What happens when you put everything on your hopes and dreams? When you put everything on your life? When you put everything on a bagel? Daniel Kwan’s “Everything Everywhere All at Once” was released in 2022, and these questions are frequently asked.
The viewer follows Evelyn Quan Wang, a Chinese immigrant who is a dissatisfied laundromat owner trying to keep up with bills, while accepting that her daughter is queer. The storyline also demonstrates other hardships of her life through a complex and insane adventure. She transcends to the multiverse of different possibilities of herself and her life in order to save what’s important to her, including the entire universe, from Jobu Tupaki (Joy Wang), an alternate version of her daughter, and her life-sucking “bagel.”
The story, although far-fetched and extremely ambitious, was very easy to follow along with, almost as if you were traveling through these universes with Evelyn. All of the characters are incredibly likable, and you could easily and quickly sympathize with all three main characters, including Waymond Wang (Ke Huy Quan), Evelyn’s bubbly and optimistic husband who co-owns their laundromat and sees light at the end of the tunnel. Additionally, Joy Wang/Jobu Tupaki (Stephanie Hsu), Waymond and Evelyn’s daughter feels like she can’t live up to the standards set by her mother, causing the pair to constantly bicker. Throughout the movie, these characters all have specific, but different philosophies connected to how they view their life and the overall world, making the story more valuable to how we view our own lives and experiences.
Joy/Jobu connects the most to a sense of Nihilism; nothing matters so she doesn’t need to do anything and there’s nothing here in the universe for her anymore, as if she’s tried everything, done everything, experienced everything, has put everything onto a bagel, and simply feels bored. Because of this, she builds the “bagel,” a black hole that sucks life, your sense of reality and universe, out of anyone who gets pulled into it. Waymond, however, views the world through a lens of compassion, joy, and kindness. He finds joy and life in everything, which is why throughout his home he has put up so many Googly Eyes: to bring life into the mundane. Evelyn is somewhere in the middle, connecting to Absurdism. While Nihilism and Absurdism are similar, Absurdism has a solution: acceptance.
Evelyn accepts life and the universe, leading her to go from hating Waymond’s Googly eyes to embracing them. With this sense of philosophy embedded in the plot, there’s a large amount of well thought out symbolism to go with it, with the most important pieces being the bagel and the Googly Eyes.
The bagel and Googly Eyes are complete opposites, the bagel being black with a white center, while Googly Eyes are white with a black center. Other than the opposite physical features, they both hold different meanings and causes. The bagel was made by Jobu Tupaki to suck out life from everything, while the Googly Eyes, placed onto normal day-to-day objects by Waymond, were meant to bring life to everything. The bagel shows how meaningless life is, and how it’s dull and full of suffering, while the Googly Eyes show the happiness in life, and how there’s always joy to be celebrated; suffering is only temporary. With this overall meaning of life seen throughout the plotline, there’s also these ideas of love, family, and fate.
The Wang family dynamic throughout the movie is relatable to so many different groups of people, and it accurately depicts the flawed dynamics seen in families all across the globe, and how it’s hard to live up to how your family wants you to be. However, it also shows how sometimes you can find a way to mend these relationships with your family. Family is important overall, and even in a different hypothetical universe, your family will still be your family. Found family or biological family, either way, your family is still your family, and it’s hard to change that. With this, soulmates are also a large part of the storyline.
During the movie, we find out that Waymond has plans to divorce Evelyn. Not out of a lack of love, but out of a large amount of love. He still loves Evelyn, but he finds that she doesn’t seem to know how to deal with their relationship. Because of this, she starts to think about their relationship and finds that the universe without him is better than the one with him. Inevitably, they find each other again in that universe, showing that they have a bond that constantly travels throughout the multiverse, a bond that can never break. These characters are all fated to be with each other and remain together until the end of time.
With the ambitious story and cinematography, as well as the wonderful ideas of life, family, and fate shown throughout symbolism and plotlines, “Everything Everywhere All at Once” is worth the watch. It’s guaranteed to keep you absorbed in the chaotic story, keeping you on the edge of your seat the entire time. Be prepared to laugh, cry, smile, and wonder about life and the family you were given.
Article written by Morgan Butler of Albert Einstein High School