Quartile rating: 8.5/10 · 6 ratings
An aging Chinese immigrant is swept up in an insane adventure, where she alone can save what's important to her by connecting with the lives she could have led in other universes.
Everything Everywhere All at Once is a genuinely singular film — its multiverse-as-emotional-metaphor conceit, blending absurdist comedy, martial arts, generational trauma, and existential philosophy into a coherent whole is unlike anything else. Plot earns a 4 for its inventive, layered structure that actually pays off thematically. Acting is exceptional across the board, with Michelle Yeoh and Ke Huy Quan delivering career-best work and Jamie Lee Curtis transforming completely. Novelty is a clear 4 — the Daniels have a wholly distinctive voice and no film quite operates the same way. Cinematography is competent and purposeful but deliberately chaotic and lo-fi in places, landing above average but not truly exceptional. The ending, while emotionally resonant and earned, leans into a somewhat conventional reconciliation arc that softens the more radical nihilistic challenge the film poses — satisfying but slightly predictable in its warmth.