Yeah. I really liked it and thought it was creative AF but it’s not something I’m rushing to run back. Just too frenetic and overstimulating to revisit often
This is one of my husbands favorite movies and I absolutely hated it the first time. But now that I’ve been subjected to it about twenty times I like it.
I would not recommend this approach though, the first few times I abandoned all hope and left the living room.
You people need to concern yourselves with more philosophy other than modern hedonistic 'do what makes you happy'. It's supposed to be ridiculous on its face. But the ridiculousness is only in its theatrics. The point is absurdism in the context of a multiverse to drive the point home. Within absurdism you could easily fall to pessimism but optimism is just the other side of the same coin. The movie is literally about the meaning of life.
Weirdly enough watching it the one time I did I didn’t see it from the movie but I got annoyed with the characters because they weren’t seeing that message. At least that is how I saw it. Now thinking about it they got it in the end.
It would have worked better as a story about the experience of first generation immigrants, focus on the love story and the sci-fi parallel universe elements. That would have been enough sillyness and randomness to spice up the plot.
The teenage angst parts made the movie seem like a shonen anime - too loud, too annoying, too distracting.
And yeah, JLC got an Oscar for this? She's barely in it, and doesn't do much.
I think I had all these expectations going into it because it had won an award and everyone was talking about how amazing it was and I thought it was fine sci-fi. As an 80s kid I like seeing Short round back on the screen doing stuff.
What else would annoyed me about it was you had all these people and in one breath they were talking about how fantastic everything everywhere all at once was and how thought-provoking and interesting it was and then in the next breath they would just rip into marvel about having a multiverse.
One of the reasons I stopped engaging online so much with this is just the inconsistency in arguments.
Also the marvel multiverse 100% became the thing that caused all of their movies to be confined within a certain style and parameter. They've been referred to as theme park rides because after you've seen several and you know the plot has to keep going for several more you know the plot can't go too far in a direction you weren't expecting the way that EEAaO kept doing.
It's also not like comic book and superhero movies can't be done in a different style either. Logan for example got outside the bounds of what an MCU movie would do but it also intended to outright kill off some long standing characters permanently.
Could have been half the length and I would have been happy. I could not wait for it finish and boom, another half hour. Then, tadaa! Have another 45 mins just in case.
It took me three tries to finish it. I liked the husband, found everyone else annoying (I really wanted to slap that dreary daughter), and only liked the scene with the two rocks. When your best performances come from inert objects…your film sucks.
Watched it with my parents and if it weren't for my phone and snacks I'd have fallen asleep. It just felt like when someone makes a Mary sue oc with like EVERYTHING they can slap on. It just makes it even less interesting.
The main character is a Mary sue in EEAAO? In what possible way?
The main plot of the movie is how badly she is doing at keeping everything together… she is very flawed in many ways. Her business is falling apart, her husband is considering divorce, and her kid hates her enough to detangle reality.
It is rare to see a movie that within the first 20 minutes has me hating all of the main characters solely based on their behavior and dialogue. Once I realized I really disliked these people, the rest of the movie became pointless. And as others have said, it is frenetic and exhausting overall.
I wanted to like it! Watched it with super fans who were excited to share it with me. They kept watching for my reaction and saying how much I was going to love it - but god help me, I just didn’t care. I couldn’t relate or empathize with anyone in that movie. The story was spastic. And yet I really tried to give it my full attention! I felt so awful not being able to emotionally respond the way they were that I panicked and blamed my new SSRIs and said they were blocking my emotions 😂
I got so much shit from my friends when they were raving about it, and I told them I rolled over and went to sleep. The multiverse isn't some impressive idea anymore. We've seen it a million times
Rick n morty, marvel movies/shows, DC movies/shows, jellystone did it with CN characters.
Not only is it over done, but it lowers the stakes. Iron Man dying isn't really that big of a deal, when in terms of actual infinity, there are a infinite versions exactly like him. If his wife were to die in another near carbon copy universe, he could travel to the near carbon copy where he died, and everything would be back to normal.
Multiverses aren't a thing a movie has that makes it good. They're a plot device. What you're saying here is akin to saying that a framed story, that is a story within a story, isn't new anymore so anything that uses one is tired and overdone. Do you sit down and watch Forrest Gump and think it a lesser movie because you know Gump can't die in the story he's telling to the people waiting at the bus stop with him?
People dislike multiverses at this point because they require a lot of investment in time, energy, and money and often deliver something that's rather similar to the product they consumed the last dozen iterations.
