A24 is known for creating….let’s say different types of movies with varying plot points and stunning visuals. Everything from Moonlight and Midsommar to Zola and The Disaster Artist. We all know this…but I didn’t. (Blame my friends. It’s their fault.) I cannot remember my first A24 film, but I do remember being slightly confused. The most recent A24 film I watched, that I just realized was a A24 film, was The Last Black Man in San Francisco. Fast forward to my best friend asking me to go see Everything Everywhere All At Once. I had vaguely heard the title but had no idea what this movie was, and after reading the first sentence of the synopsis and looking at the run time, I immediately started to wonder if I should go see this film.
The wonderful thing about A24 movies is that you can’t really spoil the movie, so I’m going to make a lot of references to things and scenes in this movie, and unless you see this movie, you will have no idea what I’m talking about.
The main device in this movie is the multiverse and who has successfully done a full length feature film with a multiverse that makes sense? Marvel, that’s who and guess who produced this movie? The Russos! I wondered why I enjoyed this movie as much as I did until I saw the names Anthony and Joe Russo. God bless them because a normal A24 movie with a loose plot and crazy visuals came together for a real heartfelt story about life and family.
It seems like the doughnut just represented the cycle they were going through in life. At the party or in one of her of her off shoots, she mentioned that all she does is pay taxes and wash clothes. I feel like Joy feels like she’s in a similar cycle of life and can’t break from it. If you notice, she’s never happy in any iteration of herself. She’ll have a different costume but always the same attitude. Her gaining all this knowledge and power didn’t mask her anger and complacency, which is what I think she was hoping for. I think dying was both how she felt as her real self, but also as the villain, it was something that was out of the norm. Something unpredictable.
I wanted more from Gong Gong. His influence was the main catalyst of the movie and I just felt like either their needed to be more of him or we could have just kept him in the beginning and in flashbacks. I think it would have been more powerful with the latter idea.
To make Waymond the brains of this operation was brilliant because y’all knew we thought nothing of him when this movie started. Matter of fact, he got on my nerves in that first scene asking questions. Then, things started to change. Why we needed him to kick and fly around the laundromat in the security footage, couldn’t tell you but it’s an A24 movie. Don’t ask questions. I loved movie Waymond. He was quiet and suave but he knew himself better than the other Waymonds.
If you’re looking for an actress for horror or weird, you call Jamie Lee Curtis. I enjoyed her in this movie. Again, did not need the hotdogs fingers. You could have given me literally anything else and I would not have complained, but you gave it to me, so now I have to.
Last but not least, it was beautiful to see an Asian family as the focus of a feature length film and it not just be about stereotypes and Kung fu. They got to be multidimensional and vulnerable and less than (cause them taxes, hunnie). They got to be perfectly imperfect and I love to see that.
I’ve had long conversations with people about this film and I’ve concluded that I applaud my best friend for taking me to see this because I wouldn’t have otherwise and I may have missed out on this experience of questioning my own bagel. What did you think? Is this a movie you want to see? If you saw it, was it all you imagined it to be?
BLACK WATCH 