Counter-Currents
Everything Everywhere All at Once:
The Oscar Winner the System Loves
Steven Clark
1,050 words
I finally saw this year’s Oscar winner for Best Picture, Everything Everywhere All at Once, by directing duo Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, and enjoyed the film. Like many of you , I think it’s a shame Tár didn’t win, and note that The Banshees of Inisherin also didn’t win — but I think many of you are glad about that. Nevertheless, Everything Everywhere All at Once hits all the bases for this year’s woke base — but it’s also a fun movie, very fast-paced and a visual delight.
The story is about Evelyn Wang (Michelle Yeoh), a laundromat owner who is having trouble with taxes; Waymond (Ke Huy Quan — is “Waymond” a real Chinese name? It sounds like “kill the wabbit”), her husband, who wants to divorce her; and Joy (Stephanie Hsu), her pudgy daughter who’s come out as a lesbian. Then we meet the officious Deirdre (Jamie Lee Curtis, in a hair helmet from hell) when they make a trip to the local Internal Revenue Service (IRS) office. She is a mendacious bureaucrat who leads Evelyn into a wild, wacky counter-universe where Waymond turns into a Jackie Chan-like super agent; Joy is an evil, sinister foe; Deirdre is a raging super-monster (but isn’t that already what the IRS is?); and Evelyn is made aware of a multiverse of possibilities her life could take if she only applied herself as we get scenes showing her in everything from a film career to Chinese martial arts to a weird universe where everyone has hot-dog fingers. (It’s as dangerous for fingers here, as in The Banshees of Inisherin, but at least here you get mustard). There are as many universes as there are menu items at a Chinese restaurant. It is very entertaining.
But what else? The plot then delves into the multiverse, and the screenwriters load up the dialogue with mumbo-jumbo about quantum physics — which I think is our age’s answer to alchemy; in effect, the vulgarization of Einstein’s theories. When one scrapes away all the special effects, brilliant acting, quick cuts, and wacky scenes (and much of the film, as with many Chinese martial arts films, is simply silly), what do we have?
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It is essentially a family movie. Some conservatives have defended it: “Yes, it’s about family! It’s about immigrants! Hard-working immigrants. Presumably ones who will, of course, gladly vote GOP and save America if the right true conservative candidate comes along.”
Regardless, the essential plot centers on the fact that Evelyn’s emotional problems stem from her not accepting that her daughter is a lesbian. Evelyn simply isn’t with the times, and so must become accepting. Throughout the film Joy appears as an evil villainess, strutting around in wonderfully fantastic costumes, reciting the usual vampy nihilistic dialogue one gets in graphic novels and Marvel comics, but the end solution is acceptance. Evelyn even goes nuts and breaks a window at her laundromat, learns to vape from Deirdre, and so on — and eventually, everyone learns to just become more accepting.
And really, that’s what the last century has been about: a war on the family and middle-class values. Gay acceptance is part of that, and Everything Everywhere All at Once does its duty to package the theme in a form where it could become an Oscar-winner — because gay is always in. That’s certainly what The Whale was all about. And, of course, the main characters are non-white. That’s definitely in as well, as the media and the establishment works to make us less white. Movies about black people they don’t have the same power to draw, whether it is Moonlight (2016) or the solemn praise for Wakanda, which mostly got a laugh. We wuz kangs! Asians, however, are semi-white, and can be more effectively used to sell the product.
It’s interesting that the mother and daughter never really come together. Joy is always sarcastic and nasty; she is also consistently pudgy, which seems a realistic depiction of lesbian life. Her lesbian lover isn’t all that attractive, either, but at least Evelyn reconciles with Joy, “accepts” her, and tells Joy that she needs to lose some weight.
Well, that’s something.
