Everything Everywhere All at Once

What if I told you that an infinite set of universes existed and was open to you as long as you’re willing to wear a funny earpiece and lick the nearest traditionally un-licked thing? “Fiddlesticks!” I hear you say. “Why, that kind of poppycock is fit only for speculative fiction!” You’re quite right, O reader of the outdated vernacular, but don’t be so quick to dismiss speculative fiction such as this. When you’re dealing with limitless realities, you of course have a limitless toybox from which to draw the most mind-boggling, jaw-dropping spectacle movie goers have ever seen! Or, if you’re a pair of indie directors working with an indie studio, you could ignore most of that and stick to the exotic confines of an IRS building. As it happens, today’s movie Everything Everywhere All at Once, a 2022 action movie from alliterative directing duo the Daniels, goes with the second option. Oh well. Everything Everywhere was a surprise hit with critics and audiences alike, and has a sunny outlook going into awards season, but we here at the offices of Contrarian Movie Bros-sorry, I mean Magellans at the Movies were not quite as impressed. Everything Everywhere has a creative and intriguing premise, but is held back by indulgent scenes of action, shoddy character development, and a questionable moral message and you can hear about all of that and more in this week’s episode! So, wrap your head in tissue paper, dunk it in maple syrup and apply to a nearby stack of flapjacks and verse-hop into the strange and terrible universe of the Magellans at the Movies!