Spoiler alert: Since this is about a film, I’m obviously going to reference specifics

Everything Everywhere All at Once (which I’ll abbreviate to EEAaO) won 7 Oscars yesterday, so it seemed like something that might be worth watching. The acting Oscars seem valid. The main characters really did act well. I have no idea what the editing one is given for, so that might be correct. But if that was the best screenplay and motion picture of 2022, then it seems like a really bad year for films.

What was done well

One thing that can be said about it is that it most certainly strives for representation. The main characters are Chinese women, there are lesbian relationships and the generational conflicts they may cause, the supporting characters aren’t just chosen for their looks, etc. This works. It doesn’t look like they’re token characters - each of them makes perfect sense in the context of the story, which is nice.

I liked that the main conflict is between a mother and her daughter, with a side dish of daddy issues and an overly nice husband who wants a divorce. The main external problems are with the tax office, which also is a very good source of conflict.

I loved Jo Chewbacca’s outfits and makeup. The character designers must have had a lot of fun with that and I appreciated how each look accented whatever was happening in the story.

Many world interpretation

What I didn’t like where the non familial aspects, i.e. the main plot. This ranged from sloppy, through impossible, to ridiculous. The basic idea was interesting, that having access to all your Everett branches grants you superpowers. There is a good story that I can’t seem to find (I think it was on LessWrong?) where the main character uses that to his advantage, by doing miracles on stage. The problem is this works by him focusing all his reality in those specific universes, by being killed in all the other ones. That doesn’t seem to be the best way of achieving immortality, but at least as an idea it makes sense. It might not be workable, in that physics might not work that way, but at least it’s consistent.

I can’t say the same about EEAaO. It starts okish, at least enough for me to not stop suspending my disbelief at once. A different version of her husband appears from a different multiverse, by taking over his body - fine, I’ll grant you that for now. There is some magic contraption that allows her to access a different multiverse - ok, why not. She can’t focus on one of them, but starts switching between the two - right, lets go with that. Her husband gets killed in the throwaway multiverse but wakes up in his original one? - weird flex, things are starting to pile up, but I can still manage that much. But the details keep piling up. I can’t remember when I stopped giving it the slightest sliver of credibility. Certainly before they got to the sausage fingers. Come on. That’s just stupid. This classic is more believable that that. How on earth is that supposed to work? Initially I thought it was just a stupid one time gag, but no - they had to keep using it. Even going so far as to support it by a 2001: Space Odyssey reference. How on earth did the victorious ape have those hands to begin with? And why on earth would a single fight like that have any bearing on it? Or the scenes where they turn into rocks. What on earth was that supposed to mean? Sentient rocks that can move? What? And even then they were sloppy about it - the whole premise is that it’s a multiverse that can’t support life, but there’s grass right next to the stone! Once I lost my ability to suspense disbelief (which isn’t something that usually happens to me!) all the previous issues started being really grating:

• Ok, you can possess your alternatives body. But how do you decide what is your alternative? How is a rock your alternative?
• Jumping is done by possessing someone with your soul or something. Cool, cool. But how did you suddenly get all that magic hardware over? Ditto for muscles etc.? Except for the sausage fingers?
• You can only focus on one multiverse, with things from the other one able to pull your attention there. Actually, this one is fine.
• Throwaway multiverses? You really don’t care about those copies that get killed? It seems like you’re not paying attention to what is happening…
• A whole lot of other stupidity. Racoonouille? Really? You want to go with THAT?!

I understand that they wanted to tell an interesting story, where the multiverse skipping thing is just a gimicky way to show different versions of what could be in order to come to the conclusion that if you’re kind and love each other, then every possibility is good. But the medium is important. When its this jarring, it looses any impact that it might have. It’s the equivalent of an hour of technobabble. Sometimes it can be amusing or even cute, like this one, but it’s usually just cringey.

Filosofofy

The basic moral of the story is fine. It’s a heartwarming story of how a mothers love for her daughter can save the multiverse from destruction. A story of redemption, where you can get a second chance to make up far lost opportunities. A lesson on how the only thing that is important is having good relationships with those who you value the most. That bit was done well. Unfortunately, the writers felt the need to foray into philosophical discussions and (which is much worse) monologues. I’m all for using stories to explain philosophical ideas - that’s one of the best ways to do it. But EEAaO is both bad at it and doesn’t have anything of worth to say. The characters spout drunk teenager level platidutes as if it was Socrates saying them. Why?! Why did they try to also be artistic and deep? The most insightful they got to was that nothing has any meaning. Yeah? Isn’t that obvious? Life is absurd, The Myth of Sisyphus, the anguish of existence and all that good Existential stuff. Thing is, they treat it as if it’s some kind of ground shaking bombshell. Oh noes! The big bad realises that life doesn’t have any intrinsic sense! So she decides to go and destroy everything… But really all she wants is to be understood… And then to cease to exist… Riiiight… All that’s needed is the power of love to bring meaning to life. Not to disparage that - it’s as good a meaning as any. But it seems trite. After experiencing all possible lives (as that’s why Jobu is so powerful), all she wants is for mummy to love her? Really? That’s it? Couldn’t you strive for something more?

Potential

I think my main disappointment (apart from all the logical issues, plot holes etc.) is how little they made use of the potential of their media. The other worlds are either basically the same, but with different jobs, or totally wonky, e.g. as drawings or rocks. No intermediate forms where they have different biology or even look different. They also seem very limited to a small selection of lives. Though that’s probably just an issue of it being hard to show other options. I also don’t understand how time works for them. They’re supposed to be able to be everywhere at once, which is why Jobu is supposed to have gone mad. But they act as if time flows linearly, with them only focusing on one life at a time. But Jobu’s main complaint was that she has to live through everything! Which is it? They also seem strangely fine with the pile of bodies thats continuously growing larger. In the large scale of things, what’s one more dead person in a given multiverse. But the same can be said of our universe. And yet we think of each such death as a tragedy. I suppose Waymond sort of addresses that towards the end, where he asks Evelyn to fight kindly, which she does, by fulfilling the desires of each of her enemies. But does that mean that she chooses multiverses that she likes from all available ones? Or uses her knowledge to find out how to disarm them? One gets the impression that she makes them happy in all ‘verses - how does that work? If this works by parallel universes spinning of into existence with each action, does that mean that each good outcome has (probably loads) bad outcomes? Shouldn’t that suggest a buddhistic kind of approach to life?

Impressions

Overall I was very underwhelmed with this film. I watched it to the end, but only because I was watching it with other people

• otherwise I would have turned it off a lot sooner…