Evelyn learns that by being narrow-minded, all of her multiverse lives are stunted. Ah, the multiverse. All of those parallel universes, like millions of stars out there, each with their own worlds . . . yet, we understand that this life is all we’ve got. We won’t suddenly fly off to a better, sexier life somewhere else through some wormhole. Right here, right now is all we’ve got. It’s what we have to deal with — these somewhat marked cards on the table. But this would make for a very dour film . . . or a hopelessly mundane one, at least by the Academy’s standards. Dealing with life as it is, with no special effects, would be a very adult thing to do — and adult is very much out of fashion nowadays.
If the film is any gauge of where we are as a society, it’s that the Chinese are moving into pop culture, usurping a Hollywood that seems as stale and devoid of ideas as Classical culture was in the fourth century — when it simply expired. Since the comic-book movie seems to be sputtering out, the next big medium to exploit is video games, and this film is very much in that genre.
I saw many similarities with Bardo in its visual excellence and pacing, although Alejandro Inarritu was dealing with United States-Mexico relations. But like Birdman, another Oscar winner, Everything Everywhere All at Once dazzles. It is, in the final analysis, mere entertainment.
I can’t wait for next year’s Oscar winner, which will probably be about a tortured trans who is forced to vent out — its — frustrations, no doubt with lots of multiverse special effects. I hope they give it to another Chinese director. At least they might make it exciting, and not just the usual sermon that Hollywood gives us.
As Gore Vidal said, in literary America, to be serious is to be solemn, and moviegoers never like to be lectured to, especially when it comes to the eventual triumph of trans over . . . normality. But film is always in conflict with real life. So let’s at least make that trans film colorful and fast-paced as the meltdown continues — and reality, like the ruffian on the stair, waits.
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32 comments
Thanks for this. I have a soft spot for zany films. But The Fifth Element and Hudson Hawk never won Best Picture! I will see if I can stream it on my next plane flight.
Did you ever get around to watching the Japanese film Tampopo I recommended to you a while back? If you like zany films, you will love it.
I did, and I loved it. Thank you for that recommendation. I also watched The Funeral, which was quite touching.
Glad to hear. I recommend it to everyone I meet that has a taste for unusual films. It’s one of the funniest but also sweetest films I’ve seen. I haven’t seen The Funeral yet, but it’s on my list.
Even though you liked the film, your description of it sounded wretched to me. Kinda sounds like a slant-eyed version of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, which I despised. I guess that’s a sign I should (and will) skip it. Plus, I hate movies about all those wonderful clever, ironic Asians who happen to converse just like writers for The Daily Show or John Oliver.
I saw this film a year ago – or tried to. I did what my cheapness has only allowed me to do perhaps a dozen times in nearly 50 years of non-kiddie movie watching: I walked out before the end (thank God I was alone). Although the reviewer offers some sane general observations, this film was not in the least enjoyable – I want to say “for anyone with an above-average IQ”, but instead, I will note, especially for whites, in particular, those of us with ‘classically white’ psyches. For some reason, even as I was watching and trying to figure out this movie, one that is, in fact, so much less than it appears (or perhaps wants) to be, I kept thinking, “This is the kind of film that the many bright, geeky Orientals I’ve known or worked with would like”. But not I. I thought this movie utterly awful. It is appalling if predictable that this won so many shitty Oscars instead of the infinitely more serious, intriguing and adult Tar. The latter was art; this was spectacle only.
I consider this to be an Asian film (even if the dialogue is in English). I’ve seen perhaps 250-300 East Asian language films (as well as a number of South Asian ones) in my life (and not all were Kurosawa or Mizoguchi). So I’m not in the least bit ‘prejudiced’ against Asian made or themed or starred films (even if I prefer films with white characters and actors). Indeed, I just saw a couple in the past month: the much more entertaining historical epic Full River Red, and the micro-budget but wonderfully affecting, if I suspect little seen, Covid-themed The Narrow Road. The latter might have had a budget of 1-3% of “Everywhere”, with zero CGIs, but it was sooo much better.
