Let’s start off with a track from one of Port-Harcourt’s newest finest artist, Hitboy Kellz, with the lyrics
Alcohol steady in my system e fit to burn my liver ohh.
That shit is bad ohh.. That shit is bad.."
You know I’ve always wondered why they all call themselves ‘boy’ or ‘kid’ with very strange prefixes to begin the names. We’ve got Wizkid, Burna boy, Hitboy, Fireboy.. It’s like how many boys and kids are out there? Well I hypothesize that there is a correlation or a relationship between urban afrobeats music and youthfulness and it seems to me that these artists understand this and so in order to connect with the young folks they identify as one of them through their stage names despite how old they (the musicians) get. Just another thought that keeps my mental cogs churning, I wonder where I heard that from..
So today I’ll be talking or rather writing on 2022s Everything, Everywhere, All at once and my God I have no idea where to even begin. I guess and I can start by saying that this film is a modern day masterpiece and I do not say that lightly. Heck this might be the best female lead film I have ever seen (Alright calm down now Osaruese) Like wow.. I’m so moved with emotions after seeing this film that it’s difficult to articulate them, infact I can’t remember the last time a film almost made me cry and this film pushed me to that point. It's important to note that this is coming from someone who laughed as he watched people cry to the death of Aunt May in No way home. Which to be fair was quite an emotional rollercoaster. I mean as fans we were used to seeing Uncle Ben die but this time though watching aunt May die, that felt different. I mean we did get her all throughout the first two films and we did build an emotional connection so we felt genuinely sad letting her go. Ok enough of No way home, let’s get to the spice of the day; Everything, Everywhere, All at once.
The Introduction/Synopsis
First of all shout out to A24, y’all got some really great films and this might be the best one yet. The story follows Evelyn, Waymond (Yes Waymond..) and Joy a modern day struggling migrant Asian family who are doing their best to keep afloat a dying laundry service company. Evelyn the protagonist of this story is a the mother of this family and she struggles alone to keep the family. Added to this the IRS is on their back trying to find errors in their taxes and impound their business. The story initially starts off as a family drama as we get to see how as a family they struggle more especially Evelyn who assumes the role of the manger and "father-figure" of the family. In truth the story does focus on her though and her relationship with her family, her quite sad, troubling relationship. In the opening scenes we see she is quite disappointed with him as he isn't able to meet up her expectation of him. She even goes to the extent of berating him in front of their daughter. In all fairness she is right about I'm though he is quite incompetent and quizzical he isn't able to help with the calculating the taxes and he is emotional and this makes him sentimental in regards to running his business. The story continues by showing us the struggles d our lead character Evelyn as she manages the business, the expectations of her disappointed father and her crumbling relationship with her daughter whom she can't seem to fully accept the fact that she is gay. Coupled with all this she is unaware that her relationship ith her husband is about to come to an end and her family is about to crumble simply because she doesn't give him the time or pay him any attention.
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The story does an excellent job of portraying her character in such a way that she isn't just the victim of her circumstances but she is also a contributing factor to the circumstances she finds herself. Unlike many other films where female characters are set up to be idolized as these characters who are in complete control and suffer no consequence whatsoever as a result of their position, this film makes sure that it shows how difficult it is to be in control and how heavy the toll of responsibility is on the head of whoever is lifting it. It makes sure that it exemplifies how responsibility of doing job can easily affect and even crumble the relationship one might have with family. In the beginning act we see how Evelyn's life is on the verge of falling apart, her family is about fall apart, her business is about to fall apart with the IRS clamping on their necks over their tax records and her father who is an old timer douche is already disappointed with her as she fails to meet up to his expectations.
It is in the middle of all this that plot interferes in the form of the multiverse and her entire life is about to turn around. The way this happens is quite sudden and it comes from no where. One minute we see her in the elevator with her husband and her father making their way to the IRS tax officers' office the next minute her husband's body is possessed by a multiversal variant of himself who informs her that everything she knows about herself and about her world is about to change and in a red pill/blue pill like scene from the matrix she is given two choices. The first to either stick with her normal mundane life of patching things and making it work or she can choose to to follow his instruction and dive with him into the rabbit hole. In the end eventually he chooses to follow his instruction and jump into the proverbial rabbit hole. This then leads her and we the audience into one the most psychedelic trippy comedic, emotional, timely and impactful stories of the year. Because of how long this synopsis already is I will be unable to talk more about the plot meaning i have to go straight into why this film works and what some of it's stand out qualities are. Let's take a look at how to craft a modern day masterpiece in 2022.
