Everything Everywhere All at Once is a good movie and I enjoyed it. It’s inventive, often quite funny, and a great portrayal of immigrant parents and their struggle to understand their first-generation child. For me, it’s a B+, a fun and spirited romp that gets a little worse when you think about it too hard.
I disliked this movie intensely. I found it way too busy and it never really seemed to move. An incredibly claustrophobic watching experience. But I suspect part of my dislike was fed by disappointment - after the reviews I was looking forward to this a lot.
I just want to say that, without realizing this was a movie title, I was prepared to read Freddie's ultimate magnum opus when I saw the subject line in my email today.
It’s a work of essentially hypnotic fiction and it was successful in getting a certain set of overly thinky people to fall under a spell and let go. I don’t know if that’s art or therapy but it seems like success.
I personally knew I was being duped by it couldn’t resist falling into its spell and cried all the way through it.
I went with two 14 year old boys who thought it was okay, maybe twice as long as it should have been, and those YA tropes were getting really obvious by the end don’t you think yeah?
I think I enjoyed the movie marginally more than Freddie, but I agree with his thesis here. I also think the film fundamentally suffered from the heightened expectations.
There’s also a very good Michelle Yeoh performance in it, which I think elevates the material. But Yeoh is an incredible screen presence, and she’s capable of so much more. I watched Crouching Tiger last week, in which she takes a very cliche theme -- warriors who keep a calm face but beneath burn deeply for each other -- and somehow turns in a captivating performance that I couldn’t take my eyes off.
Woke people really really REALLY love this movie more than life itself. And yes, there's a lot of incredibly overbearing fans like in that tweet you shared. They're so annoying that they threaten to turn you off of the movie itself. A similar thing happened to me with Get Out.
And yet....I really like this movie a lot. Borderline love. It does a lot of fascinating things with the multiverse concept, like each universe representing a path Evelyn could have taken in life. Speaking of which, Evelyn is how you write a "strong" female character. Give her real dimensions and struggles to overcome. It's a stark contrast to the Great at Everything From the Jump characters like Rey (Star Wars) or Captain Marvel.
And believe it or not, there's a VERY anti-woke YouTube channel called The Critical Drinker, and he loved the movie too! https://youtu.be/FmnzpHu2Tjc
I liked it and found it entertaining. Honestly, just knowing her husband was Data from Goonies was enough, but it has an interesting (admittedly occasionally chaotic) storyline and I enjoyed watching it.
That said, I can understand how others might not and it is probably not for everyone.
Someone finally said it [meme from Jerry Maguire]. It was good! And ambitious and inventive and funny and largely fun to watch. Not a remake and by directors I hadn’t heard of! It had kind of schlocky ending. I was touched, but I also tear up when I watch YouTube clips of October Sky. Definitely too long. B+
Isn't the elephant in the room that the minority representation inevitably results in grade inflation/affirmative action? If the immigrants in the film had been Polish the movie wouldn't have gotten anywhere near the attention and it wouldn't have nearly as rabid a fan base.
Thank you. The first part was so lovely and heartwarming, then it became a hot mess quickly. It held so much promise, then just failed to live up to it.
It is a B+ movie but the fact that no other blockbuster B+ movie has come out in the last couple of years is part of why people hype it up. A salad looks as tasty as a steak if all you've been eating is shit. The fact that movies in general suck now means that any movie that doesn't suck even a little will be graded on a curve and hyped to kingdom come. That and the weird internet stan stuff you touched on
I completely disagree. I mean it’s all subjective but I found it just a really affecting movie and it just hits really hard for certain people who might relate to those feelings of alienation from other people.
I don't doubt that some of the admiration of the movie is sincere. I'm equally sure that the quality of the movie is at best a secondary consideration to its cast and setting. "Representation" is just a polite way of referring to the kind of ethnic narcissism that defines conflict in a heterogeneous societies. A movie with your ethnos is an extension of yourself, so of course it must crush the opposition. Naturally as I said it helps if the movie is good. But even if it's not you can wield your identity like a club to ensure the critical consensus benefits your in-group.
