Sean Parker
The trailer dropped today for indie arthouse studio A24’s Everything Everywhere All at Once, and I honestly couldn’t be more excited. Besides pitting legendary martial artist Michelle Yeoh (Star Trek: Discovery) against fan-favorite final girl Jamie Lee Curtis (Halloween Kills), the film also boasts a stellar supporting cast in Stephanie Hsu (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel), Jenny Slate (Obvious Child), and Harry Shum Jr. (Broadcast Signal Intrusion). Not to mention renowned actor James Hong (Blade Runner), who has over four hundred credits listed on his IMDb page, and Ke Huy Quan, who people will recognize from The Goonies and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.
Mostly known for their work as music video directors, DANIELS (aka Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert) are also the driving force behind A24’s gonzo survival comedy Swiss Army Man, where a stranded Paul Dano finds a friend in Daniel Radcliffe’s corpse. Not to imply that Swiss Army Man is without merit, it’s quite a likable story in the vein of Cast Away, though Radcliffe plays an interesting version of Wilson. This time, DANIELS seem to be bringing us a similar bonkers narrative through a much more relatable storyline and a boatload of googly eyes.
Everything Everywhere All at Once is about an exhausted Chinese American businesswoman named Evelyn (Yeoh) who has trouble completing her taxes. When she brings her financials to a tax consultant (Curtis), the stress of potentially losing her business splits her awareness among the multiple paths her life could have traversed. From here, it would seem, Evelyn has the ability to live life in her shoes from alternate timelines in the multiverse. In one, she becomes a chef. In another, a movie star. What seems to tie all of this together is that Evelyn is the only one that can save the multiverse from a cataclysmic event.
The dire nature of DANIELS’ comedy action film is rooted in the absurd, similarly to that of Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World. The heart of the film, however, is in its regret. That moment your heart sinks in your chest to discover a hole you can’t crawl out of and wish that you could go back and try again. Evelyn appears to succumb to the breaking point of her reality and finds her break-in point to the multiverse. Where Everything Everywhere All at Once will differentiate itself from a film like Sliding Doors will be in the multiple paths available to Evelyn instead of choosing a singular alternative. The unique take of Everything Everywhere All at Once is how filled with enthusiasm we all are over many things in life and how difficult it is to look back and see yourself described as just one thing.
My guess is that the trailer for Everything Everywhere All at Once will likely be included on Spider-Man: No Way Home’s trailer reel. The trilogy defining arc of the Marvel franchise is set to premiere this week and introduce fans to a mash-up of villains from each of the series’ reboots. It’s a good bet that Everything Everywhere All at Once’s multiverse storyline will resonate with MCU fans who should be just as excited, if not more, for DANIELS’ action-comedy. The Russo brothers, who previously directed the last two Avengers films, also have production credits on Everything Everywhere All at Once. Add in the fact that Michelle Yeoh was previously seen in Marvel’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, and with Marvel fans likely to recognize the actress, Everything Everywhere All at Once could be huge for indie film house A24 who has seen some of its previous efforts muted by coronavirus over these last two years.
Everything Everywhere All at Once is set to open the SXSW festival on March 11 before hitting theaters (at least in this universe) on March 25.
So what do you think of the trailer for Everything Everywhere All at Once? Do you agree with Sean that it looks like it’s in the same absurdist vein as Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World? Let us know in the comments! And if you’re looking for horror trailers, we’ve got you covered!