This movie just sucked. Yes, its cinematographical editing was technically superb, and much thought went into its set designs and constuming. But to what narrative end? Recall the special effects of movies like Titanic and Lord of the Rings. They were not only technically awesome, they served to enhance and complement their underlying stories. Because the “story” here was pointless, the special effects, although sometimes dazzling, were finally uninteresting. A “video game”, yeah maybe – but a really boring one.
Same here. Turned it off half way through. Nor am I some kind of haughty connoisseur who turns his nose up at low brow; I watched 400 blows the other night and while okay, I don’t see why it is one of the best films of all time, on the other hand, I recently watched Return to Oz with rapt attention, despite its low budget. Contemporary movies suck. Thanks for the recs. I too in general love Asian cinema. Zhang yimou is one of my favorite directors. Recommend..all his movies!
A good pair to compare are Rickshaw Boy and To Live. They are foils to one another.
I haven’t had the chance to watch this yet but I intend to. I’ve been on the fence since it came out but it’ll be nice to see Short Round in action again.
Return To Oz is pretty out there. My wife had never seen it and sat with her mouth in her lap for most of the movie.
A few other Asian titles I recommend, all of which are totally crazy.
A Chinese Ghost Story
Happiness Of The Katakuris
The Heroic Trio(also starring Michelle Yeoh)
The Bride With White Hair
Iron Monkey
Zu Warriors From The Magic Mountain
Tetsuo-The Iron Man & Tetsuo 2-Body Hammer
I watched it because you mentioned it to me! Thanks for more recs. My absolute favorite Chinese is Hero.
What does mouth in her lap mean exactly?
I hope you like Everthing all at once. I hate to be a killjoy.
I meant she sat slack-jawed in amazement at the bizarre and disturbing nature of the film. She kept looking over at me and saying “how in the hell did I not see this growing up!?!”
Hero is fantastic. Kung-Fu Hustle should be added to the list above of wild Asian films as well.
Ok that’s what I took you to mean. You have the best cinematic taste I’ve yet encountered. I mean, 400 blows was okay, very okay, but it was nowhere near something with the heft of Heavy Metal or Transformers the Movie 1986.
Hero was incredible.
I forgot!! Have you guys seen The Wandering Earth, Parts 1 & 2? Maybe I’m a cultural plebeian, but I found those to be so much more emotionally involving than the contrived conflicts in Everywhere … But they should really be seen on a big screen.
DarkPlato-
Thank you for that. I’m a film enthusiast and the only thing that I enjoy more than offbeat and unique films is sharing them with other people.
Same here!
I still recall the wonderful Taiwanese film Yi-Yi from the early 00s. Very touching.
Zhang Yimou is excellent. He did Full River Red, just out. Besides Hero and similar others, he also did the white/Asian collaborations Flowers of War, a solid drama, and The Great Wall, a pure action pic with Matt Damon which I really liked.
Wong Kar Wai has done a lot that’s good (In the Mood for Love).
I look forward to getting a big plasma some day, so I can watch or rewatch all these films and more in retirement. (I don’t own a TV, except a tiny countertop screen I keep in my kitchen for news while I’m preparing meals, and I’ve vowed I won’t get a real TV until I’ve retired.) Although I must admit, I’ve enjoyed my adulthood in the time of the monster cineplexes (for me, the only real major improvement to my life in the almost exactly 40 years since I graduated college; yes, internet nationalist sites are great, but I survived on Instauration and American Renaissance, and could have continued to do so had the internet never existed). I love making a day at the movies. I actually prefer going by myself. I once had a girlfriend who also loved to spend a long afternoon at a multiplex. But most women, I find, can at most handle a double feature; some want to go to all the hassle to get there and find parking and get crappy, overpriced snacks, and then leave after a 95min movie. That feels to me like exiting a restaurant after the appetizer or salad.
