Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022)
Screenplay: Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert
Actors: Michelle Yeoh, Stephanie Hsu, Ke Huy Quan
Duration: 2H .19M
Genre: Fantasy, Comedy
Release date: August 31, 2022
BR/4K release date: January 3, 2023
Key Points
Evelyn Wang is exhausted: she no longer understands her family or her job and is overwhelmed with taxes. Suddenly, she finds herself immersed in the multiverse, parallel worlds where she explores all the lives she could have led. Faced with dark forces, she alone can save the world but also preserve the most precious thing: her family…
Spider-Verse
For the past fifteen years that Marvel productions have reigned supreme at the box office, the dramaturgy of superhero films has evolved considerably. If we can probably consider that they were in their time a “necessary evil”, the screenwriters at Marvel have today completely abandoned the old-fashioned stories of the “Origin Story” type , and left James Cameron the exclusivity of the Manichean struggle of good against evil.
A real breaking point between the “before” and the future-oriented narration, the animated film Spider-Man – New Generation (2018) of course laid the foundations for later films from the bosom of Marvel . But today we can see that it is beginning to make small in so-called “traditional” cinema: the first striking example of the influence that the film by Peter Ramsey, Bob Persichetti and Rodney Rothman may have had is of course Everything Everywhere All at Once – absolutely stunning entertainment directed by the Daniels , aka Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert.
But the great strength of Everything Everywhere All at Once is probably to have managed to hide these influences – however obvious – from the general public, to the point of becoming a real phenomenon on social networks: the kind of film that puts everyone ‘OK. Thus, even the most resistant spectators to the Marvel universe were stunned by the Daniels ‘ film , just as Matrix in its time had managed to generate the most enthusiastic reactions when, ultimately, it only offered a brilliant recycling. of ten, fifteen years of science fiction and action cinema made in Hong Kong.
It’s hard to sum up the story of Everything Everywhere All at Once , as its plot gets crazier and more referential the further it goes. A dysfunctional Chinese family settled in the United States, a failing couple and a laundromat, a tax audit, and everything goes wrong: the characters then become other versions of themselves, which gives birth to a series of barred and increasingly comical scenes. And despite an increasingly convoluted script, co-directors Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert manage to keep the core of the film fairly crystal clear, all taking the form of wacky and often hilarious little vignettes. The result is therefore stunning, and frankly thrilled the writing of film reviews. Below, you will find the review of our editor Pascal Le Duff !
Michelle Yeoh
Michelle Yeoh is one of Hong Kong’s biggest action movie stars, the female equal of Jackie Chan with whom she shot Police Story 3 . He was seen jumping on a motorcycle over a helicopter alongside James Bond in Tomorrow Never Dies and practicing martial arts with dexterity in Tiger and Dragon . A rollercoaster rich in formal and narrative finds, Everything Everywhere All at Once has just made her, at just 60 years old, the great international star she has always deserved to be.
Evelyn’s first mission is to survive, but it is also important for her to reconcile with her loved ones. She is so busy earning a living in a country whose language she did not speak when she arrived, she gives them orders more than tokens of affection. The question of cultural differences within a family unit is at the heart of this fast-paced fantasy film. These three generations have opposite life paths, lost between the country they come from and the one where they live.
The Daniels revisit the multiverse concept popularized with Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness by injecting it with a lot more humanity and something more down to earth. They don’t neglect the action scenes as long as they direct with mastery and just the clumsiness to make believable the sudden aptitude of simple people to fight like kung-fu professionals. They insert nice references to cinema classics, including a very nice tribute to In The Mood For Love . In addition, Everything Everywhere All at Once marks the unexpected return, as a dull man revealing astonishing skills, of Ke Huy Quan, child star of the 80s thanks to his role as an adventurous kid in The Goonies and Indiana Jones and the cursed temple where he was Half Moon, the partner of Indiana Jones. And Jamie Lee Curtis is hilarious as a fastidious and frumpy tax inspector!
Blu-ray 4K Ultra HD
Everything Everywhere All at Once has just landed in France in 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray format, under the colors of Originals Factory , which had previously also distributed it in theaters. The 2160p transfer offered by the publisher does justice to the visual ambition of the Daniels ‘ film , with precise sharpness, an extremely fine level of detail and literally explosive colors.
The behavior of the blacks – and the whites – is also quite excellent, in short, it’s very good technical work. This visual excellence is also found in the treatment of the soundtracks, both offered in powerful Dolby Atmos (VF / VO) mixes that non-compatible amplifiers will decode in Dolby TrueHD 7.1 . The acoustic rendering is spectacular, even thunderous: when the action begins to take over, we are indeed witnessing a veritable explosion of surround activity that will be found in all channels, with exceptional power and finesse. The dialogues are also perfectly detached from the atmospheres and perfectly clear and crisp throughout the film. An absolutely stunning 4K presentation!
As for the supplements, we will start with an audio commentary by the writers / directors Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (VOST), to continue with a making of very complete and rather amusing (40 minutes) in its way of approaching the film, the scenario , sets, costumes, editing and special effects. We will then continue with a featurette (10 minutes) which will return to the personality of the Daniels , the inspirations of the film, as well as the characters and the choreography of the fight scenes. Lovers of Everything Everywhere All at Once will then enjoy a selection of deleted scenes (14 minutes), presented and commented on by the Daniels ., and will engage directly with an amusing blooper (9 minutes). On the other hand, we will pass a little more quickly over the video clip of “This is a Life” by Son Lux, Mitski & David Byrne as well as the interview with the film crew (3 minutes), a bit too superficial to show completely convincing. Last but not least, a interview with Daniel Scheinert (18 minutes), exclusive to this French edition, will allow the co-screenwriter / co-director to address some aspects related to the genesis and conception of the film that had not been addressed by the making of. It should also be noted that the 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray of Everything Everywhere All at Once published by Originals Factory is presented in a superb Steelbook in the colors of the film.
