I run a small laundromat with my husband in a bustling Toronto neighbourhood. Most days are a monotonous blur of folding other people's clothes, fixing jammed coin slots, and staring at a mountain of receipts that never seems to get smaller. It’s easy to feel stuck in the spin cycle of your own life, to wonder about all the different paths you could have taken if you’d made one different choice years ago. After a particularly long day last week, my husband and I watched Everything Everywhere All at Once. I expected a weird, headache-inducing sci-fi movie. I did not expect to see my own anxieties, my own silent "what ifs," turned into a kung fu epic that was somehow both absurdly funny and deeply, profoundly moving.
That is the impossible magic trick that directors Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (known as "The Daniels") have pulled off. Their film is a genre-shattering masterpiece that feels like it was beamed in from another dimension. It’s a martial arts film, a sci-fi epic, a screwball comedy, and an intimate family drama all thrown into a blender and served up as a glorious, chaotic, and ultimately hopeful feast for the senses. It’s the unlikely indie darling that took the world by storm and proved that a story about a middle-aged immigrant woman doing her taxes could be the most exciting film of the year.
A Universe in a Laundromat: The Plot
At its heart, the story is about Evelyn Wang, a burnt-out laundromat owner whose life is quietly falling apart. Her business is failing and being audited by the IRS. Her sweet but goofy husband, Waymond, is trying to serve her divorce papers. Her aging father has just arrived from China, and her relationship with her daughter, Joy, is strained by years of unspoken resentments and unmet expectations. Evelyn is a woman drowning in disappointment, convinced that any other version of her life would have been better than this one.
It’s during a dreadful meeting at the IRS building that her reality fractures. A version of her husband from another universe (the "Alphaverse") hijacks her husband's body and tells her that she—this specific, failed version of Evelyn—is the only person who can save the entire multiverse from a powerful, nihilistic being named Jobu Tupaki. To fight, she must learn to "verse-jump," tapping into the skills and memories of all the other Evelyns from other universes—a movie star, a hibachi chef, a kung fu master, a woman with hot dogs for fingers. What begins as an audit becomes a desperate, high-stakes battle across reality itself.
More Than Just a Family: The Performances
The film is anchored by a set of career-defining performances that are nothing short of miraculous. The legendary Michelle Yeoh is the absolute soul of the film as Evelyn. She brilliantly portrays the character’s exhaustion and frustration, but also her immense capacity for strength and love. She seamlessly transitions between slapstick comedy, intense martial arts, and devastating emotional vulnerability. It’s the role of a lifetime, and her Academy Award for Best Actress was one of the most deserved wins in recent memory.
In a triumphant return to the screen, Ke Huy Quan is simply wonderful as Waymond. He masterfully switches between the meek, kind-hearted husband Evelyn takes for granted and the suave, confident Alpha Waymond. He is the film’s moral center, arguing that the way to fight the universe’s chaos is not with more fighting, but with empathy and kindness. Stephanie Hsu delivers a star-making performance in the dual role of Joy and the villainous Jobu Tupaki. She perfectly captures the pain of a daughter who feels unseen by her mother, and channels that pain into the terrifying, god-like power of a being who has seen everything and decided that nothing matters.
Key Film Credits
- Directors and Screenplay by: Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert
- Starring: MichelleYeoh (as Evelyn Wang), Ke Huy Quan (as Waymond Wang), Stephanie Hsu (as Joy Wang / Jobu Tupaki), Jamie Lee Curtis (as Deirdre Beaubeirdre), James Hong (as Gong Gong)
- Producers: The Daniels, Joe Russo, Anthony Russo, Jonathan Wang
- Cinematographer: Larkin Seiple
- Music by: Son Lux
Maximum Overdrive: The Daniels' Vision
The directing style of the Daniels is one of controlled, maximalist chaos. The film is a relentless assault on the senses, with frenetic editing, dizzying visual gags, and a pace that rarely lets up. They blend high-concept sci-fi with wonderfully low-fi, practical solutions, from fanny-pack fight scenes to a universe where the only life is sentient rocks. This sensory overload is entirely by design; it mirrors Evelyn’s own fractured mental state as she is bombarded with all of her alternate lives at once. It’s a bold, unique vision, the kind of lightning-in-a-bottle film that makes exploring the catalogues of platforms like 123movies so rewarding for cinephiles.
The inventive visuals are powered by an equally inventive score from the band Son Lux. The music shifts genres as fluidly as the film itself, moving from orchestral swells to electronic beats to traditional Chinese opera, creating a soundscape that is as eclectic and emotional as the story it accompanies.
The Little Film That Could: An Unlikely Triumph
No one could have predicted the phenomenal success of Everything Everywhere All at Once. Made on a relatively modest budget, it became a word-of-mouth sensation, building its audience week after week through pure enthusiasm from viewers. It eventually became production company A24’s first film to cross the $100 million mark worldwide and their highest-grossing film ever. The critical reception was ecstatic, with the film holding a 94% "Certified Fresh" score on Rotten Tomatoes.
This groundswell of support carried it through awards season, culminating in a historic night at the Academy Awards. The film won seven Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director, and three of the four acting awards. It was a massive, unprecedented victory for a weird, heartfelt, original film, and its wide accessibility on streaming sites like 123movies helped solidify its status as a defining cultural touchstone of the 2020s.
As the credits rolled, I looked around my own little laundromat. The mountain of receipts was still on the counter. The fluorescent lights still hummed. Nothing had changed, but everything felt different. The film's ultimate message—that we must stop focusing on the "what ifs" and embrace the life we have, right here, right now—hit me with surprising force. Waymond’s philosophy, to fight with kindness, felt like a quiet revelation. The movie doesn’t magically solve Evelyn’s problems, but it reframes them. It finds the epic in the mundane, the beauty in the chaos. It’s a powerful reminder that this life, the one with the taxes and the struggles and the people you love, is more than enough. It’s everything.
Everything Everywhere All at Once: Film Fact Sheet
Critical Reception:
Rotten Tomatoes: 94% (Certified Fresh)
Metacritic: 81/100
Audience Scores:
IMDb Rating: 7.8/10
TMDb Score: 80%
Box Office Performance:
Budget: Approx. $14-25 million
Worldwide Gross: Approx. $144.4 million
Major Awards and Nominations:
Academy Awards: Won 7 Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress (Yeoh), Best Supporting Actor (Quan), Best Supporting Actress (Curtis), and Best Original Screenplay.
Golden Globe Awards: Won, Best Actress - Musical/Comedy (Yeoh) and Best Supporting Actor (Quan).
BAFTA Awards: Won, Best Editing.
Source: https://123movies26.com