Everything Everywhere All At Once | The Definitive Explanation

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Discussion

  1. I feel like there is more about the time line. The multiverse seems different from other movies see it and the way the resources transfer from one another. It has something trancedental and suppose that is has something to do with family constellations.
    Does it makes sense? And is there/might be any relation to what I just said?

  2. This article was fantastic – you put down in writing all the things that were going on in my head on my second watch. I’m going to quote and credit it in an episode of my podcast Psychocinematic. Thank you for thinking so deeply into this incredible film!

    • Nice! Thank you, Stephanie! Much appreciated.

    • I agree! Thanks to Chris, I’m now enjoying + appreciating what this film was trying to tell me! I was so put off by the negativity, violence, & perversities, I couldn’t see through to the messsge & purpose behind all of that. I love all you said & have now come full circle (haha! Another reference to the bagel & googly eyes!) & understand the valuable, universal, good messages inherent in this film. Thank you! Let’s see what the Academy thinks on Sunday. Debbi P.

  3. Wonderful review and writing, completely on what Everything Everywhere All at Once trying to deliver. Also, I have the same question about the universe at the end of the movie, what happened back then in the first universe, especially in the building that has so much chaos in it.

    However, I love this movie so much. My favorite one in this year.

    • It definitely touched the hearts of a lot of people!

  4. Great article! I noticed some themes attaching America to the alpha world, where good intentions end up turning bad. Trying to “make things as they should be,” Lots of imagery and even something used as a weapon that clearly says Made in USA, which is highlighted. Flags, etc. Any thoughts on this. Thanks!

    • Thanks Mike! I didn’t pick up on any of that on the first watch but haven’t gone back to it. Given that Evelyn immigrated to America and is trying to live the American dream of small business ownership, I can definitely see the movie building on that. But I like to think it’s something I would have picked up on if it was more of a primary theme. So my gut is that it’s more interesting than important? But it’s definitely something I’ll keep in mind when I see the movie again!

  5. I just watched it last night, on “Academy Eve,” thinking it has definitely lived up to everything I’ve read/heard! And it should be experienced everywhere… meaning in your head and in your heart, no matter where you are in the world and in your life! And I can’t help but feel that all at once, I’ve adopted a new way of thinking about human interactions and relationships.

  6. Great article – thank-you. It really enriched my experience of the movie and I would like to see it again now.
    One thing continues to play on my mind – the things Evelyn says to her daughter even at the end seem like emotional punches verbally delivered: ‘You ARE getting fat, you are aimless and stubborn etc etc….like me.’ Perhaps truth is being prioritised here. ‘Beauty is truth, truth beauty’ and all that. But it still feels abusive. I feel like we’re left with an Evelyn whose message is ‘I can now love and accept you, despite all your manifold flaws’. Feels like a damaging message for a young person trying to become an adult.

    • Thanks, Deborah! Yeah, it is a bittersweet thing. I think we tend to idealize, especially in movies and TV, the beauty of “hard truths”. That “I’m just telling it like it is” attitude is often given a lot of leeway, even lionized. Joy does say something to her girlfriend early on about those criticisms being Evelyn’s way of showing she cares. But I think it’s ultimately that Evelyn had been so closed off from everyone. She had a wall up and kept people not even at arm’s length but further. So when she’s critical at the end, it’s not so much what she’s saying but that Joy can tell Evelyn’s being genuine and real and vulnerable with her. We see the difference between how she said these things with her guard up and how she says them with her guard down. I imagine/hope that afterwards Evenlyn is a lot more positive and loving towards Joy. We see it with Waymond when Evelyn puts her arms around him and kisses him. There’s a new softness to her interactions.

  7. I really appreciated this blog and explanation. Great insights. Really enriched my experience of the film. Thank you.

    • Thanks, Darius! That’s what we aim for! Any other movies you’d like us to cover?

  8. Regarding timelines, there’s one thing I noticed that I haven’t seen mentioned elsewhere.

    In the very first scene and the very last scene with the Joy’s girlfriend, she has a different haircut than the one where she’s introduced to the grandfather. (Here’s the first and last one, https://capture.dropbox.com/tJ6n3zf1is0WO9Mm . She also has that haircut when she drops them all off at the IRS.)

    Does that mean that the first and last ones are are different timelines than the one where she breaks the window and has the reconciliation?

    The other hint about this is that there was some question about whether Evelyn would bring Joy to the appointment. Perhaps the final scene is an alternate universe where she did, in fact, bring the daughter the first time.

  9. “Which universe is the primary one?”

    I think this question is the perfect encapsulation of the main point of the movie. The literal alternate universes in the movie stand for hypothetical alternate lives that plague us all. The what-ifs, the different paths we could have taken, the different choices we could have made that would have led to a better life. A life with more meaning. We can get lost in this thought process and lose any appreciation for the world we inhabit. “Nothing matters because everything else could have happend” is what leads to nihilism.
    But ultimately we only have this one life. It doesn’t matter if it isn’t perfect, it has meaning because it is the one that is.
    And so the primary universe the movie presents us with is the “boring” universe with the laundromat, the tax issues and the strained family relationships. Not the alphaverse, not the universe where the main battle takes place, nor the universe where Evelyn is a movie star.
    In my opinion this is the final take home message the movie is trying to convey:
    The antidote to nihilism is simply accepting the universe we got. This is the one we can find meaning in, if we just get out of our own head for once and listen.

    • Yup, well said. A nice companion movie to Past Lives.

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