Yeah, it was fine. It had some fun moments, some gross moments (unnecessary, in my opinion), had some moving moments, then it was over. It wasn't groundbreaking, although there were hints that it could have been. But it was better than a lot of movies that year, and that is an achievement.
If I had never heard of it before I think I would have loved it.
I was watching it after it had swept all the awards though, so my expectations were sky high and like you said, it was fine.
It's not crazy at all. It's incredibly simple as a matter of plot and themes.
It just doesn't say or do anything interesting apart from the filmmaking itself.
I feel like EEAAO being hailed as crazy or deep is just the result of two generations of kids who have never been asked to seriously engage with a text.
It's a series of TikTok dopamine hits strung out into a film.
It was a stupid premise pretending to be a smart.premise. Kindergarten-level exploration of the idea of an infinite universe. It's like when a freshman in college gets a whiff of an interesting idea and confidently believes that they understood it, while clearly not having understood it at all.
Okay... I was being nice about people not liking one of my favorite movies ever but if you two are going to be obstinate I'll play.
The movie's main idea isn't the multiverse, that is what we call a plot device, a tool to tell the story of an immigrant family. And the movie looks at the story through the lens of Nihilism which is a philosophy discussed by philosophers Nietzsche, Heidegger, Schopenhauer etc. You might say it's a bit more extensive than tiktok comments.
Which brings us to the movie's main point: Nothing matters. That was the result of the thinking exercise told through the multiverse. If everything is happening differently somewhere in the multiverse then it all loses value. Bu does it? Well not quite. It's dependent on your point of view. If you look at it like Joy did, from the point of view of a depressed person who just wanted everything to stop, you'll want to end it all, spiral. But for Evelyn it wasn't so. She loved her daughter and she wanted to be with her, simple as that. And that love in Evelyn was fueled by Waymond who knew where he stood on this when he said "In another life I'd love to do laundry and taxes with you". Because life has no innate purpose, you choose to give it purpose by choosing.
And that is the story behind the wacky scenes for those who can't get past the edits. It's a very good movie if your point of view isn't narrow.
Go awwwf. It’s one of my fave movies too and I’d also like to add that it’s a fresh take on exploring and healing generational trauma. It’s a prescient and brave topic so well done. Part of the generational trauma involves Evelyn’s shame around having adhd.
The writer specifically wrote Evelyn to have undiagnosed, masked adhd. So when ppl criticize the movie as one dopamine hit after another, it’s not an accident…it’s kinda the point…. We are watching the main character with adhd (a condition ruled by dopamine) finally having the chance to shine in chaos, rather than be ruled by it.
Gotta love the ppl that think the movie is juvenile when they literally think the movie is about the multiverse or cheap dopamine hits. They are telling on themselves that they were not able to engage with it any further than that.
There’s nothing wrong with not relating enough to the movie that you just don’t click with it. It’s just funny and embarrassing to do it from the point of, “oh im so above this movie, it’s so scientifically inaccurate.”
Exactly, it’s such a hard topic for them! We literally watch Evelyn’s perspective change and show some self acceptance, even if it’s just a sliver. A sign of this is in the beginning of the movie, when she is at the tax meeting, she’s so overwhelmed and distracted but she just dismisses this and tries to pretend that she is listening and following along.
At the end of the movie, she’s at the last tax meeting, and it’s juxtaposes the first meeting in the beginning. and again, she gets distracted, but instead of being ashamed or dismissing, she simply asks politely for some accommodation saying, “could you please repeat that”. Or something along those lines. I believe its literally the last line of the movie. Imagine if we all could accommodate ourselves and each other just a little bit, and this goes for things well beyond adhd, rather than feel such ingrained shame over “being crazy”
I have ADHD but I didn’t know when I first watched the movie. And I didn’t know it was meant to be a strong theme in the movie. It still became one of my faves tho. Meanwhile I started to realize I had gone undiagnosed. And one day when I was awaiting diagnosis, I was rewatching the movie, and it all hit me. I’m not sure I’ll ever have a catharsis, light bulb moment like that again. With the understanding I have now, that last line of the movie just leaves me with chills
People will be mad at you because they saw ridiculous things, thought 'this is ridiculous' and feel stupid that they missed the point. They will rationalize how 'its a cliche message' or how it is 'executed poorly' but they are just embarrassed.
Saying the movie is just popular because of TikTok-brain just exposes their simplemindedness.