What made this film work?
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I've said it over and over again that there is a pattern to making great film and all films that stand out know how to manuever and manipulate these patterns in order to get greatness out of it. Some call it film theory others make view it as the psychology of storytelling while some people might just call it pure luck however one thing sure, like the taste difference between a good meal and bad meal every film you see leaves an impression in your mind. Some may be good, some may be bad and some maybe forgettable; films are just like this. I saying this because the writers and creators of this story showed how well they understood the mechanism behind making a memorable, fantastic film. So let's look at what they got right.
Proritizing authentic emotions over ideology and propaganda.
I believe that one the primary purpose of any story is to make the audience feel emotions even before educating them on the message or the ideas of the story. This is because as humans we are emotional creatures and emotions are the fuel that power our actions. In order words of your story tries hard at educating or teaching your audience but it does little to make their emotional state correspond to the message you are preaching then you already have a failed story. The film makers of this story correctly understood this principle and so they did their best to prioritize making the story feel genuine instead of trying to manipulate the audience into feeling an emotional connection for the film. They avoid the trap that many female action lead movies fall into which is using propaganda as the primary tool for lead character support. Instead they do what is right. They introduce us to the main character and they highlight her imperfections. They show her motivation which are in not self centred.
They show that even if she has good intentions she goes about them the wrong way and they show how her actions negatively affect does around her and how they inturn affect her negatively. They show us how her ignoring her husband and her daughter for the sake of trying to fix her job makes her life more miserable as they inturn slowly detach from her and leave her alone to face the challenges alone. When the multiversal threat comes her way, it isn't in the form of her job or the threat of the IRS it is a multiversal variant of her daughter which was pushed to far. In order words the problem she chose to ignore for so long became the one problem that came back to haunt her and now she is forced to confront it. As the audience when we see this unfold it is believable to us. We see how the relationship with her daughter falls apart in the first scene and we know how much Evelyn cares for her daughter but she fails in showing her her love and so when the main villain is revealed to be her daughter coming back to haunt her across the multiverse it is believable and we know that the only solution Evelyn has is to face her daughter head on and deal with her mistakes. None of it comes as chessy and unoriginal because it something that we as the audience can relate to and I that way, as in, in making the antagonist be as a result of her own failure, we as the audience aren't forced by the story to like Evelyn we are made to understand and appreciate her efforts, her bravery and her willingness to become better. The feeling of support then comes naturally to us after we see what she goes through.
Personalized Conflict over ideological and generic conflict
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I've said it time and time again the best conflict between he primary protagonist and antagonist is personal conflict. It's always right to have the conflict between the main villain and the hero be personal because it usually stems from a relationship they both share and it highlights how easily one side could switch to the next. If the story isn't set like this then you have the problem of the audience relating with the authenticity or believablity of the conflict. To make this point clearer let's compare the conflict in two films. First let's look at a film that suffers from an array of problems one of which is a non-personal conflict and that would be Uncharted. In the film we see how the primary antagonist Santiago Moncada and the primary protagonist Nathan Drake both chase after the same treasure but outside this neither of them share anything more personal. They simply want the treasure for their individual reasons and on a closer inspection of these reasons sound awfully less compelling. While initially Drake claims to want the treasure because it would lead him closer to his lostbrother allegedly but by the time we get to the second act of the film that plot line and that motivation is completely thrown out the window and it becomes all about getting the treasure for the sake of being rich. Moncada on the other hand who is suppose to be the primary antagonist simply wants the gold because he wants to richer in the name of restoring is family wealth.
