have evolved to create a perception of what is in front of us that filters out what is not necessary in order to prioritise survival through evolution!
In Everything Everywhere All at Once, the universe is merely one of money, each created as a result of each and every action a person takes. That decision to eat a bagel resulted in a different universe being created. That decision to not pursue literature resulted in you becoming a farmer instead, and that one universe in which you did pursue literature resulted in you becoming a famous writer. You get the point. In Everything Everywhere All at Once, our actions create many different versions of us, each living very different lives under different experiences, skills, and memories.
The challenges this family faces, with two incredible performances by Michelle Yeoh and Ke Huy Quan (I recognised that voice immediately! Such a surprise to see him returning to acting.) are typicaly family problems resulting from built-up tensions over the years left to manifest into something larger. Something that threatens the family's structure and can bring them to a close. Managing to gain contact from the Alpha universe, they gain the technology and abiltiy to interact with their other versions of themselves and their skills providing they perform rather specific, strange tasks.
This results in some incredibly creative choreography through the action scenes, where the camera rotates and engages in a really immersive manner. Not to forget the insane visual effects alongside this cinematography, creating an insane amount of images and colours hitting your eyes in very fast sequences. I think in some circumstances, this action is seen as a visual metaphor for how the family fights and sacrifices parts of their lives and themselves for each other, placing others in front of them knowing it will hurt them as a result. It is really creative. Building a series of family problems, unleashing hell upon them, and seeing how they fight to keep things together.
I won't dive too deep into this narrative and its characters, however, because I feel this is a film best watched with little understanding of what it is about and how its narrative unfolds.
Anamorphic Lenses
It seems rare that a film may choose to use anamorphic lenses these days, particularly when they are on a smaller budget given the higher cost of anamorphic lenses. Though, there are more and more companies appearing that find anamorphic glass and rehouse the glass into a modern frame capable of being used on modern cameras. This is often done with vintage lenses, already hailed for the beautiful images produced. Vintage glass means you get a more film stock look from these lenses, often seeing a more blurred frame as if the lens was slightly smothered in grease. Displaying bloom and gentle tones in the lighting. I really, really love this look, and while it is rare we see anamorphic lenses used at all, it's more rare that we see almost an entire film shot using them.
Not only does this result in a film that is just visually stunning, it works perfectly alongside the multiverse aspect of the film, where events are otherworldly (more other universe) where the background is more warped and contorted, mostly evident in the bokeh produced by these anamorphic lenses. We can see this in the screenshot above, where the frame is much wider, and the background is even somewhat bending. And not only are these lenses both beautiful and beautifully used, they work so, so well with the lighting, of which is often soft, featuring warm tones alongside some strong blues and reds. Reminding me of many Hong Kong films from the 90's.
Speaking of which, we even see the film referencing such films, featuring Wong Kar-wai styled perspectives and locations, featuring even similar filmmaking techniques used in such films. This was evident in how some lines were delivered, and the step-printing process in which film stock was cut and edited in a way that made the footage look slow-motion, blurred in a manner that makes it seem as if time had drastically slowed down. I liked that even in this film, they paid homage to the films of Hong Kong's past, creating a universe for the characters within one of such films.
Cinematography and directing are certainly a massive highlight, and everything was certainly considered and approached with such caution in attmept to reach a film as close to perfection as possible. With such a beautiful range of colours, lighting, and camera movement to fit with the intense action sequences throughout. There is clear passion and experience behind Everything Everywhere All at Once. A story about family, culture, tradition, and struggles that arise from each of those combined into one ball of complexities.
This film was amazing. A surprise, and one clearly that came from the talented hearts of its creators with much consideration to each of its details. I highly recommend it.