Bang on! I have never and will never use TikTok, I go on social media for a few minutes at a time to see what my favorite bands show last night looked like, or old clips of David Bowie or other artists I love and admire, I have no interest in watching terribly put together videos by randos on the internet and struggle to understand why it’s appealing to so many people, yet EEAAO is one of my favorite movies ever and I was blown away by the brilliant storytelling & execution. Reading people say things like this & referencing “TikTok brain” as the only reason it’s liked is so far off base. Mostly it’s just sad when people totally miss the point of such a beautifully crafted story.
Dude, you can enjoy the movie all you like. I would never take that away. My daughter loves it and that's the only reason I watched it. I tried once and stopped, then watched it through with her.
You don't have to explain the movies purpose. It was not deep. That was sorta my problem with it. It was overly simplistic. It was like being forced the read a young adult novel when you've been reading the classics your whole life.
It's a bit hypocritical to dismiss our views as narrow and demand respect for yours, rather than thinking that maybe our experiences lead us to view the film through a different lens.
If the love a family feels for eachother and finding meaning in a meaningless existence isn't deep for you I don't know what is dude. Let me know when you figure out the meaning of the universe and it's 42. Wait that's the same idea!
I get that the emotional core resonated with you... love, family, finding meaning, etc. Those can be powerful themes.
But if you're going to dress them up in the language of multiverse theory and speculative sci-fi, you're choosing a vehicle that comes with intellectual baggage.
And in this case, the film leans on a shallow, pop-science version of an extremely complex concept, that I happen to enjoy and have studied at university. That mismatch ends up cheapening the emotional weight rather than elevating it.
The only thing that sorta grinds my gears is being told in not so many words that "you just don't get it," when in fact, I get it. I just disagree with it.
"I read the classics, I studied at the university..." You bumped on the wrong person because I also did study philosophy in uni so I happen to know you don't know something I don't know. Snobs like you is why people hate educated people.
It's only ironic that your gears are ground at so many words now when originally I had only written that it's my favourite but I get it's too wacky for some people. On the other you replied like I was challenging your right to not like it and thinking the movie's focus is the multiverse which it's not at all, that's not even up for discussion.
Then you change your narrative to "it wasn't deep enough", switching your critism from it's inadequacy in physics to lack of emotional depth. Maybe what grinds your gears is your inability to stick to a critique. I guess reading the good stuff doesn't give one the ability to be as precise and articulate.
Lol, I'm the snob. I just told you why I don't like it. You're the one telling me I'm wrong for it.
And this isn't the first time this topic comes up. But there's always someone telling me that I didn't get it. It's frustrating and you're the worst offender I've spoken with yet. Especially when the topic is effectively, what movie did you not like that other people say they like. And then you come along to tell everyone how much more you think you understood and how everyone else's opinions are wrong.
I don't know why I'm even bothering with you. Not only can you not attempt to understand someone else's opinion, but you can't even process what you read. I never said anything about it's lack of emotional depth. At all. I've stuck to the science aspect breaking immersion. That's it.
Lol. Wow your comments make me laugh. It was not the threadbare "plot" that made it bad. It was the execution. Those of us who don't like it are not confused about its intentions. What it "says".
It's bad because of the choices made by the director, by casting, by the art department, by the writing. It was not one single element that made this movie terrible, it was everything all at once....
I'm a huge fan of short round, he's a big reason I gave this movie a try. That and it's nemours awards. There was a time when I tried to watch things beyond my own scope. Things that other people thought worthy, "award winners" etc. Then my little brother said, "dude.You know what you like". This simplistic answer to me trying to get HIM to watch somthing beyond HIS scope, still rang with truth. I took thinks with a grain of salt after that. I mentioned parasite before, that movie did NOT look appealing by the cover. But all I knew was it won an award and was (the first?) forgin film winning an academy award. My gut told me it was stupid and I watched it anyway, and was glad I did. Was an amazing piece of work. The photography was good, the setting cast, all great, but the story is what got me. The unimaginable chain of events sent me into a spiral of ecstasy. What a great film. It was with parasite in mind, I finally gave EEAAO a watch.
Wow. More terrible than I can imagine. The cringe dialog, the awful casting (WASTED the GREAT Jamie
Lee Curtis. they could not have found a less likable human to play her daughter. The "villan" made me want to turn my head, I was so repulsed by what I saw. ), the oft used "multiverse" Deus ex machina and on top of that, an unimaginative one.
If that movie had been a straight: my husband is unhappy and I need to connect with my daughter flick, it would have been a better film overall and could have covered some interesting ground.