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To further add salt to the injury he is killed by Barrada who to be honest is also a very shallow villain with greed as her primary motivation and so all in all the story in the Uncharted films holds no weight as the protagonist and antagonist have no direct relationship with each other. The only goal they all share is the gold and their principal reason for acquiring the goal is to simply get rich. Now let's compare this to the type of conflict we have in the film of our focus; Everything Everywhere All at once. The most important element in this film that completely transforms the audience's perception of this film is conflict. Because of our protagonist's actions and inactions and mistakes, the main villain is born and she happens to be her own daughter. The relationship between both characters is a clear and direct and it is established hat the nature of their relationship is. This makes the conflict between both of them personal and established what this does is that it progresses the story in such a way that the audience feel a greater level of emotional attachment to the events going on. When we come to find out who Joba Tobaki the central villain is, we are genuinely concerned about Evelyn's safety. We know how she ignores her daughter and we can predict that the feelings her daughter has for her aren't positive. From the beginning we see and understand how the sadness could possibly have built in her daughter and how in this multiversal variant of her daughter it molds itself to become resentment again her mother and so the story becomes much much more realtable. Eventually Evelyn has to come to terms with the consequences of her actions. She must face her daughter and try to remedy the relationship she has with her daughter as well as standing up against her father's criticism and only in doing that does she eventually realise and come to terms with her true self while understanding the importance of her family.
Universal themes and ideas summed up and made simple.
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Finally I think the most outstanding thing this film does is the way it tackles it's theme of the humanity and vulnerability. These themes are highly sensitive and relatable yet the film finds a way of pulling it off and making it light hearted and funny while still maintaining the emotional aspects of these themes. The story is dramatic, full of suspense, dread, comedic with plenty of action to keep you excited as you watch the film. Like I said in the beginning the film initial starts out as a family drama highlighting the problems and challenges of the family. We see and connect with the emotional side of the story, the sadness and stress the central character feels and the burdens she has to carry. A few moments after this we are introduced to the comedic side of the film when we get the scene in the IRS office the auditor samples dildos as awards trying convince everyone that they are want she claims them to be and honestly it's so funny to watch that interaction. Then there's the strange things they have to do to be able to verse jump like eating chap sticks, using pepper spray and yep U guessed it, stick dildos up their butts and it just keeps getting weirder and weirder.
There's several there instances in this film that are just prime comedy and why it's stands out is because most of these moments come in the middle of fights or really serious situations and yes even though it's cliche for many films to take this approach when it comes to action comedy films this film on the other hand sharply contrasts these comedic moments side by side with dreadful and intense moments.
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We see several examples of this throughout the film, one of which is when Jobu Topaki introduces herself to Evelyn whilst Evelyn is still trying figure out verse jumping. In that moment there is genuine dread and tension all around, Alpha Waymond is knocked out cold and Evelyn could easily die what happens, in an attempt to jump verse to a universe where she has martial arts skills she goes to a universe where humans have evolved to develop sausages instead of fingers this is followed by a quick montage of the world in all it's craziness. This juxtaposition of dread and comedic timing intensifies the film experience and it works in such a way that they both balance themselves out with neither of them overshadowing the other. This doesn't just happen with the horror elements of the film but also with the dramatic elements of the film as well as other aspects of the film. In a way it reminds me of 2017s IT which was both terrifying and funny at the same time and no I'm not saying this film pulled it off like IT did but it definitely took some notes from it, if I do say so myself. All these elements balance themselves out to give us a surreal sublime movie experience in which we can both laugh and cry and scream in terror and shout for joy at the same time. I honestly envy the people who saw this in the cinema in its opening week I can't but think that they got the best experience of this film because they got to experience all these emotions in a place where they could easily express all their emotions with the people around understanding what they were feeling.
Conclusion
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There are other aspects of this film that I couldn't write about in this post and that's because of the word constraint i have on each post. I do hope however that some of the things I have talked about would make you go see this film. Honestly this film highly exceeded my expectations and in my opinion it is one of the best films to come out this year, heck it is a contender for the number one spot in my list of the best film for 2022. All in all, I stand by what I said earlier. It is a film that focuses on the collective human experience over some select ideology. It's a film that gets female lead protagonists right and it emulates family values over individual self interests and so for this I'd give this a solid 10/10. With that I say goodbye to y'all and until I see you again,
Ciao.