People getting defensive about the above - ask yourself how much you'd disagree with this if I was talking about white bros who get mad about (for example) the female remake of Ghostbusters. That was the prevailing narrative, only it was (mostly) about gender and not race, that they boosted the original and scorned the remake because they were men who didn't want women taking "their" representation. This is what's happening here, too.
But of course you can't say that in public, that the whole tantrum here is at best tangential to any supposed objective (or even subjective!) critical take on the film, and is almost entirely driven by identity. Indeed, we have to gingerly tiptoe around the conflict and pretend not to notice it. (The climactic concert scene in Turning Red sees an intergenerational Asian squabble literally destroy a massive arena while people run around vaguely confused but ignoring the cause - an extremely revealing scene.)
As much as I love film, I just don't go to "the movies" or subscribe to streaming anymore because I'm not going to wade through this surrogate ethnic warfare and pretend it's normal. I'll stick to personal recommendations from friends and old movies.
A gender-racial spoils system masquerading as an artistic ecosystem, if you can keep it.
Edit: Freddie is fond of saying "you are not the stuff you like", and I see it in response to someone else on this thread. I'm not going to insert myself into that one-on-one discussion, but I will note it here instead. Yes, these people are the stuff they like. They are telling you that and they are perfectly clear about it. It's usually ethnic, it's sometimes gender-based, and (in one example on this page) it's generational. But they regard this movie as an extension of themselves and their own status for the simple reason that... well... it is!
I truly loved it; I actually felt it landed the point slightly more subtly that in a multiverse nothing matters, and yet it is the defiant human way to insist that it matters anyway, and that’s all we have. Excellent performances, funny throughout. Oversincere in parts? Sure, but I’m a little amused that Freddie (who has been frustrated by the constant irony backed with no substance of the media class, would “wince” at a movie which veers away from that.
This said, I’m not the sort of asshole who would shame someone for having different tastes from me.
I disliked this movie intensely. I found it way too busy and it never really seemed to move. An incredibly claustrophobic watching experience. But I suspect part of my dislike was fed by disappointment - after the reviews I was looking forward to this a lot.
I just want to say that, without realizing this was a movie title, I was prepared to read Freddie's ultimate magnum opus when I saw the subject line in my email today.
It’s a work of essentially hypnotic fiction and it was successful in getting a certain set of overly thinky people to fall under a spell and let go. I don’t know if that’s art or therapy but it seems like success.
I personally knew I was being duped by it couldn’t resist falling into its spell and cried all the way through it.
I went with two 14 year old boys who thought it was okay, maybe twice as long as it should have been, and those YA tropes were getting really obvious by the end don’t you think yeah?
I think I enjoyed the movie marginally more than Freddie, but I agree with his thesis here. I also think the film fundamentally suffered from the heightened expectations.
There’s also a very good Michelle Yeoh performance in it, which I think elevates the material. But Yeoh is an incredible screen presence, and she’s capable of so much more. I watched Crouching Tiger last week, in which she takes a very cliche theme -- warriors who keep a calm face but beneath burn deeply for each other -- and somehow turns in a captivating performance that I couldn’t take my eyes off.
Woke people really really REALLY love this movie more than life itself. And yes, there's a lot of incredibly overbearing fans like in that tweet you shared. They're so annoying that they threaten to turn you off of the movie itself. A similar thing happened to me with Get Out.
And yet....I really like this movie a lot. Borderline love. It does a lot of fascinating things with the multiverse concept, like each universe representing a path Evelyn could have taken in life. Speaking of which, Evelyn is how you write a "strong" female character. Give her real dimensions and struggles to overcome. It's a stark contrast to the Great at Everything From the Jump characters like Rey (Star Wars) or Captain Marvel.
