geezer cinema: everything everywhere all at once (dan kwan and daniel scheinert, 2022)

This movie was my choice for our weekly Geezer Cinema, but it was my wife who said it all afterwards when she posted on Facebook, "Very excellent movie."

I had never seen a movie by "Daniels" ... well, I guess there was only one other one, Swiss Army Man. So I had no expectations on that front. Ah, but Michelle Yeoh ... I've seen a lot of her movies (at least 15). I love her. She is reason enough to see Everything Everywhere All at Once. Which Daniels understands ... they worked hard to get her in the film, and rewrote parts to fit her once she signed on.

Michelle Yeoh is impossible to classify, because she does everything. She trained in ballet growing up, and she has used that training in her film work, most notably in martial arts movies. She was Miss Malaysia, which got the attention of producers. She co-starred with Cynthia Rothrock in Yes Madam, was the equal of Jackie Chan in Police Story 3, played Invisible Woman in the Heroic Trio films, and was the lead in Wing Chun. Then she played one of the greatest of "Bond Girls" in Tomorrow Never Dies, and exploded through any other barriers that might still have existed in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. She has been in Marvel Universe movies, played a Nobel laureate in The Lady, and was a key character in the box-office smash Crazy Rich Asians.

The title of this film represents truth in advertising: it really features everything everywhere all at once. It's rather remarkable how un-confusing it all is, but somehow it works. Butt plugs are used in a hilarious way. And it's hard to think of another actor who could pull off all the versions of Evelyn Wang, Yeoh's character in the movie. The film takes place in parallel universes; Evelyn has different skills in each universe, all of which fall into the category of "wouldn't it be great if Michelle Yeoh played this character?"

Yeoh isn't the whole show. The cast is full of interesting choices. There's Ke Huy Quan, who was in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and The Goonies as a teenager in the mid-80s, then worked a long time as a stunt coordinator. Now he's playing Michelle Yeoh's husband. There's emerging star Stephanie Hsu as Evelyn's daughter, and the legendary James Hong, 93 years old, as Evelyn's dad. Jamie Lee Curtis is a bad guy (an IRS inspector), and she has great fun with her part. And the wonderful Jenny Slate (Obvious Child) digs into her character whose only name we learn is "Big Nose".

But really, my wife had the tl;dr: Very excellent movie.