EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE (2022)

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The visual flair and humor of EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE is intoxicating, pulling you into its world and its rules and throwing you around a medley of sets and scenes with the familiar unfamiliar and the tide constantly shifting. The movie's poster captures that feeling pretty good--print it out and spin it around. That's the movie. And such intoxication dulls the senses like it dulled mine, finishing my watch thinking "Hey, that was great!" Then i went on a walk and thought about it, and it was only a few steps before i thought "Yeah, that was pretty good," and eventually came home with "Well, it was alright." And that's where i've arrived, and I'll tell you why i arrived there.

It's the small things that ruin a chunk of the movie first and foremost. It's the inability to trust the audience with a joke or story beat, like Evelyn clearly intending to do something followed by Joy spelling it out for the audience anyway, like Evelyn clearly using a specific power for a specific, easily understood reason followed by the movie blasting the easy, understood reason across the screen as if a focus tester complained that they didn't get something and so, instead of having confidence in a re-watch fixing that viewer right up, the movie is dumbed down just an inch. And continuing with the small things, it's such a pussy move to censor that dude's dick once his drawers go down, ready to fight. I had to pull up what the film was rated, and it's fucking R! Have some balls (I know). Soundtrack's snoozily done by SON LUX, by the way. no surprise there.

EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE AT THE END OF TIME bolsters a strong plot--near ironclad, even. It's confusing in a sense that there are multiple gears involved that don't all quite get greased and move at first, but soon they start their spin and you're tuned right into what's going on. And even if you still don't really, it's not a big deal because the important bits are what all the insanity is emphasizing--character to character, character to self, and a strong cast, neither Evelyn or her husband slouching.

But the film also features Joy. And it's centered quite around Joy just as much as it is our main protagonist mom. And the deal with Joy is she's really a boring, awful character to have on screen. When she's there as Joy the Teenager, her traits seem to be not much more than having angst and being gay. Is that actually all there is to this character? Does she have any hobbies? Does she ever do things with the mom that aren't laundromat maintenance? It's rough that there aren't near as many scenes fleshing out the daughter's relationship with her mom and grandfather like there are for the daughter and dad, because those sorts of scenes would've, well, made her a character. The problem gets worse with Joy the God, tapped into the universes--she is RICK AND fucking MORTY. And i'm not even buzzwording you, the WIKIPEDIA page for this movie actually cites EVERYTHING EVERYTHING GET TO HEAVEN's influence as the same ADULT SWIM show. And it shows. They claimed not wanting their approach to nihilism to be eye roll-y per an interview, but mission failed. For God's sake, if you're not the kind of person to roll your eyes watching RICK AND MORTY, I don't think you're even allowed to see R rated films unaccompanied.