And believe it or not, there's a VERY anti-woke YouTube channel called The Critical Drinker, and he loved the movie too! https://youtu.be/FmnzpHu2Tjc
I liked it and found it entertaining. Honestly, just knowing her husband was Data from Goonies was enough, but it has an interesting (admittedly occasionally chaotic) storyline and I enjoyed watching it.
That said, I can understand how others might not and it is probably not for everyone.
Someone finally said it [meme from Jerry Maguire]. It was good! And ambitious and inventive and funny and largely fun to watch. Not a remake and by directors I hadn’t heard of! It had kind of schlocky ending. I was touched, but I also tear up when I watch YouTube clips of October Sky. Definitely too long. B+
I'll be honest and say I was kinda hoping you'd rag on it more, because I couldn't even finish this movie length rick and morty episode
Isn't the elephant in the room that the minority representation inevitably results in grade inflation/affirmative action? If the immigrants in the film had been Polish the movie wouldn't have gotten anywhere near the attention and it wouldn't have nearly as rabid a fan base.
Thank you. The first part was so lovely and heartwarming, then it became a hot mess quickly. It held so much promise, then just failed to live up to it.
It is a B+ movie but the fact that no other blockbuster B+ movie has come out in the last couple of years is part of why people hype it up. A salad looks as tasty as a steak if all you've been eating is shit. The fact that movies in general suck now means that any movie that doesn't suck even a little will be graded on a curve and hyped to kingdom come. That and the weird internet stan stuff you touched on
I completely disagree. I mean it’s all subjective but I found it just a really affecting movie and it just hits really hard for certain people who might relate to those feelings of alienation from other people.
I don't doubt that some of the admiration of the movie is sincere. I'm equally sure that the quality of the movie is at best a secondary consideration to its cast and setting. "Representation" is just a polite way of referring to the kind of ethnic narcissism that defines conflict in a heterogeneous societies. A movie with your ethnos is an extension of yourself, so of course it must crush the opposition. Naturally as I said it helps if the movie is good. But even if it's not you can wield your identity like a club to ensure the critical consensus benefits your in-group.
People getting defensive about the above - ask yourself how much you'd disagree with this if I was talking about white bros who get mad about (for example) the female remake of Ghostbusters. That was the prevailing narrative, only it was (mostly) about gender and not race, that they boosted the original and scorned the remake because they were men who didn't want women taking "their" representation. This is what's happening here, too.
But of course you can't say that in public, that the whole tantrum here is at best tangential to any supposed objective (or even subjective!) critical take on the film, and is almost entirely driven by identity. Indeed, we have to gingerly tiptoe around the conflict and pretend not to notice it. (The climactic concert scene in Turning Red sees an intergenerational Asian squabble literally destroy a massive arena while people run around vaguely confused but ignoring the cause - an extremely revealing scene.)
As much as I love film, I just don't go to "the movies" or subscribe to streaming anymore because I'm not going to wade through this surrogate ethnic warfare and pretend it's normal. I'll stick to personal recommendations from friends and old movies.
A gender-racial spoils system masquerading as an artistic ecosystem, if you can keep it.
Edit: Freddie is fond of saying "you are not the stuff you like", and I see it in response to someone else on this thread. I'm not going to insert myself into that one-on-one discussion, but I will note it here instead. Yes, these people are the stuff they like. They are telling you that and they are perfectly clear about it. It's usually ethnic, it's sometimes gender-based, and (in one example on this page) it's generational. But they regard this movie as an extension of themselves and their own status for the simple reason that... well... it is!
I truly loved it; I actually felt it landed the point slightly more subtly that in a multiverse nothing matters, and yet it is the defiant human way to insist that it matters anyway, and that’s all we have. Excellent performances, funny throughout. Oversincere in parts? Sure, but I’m a little amused that Freddie (who has been frustrated by the constant irony backed with no substance of the media class, would “wince” at a movie which veers away from that.
This said, I’m not the sort of asshole who would shame someone for having different tastes from me.