I fear, however, that streaming will eventually kill off the 10 and 20 screen cineplexes, which anyway have yet to recover from the Covid shutdowns. In the not too distant future, how many people will still go to a theater to see smaller dramas and indie art films? What I have long predicted (for about two decades) and feared is finally and rapidly coming into view: “going out to the movies” will soon mean patronizing giant screens (IMAX and XD and RPX) for huge budget epics and action movies, while the smaller screens eventually disappear, and the smaller films are streamed. I’m just hoping the multiplexes hang on until the 2030s (I hope I hang on, too!).
Richard Chance: I offered a somewhat dim view of the film’s purposes, but it is a very funny and pleasant, as well as visually enjoyable film to watch.For the record, I rather enjoy Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Thoughtful, quirky, and a great cast.
Now I have to start a quest to find films you’ll like. It’s a tough job, but someone has to do it.
To borrow from Fire Walk With Ice, you might watch Tampopo. It’s a lot of fun, but don’t watch it hungry. You’ve been warned.
Now I have to start a quest to find films you’ll like. It’s a tough job, but someone has to do it.
Ha! Not at all necessary, but just so you don’t think I’m one of those ornery righties who hates all pop culture, I’ll give you a list of some of my faves to give you an idea: To Live and Die in L.A., pretty much every David Lynch movie except Dune, The Exorcist, The Shining, Godfather I and II, Out of the Past, Jaws (only the first one), The Graduate, Harold and Maude, The Big Lebowski, No Country for Old Men, The Last Emperor, Gangs of New York, Burn After Reading, Eyes Wide Shut, Taxi Driver, The Outlaw Josey Wales, The Manchurian Candidate (the original with Frank Sinatra), Waking Ned Devine, Enter the Dragon, and The Hustler, to name a few. I’ll check out Tampopo.
Solid list. My top ten of all time:
Sunset Boulevard-Billy Wilder
The Devils- Ken Russell
Tampopo- Juzo Itami
The Holy Mountain- Alejandro Jodorowsky
Blue Velvet- David Lynch
Videodrome- David Cronenberg
Bad Lieutenant- Abel Ferrara
Fitzcarraldo- Werner Herzog
Julien Donkey Boy- Harmony Korine
Night Of The Hunter- Charles Laughton
Favorite directors are David Lynch, David Cronenberg, Paul Verhoeven, John Waters, Harmony Korine, Ken Russell, Werner Herzog, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Stanley Kubrick, Alfred Hitchcock, Billy Wilder and Paul Bartel.
I like harmony Corine too. I’m a big fan of Gummo.Have you seen his most recent one it was called beach bum? It was actually really good.
Not his best but still enjoyable. I’m still surprised how much I enjoyed Spring Breakers. I had a hard time picking between Gummo or Julien Donkey Boy, but Ewen Bremmner’s Julien is one of the most tortured performances I’ve seen aside from Harvey Keitel in Bad Lieutenant. That and Werner Herzog as his abusive, cough syrup addicted father.
If you’re a fan of Harmony Korine, I’d suggest checking out Dennis Hopper’s Out Of The Blue. It stars Hopper and a young Linda Manz, who played Solomon’s tap dancing, meth head mother in Gummo. It’s one of Harmony’s favorite films and the influences show throughout his work. The ending will blow you away.
Wow, thanks. I know beach bum is less signature and gritty than Korrines usual fare, but I liked the writing and set design in it a lot. In one scene a black guy mistakes a group of sharks for dolphins and swims to them and gets mauled. Of course korrine appears to push blacks a lot less than Jews usually do throughout his oeuvre, showing greater affection for low class whites. I sort of took this scene with the sharks as symbolic—he saying that other liberals and Jews are mistaking sharks for dolphins in blacks. It may be reading in, but there was a general theme like this in other movies around that time. Uncut Gems I read as a reevaluation of the relationship between blacks and Jews if you watch carefully.