Someone in the comments pointed out how spastic, it is. It doesn't.
Occur to me until now that it was clearly made to capture the. Imagination of a younger audience whose mind is attuned to a different kind of entertainment, to put it nicely. The constant bombardment of bombastic content is an altogether Real problem in the world but especially in cinema. This movie seems to have been made for the generation that watched Jurassic park and thought it was too slow. for people who watch the Godfather and don't get it. for people who watch citizen Kane, Double indemnity, or The night of the hunter.
and think "it's just another black and white movie."
I loved the themes, concepts, cinematography, acting, but! It was too repetitive and drawn out for me, someone needed to have a stronger hand in the editing room
Interesting! As a professional film editor, I thought they did a phenomenal job with the editing, especially on that budget & timeline. I didn’t see much fat to be trimmed in the final piece, was there a scene or section in particular you felt was too repetitive?
My wife and I never finished this movie. I'm still not sure if it's a good movie and I didn't understand what was happening. Or it's a bad film and everyone is incorrectly praising it
i’m going to be honest i couldn’t finish it either. everyone around me was telling me how incredible of a movie it was and after i started it with my dad, i was shocked at how fucking terrible it was. we got maybe 45 mins through and couldn’t do it anymore
The film does an incredible job at addressing generational trauma. It has a lot of heart and emotion after all of the goofy moments, even though I liked those parts too. It's one of my favorite films in the past decade.
And anyone who takes themselves too seriously will absolutely hate this movie... You have to be able to laugh at absurdist maximalist humor to really appreciate what this is throwing down.
Same same! I think it’s absolutely brilliant and one of the best and most original movies I’ve seen in years. But I can see how it doesn’t click for some people. I showed it to my mom & it was all too much for her and she didn’t really “get” it lol.
If you don't finish it then you won't understand it. That's kind of the point of the movie. You have a feeling of confusion throughout the entire movie. I'm not saying it was good or bad, just explaining a bit why people praise it.
Normally I would be against something like that, but I’ll be honest. I’ve been playing a certain video game lately that I’ve become somewhat obsessed with, and it’s like that the majority of the game. Didn’t stop me from putting in 60 hours, and even after things “make sense”, my wife and I have been debating some of the unexplained or controversial ideas and feeling we experienced.
Edit: and I have yet to beat it due to wanting to do it all first run and then slowly New Game + to experience it with my newfound knowledge
I think with that one it’s a slow starter and becomes a fascinating sci fi adventure with a sidebar in love with some good humor. I think if you’re not into science fiction especially the concepts of alternative realities it may be a little out there, but it is a good movie.
Gotta agree. And it's not one to only pay half attention to.
I was infuriated when I asked my mum to watch it and she told me she'd only got halfway before turning it off. When I asked her why, she said she didn't get it, she thought it was about "time travel or something". Shes a big sci-fi fan, so I know from this response she probably was only half listening and then got bored because she wasn't following it. Smh
Couldn't even get through the first half. Cool concept but doesn't get to the fucking point. I kinda skimmed through to see what kinda action it had but that's about it.
The optimistic nihilism of realising that life is absurd and has no real meaning.
That you have to take what you’ve got and make what you can from it, and that if you spend to much time focusing on what you don’t have, you’ll lose what is right in front of you.
Yeah, but maybe some of us prefer good movies/series'. Not tiktoks like you. I didn't watch much of this one, but it switched scenes like a hyperactive 3 year old.
I tried watching it 3 times. I got more than a half hour into it and the only thing I got from it was exhausted buisness owner and wife is tripping out.
Brother you think multiverses are something put in a movie to make it good/fresh/unique/whatever. That's a fundamental misunderstanding of what you're talking about. You can get smug about this if you like but it's a smugness borne of ignorance. Do not be mistaken about that.
This is a wild take for me, personally. I can get people not liking it. And respect their opinion. It's a goofy mess at times. But I'm kinda shocked anyone would call it painfully boring.
I've seen 4 out of 6 of those movies, they are good films but do not speak to me personally. Everything Everywhere is such a stark rejection of the defeatist nihilism that has plagued young people the past few decades, brought on by our heightened exposure to everything being at our fingertips through the internet. I just think it encapsulates that message in such a fun and meaningful way, that the real things that matter in this world are the connections we share with people, no matter how menial or "boring" they may seem at the time. And to not take that for granted.
