Everything Everywhere
Apr. 10th, 2022 10:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
potofsoupToday Spouse and I watched Everything Everywhere All at Once! It was super fun and definitely worth a watch! I cried, like, 3 times, over the complexities of generational pain and lost opportunities and hope and humans reaching out in search of connection. There were also a couple moments where I hid my eyes -- two martial arts fight scenes that involved dildos, one grotesquely romantic scene involving sausage fingers, and 3 blood splashes. Each of the cringe moments was less than 30 seconds, and was mostly me being squeamish, but GUYZ IT WAS SO GOOD.
It's original and refreshing.
It rejects the standard action movie formula (while still showing you some good fight choreography)
It is an amazingly intimate portrayal of a Chinese American family -- Chinglish abounds and they just roll with it, subtitling sentence fragments and just letting the chaos of the family show through. When the mom and dad of the movie want to talk without their daughter understanding, they speak in Chinese, and when they don't want their dad to understand, they speak in English. The daughter is trying to get the family to acknowledge her girlfriend and her independence, while also craving their love and support. The father is trying to rekindle his marriage. The mom (Michelle Yeoh) is trying to figure out an IRS tax audit, keep the business running, and put on a good show in front of her father, all while grappling with the sense that maybe her life would have been better if she didn't run away to America with her husband. All of these family feelings that feel genuine, and approached with a nuanced touch.
It is also a completely bonkers adventure movie involving universe hopping, an existential threat to the multiverse, dramatic use of googly eyes, and chekhov's buttplug.
And yet somehow it all works together to tell a cohesive story that provides resolution across multiple timelines. After expanding to include everything, it manages to actually shrink back down and talk about just one thing. So. Impressed.
I also watched Turning Red recently, which was also Great Fun, mother-daughter shenanigans. It feels good to see 2nd and 3rd gen Asian American storytellers being given the platform to create films!
It's original and refreshing.
It rejects the standard action movie formula (while still showing you some good fight choreography)
It is an amazingly intimate portrayal of a Chinese American family -- Chinglish abounds and they just roll with it, subtitling sentence fragments and just letting the chaos of the family show through. When the mom and dad of the movie want to talk without their daughter understanding, they speak in Chinese, and when they don't want their dad to understand, they speak in English. The daughter is trying to get the family to acknowledge her girlfriend and her independence, while also craving their love and support. The father is trying to rekindle his marriage. The mom (Michelle Yeoh) is trying to figure out an IRS tax audit, keep the business running, and put on a good show in front of her father, all while grappling with the sense that maybe her life would have been better if she didn't run away to America with her husband. All of these family feelings that feel genuine, and approached with a nuanced touch.
It is also a completely bonkers adventure movie involving universe hopping, an existential threat to the multiverse, dramatic use of googly eyes, and chekhov's buttplug.
And yet somehow it all works together to tell a cohesive story that provides resolution across multiple timelines. After expanding to include everything, it manages to actually shrink back down and talk about just one thing. So. Impressed.
I also watched Turning Red recently, which was also Great Fun, mother-daughter shenanigans. It feels good to see 2nd and 3rd gen Asian American storytellers being given the platform to create films!
