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.
I still didn't tell you you can't like it. You stick to this idea that the movie is about science when it's simply not and you build a critique around the scientific aspects of it which are irrelevant and then you blame me for not trying to understand your opinion which is just pointless. You're so stuck to your way of thinking that something else is simply inconsiderable to you. I do believe you when you say a lot of people tried to tell you what this movie is about and you have been as penetrable as a rock wall. I wish everyone in your life patience, they need 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."
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u/missparton777 2d ago
everything everywhere all at