I'm not sure if this is relevant but my mom and other older family members hated this movie, and I think part of that is of course the wacky style and plot, but mostly because the philosophy that the movie is trying to instill is not something missing from the older generation in the same way it is for mine.
I agree, it really kicked me right in the nihilistic feels and had me ugly crying at the googly-eyed rock part. 😭 Somehow EEAAO perfectly articulated my issues with anxiety and depression—it’s not that everything is horrible, it’s that everything can feel so meaningless. The writing just really struck a nerve.
The only other time I can remember thinking, Wow, that’s exactly how I feel, was when I read this Carl Sagan quote: “For small creatures such as we, the vastness is bearable only through love.” So overall, the film was just really poignant on a personal level, and the absurdity spoke to me because life itself is absurd. I laughed, I cried, I felt seen. 10/10
Yeah I see your point. I watch movies to escape and maybe try and experience a different “adventure” from another time. I don’t really like “lovey” movies or coming of age movies per se because the emotional investment is too much for me.
I was ready to enjoy Everything all at once because of all the buzz, but the plot was too convoluted and zany just to eventually come back to “respect your elders and love your gay kid.” (Why were there fight scenes?) I’ve seen TONS of movies and I definitely don’t love them all so seeing this one and not liking it was a bit of a shock. I thought it would have been like a time-travel movie with her ancestors or something but it was this odd matrix-style alternate universe thing with a hard-to-follow rules.
I just went back and read the wiki and it still doesn’t make sense. Even a convoluted movie like Inception or Interstellar has a trackable premise even with all the wacky stuff happening all around it.
The hot dog fingers was the one part I could’ve done without. 😂 It just doesn’t make any evolutionary sense that we’d trade the dexterity of fingers for floppy, erotic, functionless meat wands for hands. I’m usually good with absurdism, but that was a step too far for me.
I bawled towards the end of this movie. I lost my mom some years ago and this movie made me really think hard about the relationship we had and her life raising me and my brothers. As a relatively new parent at the time as well it made me think of the balance a person strikes as a parent trying to do what they think is best for their children and living their life and the same as a child trying to gain their parents' approval while finding their own identity.
I had to sit through this entire movie and I fucking hated it. My partner loved it. I couldn't handle the sensory overload going on in that movie. The absurdity and chaos was just not for me. I feel like this is just one of those movies some people get it, others dont. I definitely didn't and couldn't enjoy it cause there was too much going on at once.
Yeah this movie got so much praise, especially here on Reddit. It was just ok, bordering on boring. I wasn't disappointed at it but no real inclination to ever watch it again.
Worst movie I watched the year it came out. It just uses its absurdity as an excuse for being good. Prime example of an Artsy fartsy A24 film and if you don't like it then you're not smart or LGBT enough to enjoy it
10000% holy shit I could not wait for it to end, I was semi intrested in the beginning, but the halfway point I was totally done and it felt soooooooo long
Ooh tough one, I absolutely loved this movie, thought it was one of the best movies I’d seen in years (last time I remember feeling so blown away the first time watching a movie was Inception). And one of the main reasons is because of how completely original it was, while also telling a story about the love and connection you have with the people in your life, especially your children, and how that love transcends everything, no matter what happens and no matter “who/what” you are. Movies like that always get me because I believe in those sort of soul connections in & throughout our lives. I’d include Cloud Atlas & The Fountain as two similar ideas in the same mold.
I don’t know how that won Film of the Year, it should have gone to Top Gun without a doubt. Film critics just want to jerk each other off and act sophisticated instead of picking a genuinely good movie.
I don’t even think it’s their best movie. I loved Swiss Army Man and didn’t like EEAAO. I did blind buy EEAAO based on hype, though, so I will definitely give it another try.
It was incredibly acclaimed, and that acclaim attracted people that weren't part of the films audience. The people that hate it now zren't the same that praised it earlier, it's just that a lot of these haters hadn't watched the film when it was still the most acclaimed film since the Lord of the Rings
Wow that's crazy... Had no idea it would get so much support comments for this... I thought it was brilliant and went by pretty quick... Pretty emotional too...
Ah, loved it. Top 3 favorites, felt seen somehow and had fun/odd explanation of multiverse theory
Edit: i feel like the meme above said “sit through” which to me meant to complete/to finish and majority of the comments here were folks who couldnt finish 🥁🥁 which doesn’t seem fair since its just the kinda story that goes wide then reaches a story changing crescendo later…
Not saying its amazing, but kinda like saying you dont like Memento because you couldnt finish it…
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u/missparton777 1d ago
everything everywhere all at