Oh, but if we’re talking about Asian movies, there is a Japanese film called After Life that was released in 1998 that I thought was damn near perfect. The plot involved recently deceased folks who go to what I suppose their version of purgatory is and they have to select one memory from their lives that they will then relive for all of eternity. Really awesome stuff.
Please stop feeding the Hollywood head of the hydra that is killing us.
This is why we review films.
https://counter-currents.com/2011/08/why-i-write-11/
If you don’t think we should review them, you can boycott the reviews.
I stopped watching after an hour. I just thought it was boring and the characters insufferable.
However, there are two slight red pills in the hour I did watch. First, Yeoh’s character can barely speak English despite having been in the US for more than 20 years. This signals the inability to assimilate even our “model minorities.”
Second, there was an anti-Semitic slur thrown at a white laundromat customer, whom Yeoh calls “Big nose.” Journalists actually asked the directors about this slur, and they denied it was about Jews. Instead, they claimed it’s a common insult Asians use for whites. But Yeoh used it only moments after warmly asking a white laundromat customer if he was coming to the party she was giving. The slur clearly refers to the Jewish nature of the customer with the dog. It got a laugh from me, but I couldn’t continue watching.
The directors were not lying. 大鼻子 is a common insult towards whites specifically among Chinese. It wasn’t anti-semitic. I doubt Chinese even distinguish between Whites and Jews other than one group holds a lot of power while the other is a whipping boy.
So, some asian films that I think are thoughtful.
The Crazy Family (1984) A really wacky Japanese family goes wacky with their small space house, and eventually declare war on each other. Pretty funny and a good satire on the 1980’s Japan, Inc.
The Marioka Sisters (1983) based on the Japanese novel, dealing with four sisters in 1938 Osaka and their conflicts and business dealings. An interesting view of prewar Japan with no ‘Banzai.”
McArthur’s Children (1983) Dealing with Japanese children when the country was occupied in 1945. it has some off moments, but also some charm and shows a Japanese view of occupation different than the usual American stuff like Teahouse of the August Moon and its semi-worship of American “democracy.” A lot od uncertainty in dealing with defeat. Ken Watanabe’s first film.
A Great Wall (1986) A Chinese-American family visits their kin in China, and a thoughtful view of Chinas just as it was coming out of Mao. Has some very precise predictions of Tienaman Square, and the grandfather a kind man who has doubts about the “New” China overtaking one of Mao and equality.
From Mao to Mozart. A documentary when Isaac Stern visited China, and introduced Mozart to China. A thoughtful portrait of China in the mid seventies. I remember when they had a recital, they couldn’t find a piano, so the People’s Army sent a plane eight hundred miles away to get a piano. A nice use of military power. Also, some very sad stories of Chinese musicians who, in the Cultural Revolution, were forced by Red Guards to destroy their instruments and music in front of crowds because classical music was “bourgeois” and “counter-revolutionary.” Very moving, but also a lot of fun as Chinese are delighted by Stern. Showing China beginning to wake up.
Just examples that there are good asian films…or once were.
Thanks for these recs (though it’s The Makioka Sisters, which I believe is considered one of the greatest Japanese novels – one with rightist themes worthy of CC review).
My problem with nonwhite films is that, even when I enjoy them, they mostly don’t seem to ‘stick’ in my memory (I have the same problem with Agatha Christie novels, as well as any kind of non-linear, postmodern fiction). Exceptions were Kurosawa’s Ran and Ikiru (To Live). Also, for sheer entertainment, but also surprisingly affecting (as I recall), see the Korean zombie film Train to Busan.
I’d forgotten we were discussing Asian films specifically, and I do have a few that were memorable to me (in a good way):
Rashomon (1950), Japanese
Throne of Blood (1957), Japanese
Heaven and Earth (1990), Japanese
After Life (1998), Japanese
Hero, (2002), Chinese
Oldboy (2003), Korean
Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles (2005), Chinese
You guys have loaded me up with enough new films to watch to last a few months. I will be checking out several of those mentioned above. Thank you.
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