Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022)

An aging Chinese immigrant is swept up in an insane adventure, where she alone can save the world by exploring other universes connecting with the lives she could have led.This might be the most accurately titled film I have ever seen. Afterwards, my wife asked me what it reminded me of. I was stumped. What genre was it? Hard to say. This is a movie that morphs from immigrant drama to sci fi to Kung Fu to comedy to existential art flick and back again. Then it does that loop again, faster and faster and faster, without ever losing the audience. I saw it in a packed theater, everyone laughing and crying and caring. Perhaps most amazingly, this was a pretty simple and effective relationship story through it all. I don’t know if I would rather watch it again right now or watch a documentary about how the film took shape. Either way, I’m glad it exists. I lamented multiverse stories after the last MCU film, and I guess I have to take that back now. It is possible to tell wildly imaginative genre bending multiverse stories. You just don’t need superheroes to do it (unless you count the Daniels).