The movie Everything Everywhere All at Once really does have everything everywhere all at once. While watching the film, the viewer is taken through the many different multiverses the main character is experiencing all at once. Though the amount of jumping back and forth between different multiverses may feel messy at first, Daniels, the directors of this movie, manages to bring everything together in the end.

EEAO tells the story of a Chinese immigrant mother, Evelyn Wang (Michelle Yeoh), living her busy life as a laundromat owner in America. It is revealed that her marriage is falling apart, as her husband, Waymond Wang (Ke Huy Quan), tries to hand her divorce papers, but she can’t even make time for him to give them to her and talk about it. Her relationship with her daughter, Joy Wang (Stephanie Hsu), is also suffering. Evelyn disapproves of Joy’s relationship with her girlfriend and doesn’t truly seem to accept her. As the Wang family goes to the audit center for their business to be audited, Evelyn learns from her husband that there are actually many universes and that her husband is actually her husband from the Alphaverse, Alpha Waymond. She also learns that she needs to save the multiverse by stopping Jobu Tupaki, the main “antagonist” in the movie.

In the film, many of the same people play different roles in the other universes, and they all perform their assigned roles well. Particularly hats off to Michelle Yeoh, Stephanie Hsu, and Ke Huy Quan. These three main actors could really convey the emotions and personalities of their characters, especially Yeoh. While the different universes were spiraling into chaos, Yeoh’s acting was incredibly versatile, and her performance as Evelyn Wang was outstanding. She conveyed the raw emotions of Evelyn throughout the movie and really brought her to life with her charisma.

The most memorable part of the movie, other than the story, has to be the costume designs—specifically the costumes for Jobu Tupaki. The attires were enthralling and mind-boggling, and Shirley Kurata did a spectacular job with the clothing and fashion design in the movie. It’s just the right amount of everything everywhere on each outfit. My personal favorite is Jobu’s green, spiky garb. It looks like a giant, bedazzled coronavirus germ, making the virus much less scary when seen that way.

The moral of Everything Everywhere All at Once is that life is only meaningful because everything we do is meaningless. The movie shows that it is because there’s no meaning to anything we do in the end; no matter what we do, every moment is worth cherishing. It’s a philosophical moral, but it’s an important one nonetheless. EEAO questions the meaning of life, then basically gives us the answer of “just enjoy life no matter the meaning” in the end.

EEAO is targeted more towards Asian Americans, specifically Chinese-American families, as it shows the rocky lives and hardships of Chinese immigrants in America. The MPAA rated the film R for some violence, sexual material, and language. Overall, I enjoyed the two-hour-long movie, and I give it 4/5 stars. The time duration of the film was a little too long for my liking, but I thoroughly enjoyed the madness and absurd way the plot was presented. If you watch this movie, be prepared for lots of laughs, confusion, and tears.