Everything everywhere all at once: the 10 cult moments from the multiverse

Some bets are risky, others downright unlikely. The film Everything everywhere all at once directed by the Daniels goes further, indeed it is a category of its own because brings the surreality of a project to unimaginable levels. However, some crowds – including the I Wonder Pictures distribution in Italy – believed in it, saw something unique and indecipherable and focused on history. Result? It has become the case with the movie seasonwith a rain of prizes already won and 11 Oscar nominations. The number of applications, to give an idea of ​​the enormity of the figure, is the same as West Side Story, The Godfather – part II And Save Private Ryan.

The premises of the story are rather ordinary: A family struggles to make ends meet at the laundromat and runs into stringent tax inspections. To this social commentary is added the coming of age side: the teenage daughter introduces her girlfriend at home. The socio-cultural context immediately takes over: the story is set in the United States but the protagonists are of Chinese origins, with different customs and traditions. The pressure seems to skyrocket and the marriage is about to fall apart. One would think: If only there was an alternate reality, things could be different.

To be really picky, the protagonist Evelyn (Michelle Yeoh) just doesn’t think about it, too overloaded with daily tasks while her husband Waymond (Ke Huy Quan) dances with customers and never loses his smile. Instead, just as they are about to meet tax collector Deirdre (Jamie Lee Curtis), all hell breaks loose and multiverses cascade upon multiverses. Other than Marvel, events become so extreme that they make one’s head spin and get lost. There is too much (?) of everything, like an all you can eat of all the cuisines of the world concentrated in a single meal. To get to the end you need a lot of resistancebut it’s worth it, if only for these ten epic moments.

1. Plastic eyes

Waymond glues plastic eyes almost everywhere, from bags with customers’ clothes in the laundry room to baseball bats. They inspire joy in him. As events unfold they become a bizarre symbol to be claimed with nerd pride.

2. The Lethal Pouch

Always him, Waymond (a kind of slightly naive Pollyanna), in another universe manages to transform even a very sad leather fanny pack with a pink stuffed animal into a lethal weapon. It’s already iconic!

3. Hands-wurstel

The multiverse in which humans have frankfurters/hot dogs instead of hands is objectively one of the funniest: sure, performing a series of daily actions is practically a contortionist’s feat, but the effect is hilarious.

4. The killer stapler

Deirdre suffers from the syndrome of every petty employee being harassed by the boss, who regularly takes it out on the weakest. In this case, of course, the Wang family becomes the sacrificial victim of her frustration. But when Evelyn unexpectedly reacts, the lady goes haywire using the stapler in a decidedly improper way. Here, too, surreality is largely outdated.

5. Life-saving whistling

At some point you lose count of the various multiverses and the weirder the situation becomes the easier it is to jump from one to another. At one point Evelyn invents a new language by whistling. Why not?

6. Dildo guns

Joy (Stephanie Hsu), the couple’s teenage daughter, takes the concept of puberty to levels never seen or imagined, going from mean girls to Kill Bill in the blink of an eye. And yes, turning guns into dildos with which to beat the police.

7. The boomerang pomeranian

Any animate or inanimate creature in the film becomes a potential weapon, even a Pomeranian. With all due respect to animal rights activists, who are probably already well beyond the suspension of credulity.

8. DIY Warrior

In the reality in which the public knows Evelyn we are faced with a middle-aged woman devoted to duty, precise to the point of fussiness, almost with the weight of the world on her shoulders: surrounded by people, yet alone. She feels she’s not enough, but when she unleashes her potential she becomes unstoppable in every shade of extravagance.

9. False starts

Someone who takes a sneaker out of the washing machine drum and throws it at the customer for breaking laundry rules is hardly the kind of woman you want as an enemy. But perhaps she is her own worst enemy. At least in this universe, which she seems the most ordinary, but only in appearance.

10. The non-end

There is a version of Evelyn who is rich, famous and idolized by the public. In one of the multiverses she’s a movie star (an omen of what’s happening these months with her playing her?) And this seems like the happy ending she deserves. Don’t believe it, not even for a second: the best is yet to come.

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