Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022) I promise you I will not, under any circumstances, spend a lot of time describing this movie in detail.....
Except to maybe mention the hot dog fingers scenes, which everyone likes to throw in to their blogs for some quick chuckles. Who am I to rise above that? No getting around it, hot dog fingers are ****in' hilarious.....
That's enough detail for now. After all, you can jump on Google and read 10 million reviews, overviews and random articles about this movie.......(that's what happens when a film comes along and floods the pop culture zeitgeist like a tsunami.....)
Here's what I do want to talk about....the subtitle of this post.....will we live to regret awarding this....
Well? Will we?
Let's time travel back a few years to some past Oscar races and awards season favorites.....
Particularly the ones that brought us to a re-evaluation and new perspectives.......or to put it bluntly.....WHAT THE HELL WERE WE THINKING? WHAT THE HELL WAS ANYBODY THINKING GIVING THIS LAME-ASS MOVIE SO MANY AWARDS? DID WE ALL GO TEMPORARILY INSANE?
Random example # 1: The Artist (2011) Remember this cutsie-wootsie little black-and-white French silent film? It arrived like a tiny adorable French poodle that we all couldn't wait to cuddle....12 years later, does a single soul remember this movie? Or ever watch it again? Of why anybody thought it was worthy of Best Picture Of The Year?
Random example # 2: Life Is Beautiful (1997) Even as this maudlin, Holocaust comedy-drama reaped its undeserved awards, deep down, we all knew better didn't we? Even as the film seized public attention, we all felt guilty beholding the dumb, unfunny public antics of its director and star, the yapping little troll Roberto Benigni. And again I ask, is there anyone who holds even a shred of memory about this movie? Didn't think so.
\ Random Examples # 3 & # 4 - Shakespeare In Love (1998) and The King's Speech (2010) Even though they've blocked it from their collective memories, let us remember when the film community worshipped, bowed before and otherwise smooched the massive ass of Harvey Weinstein. Only Jabba The Weinstein's overwhelming influence and power could propel his culture-vulture, pseudo arthouse movies past their far better competitors. Years later, non-person Harvey rots in jail while his Best Picture Oscar winners......uh.....what were they again?
I could go on and on with these examples, but I think you get the idea........
Which begs the question......is way too much praise (and various statuettes) being lavished on "Everything Everywhere All At Once?" A decade of so from now, will film pundit and moviegoers shake their head in shared disbelief at the accolades afforded this movie? Will we all sigh together, muttering "what the hell were we thinking?" under our breath?
At the risk of hating myself in ten years or so, here's the immediate BQ review as of right this very minute in time, in March of 2023.
Yes, like many who've seen it, I'm in awe of the film's imagination and audacity of its visual presentation. No question.....it's a sight to behold and quite unlike anything that's come before it. Film directors have tried every so often to create a movie existing as a white hot fever dream.....but it's a feat rarely pulled off.
On the downside, the 'Daniels' (Kwan and Scheinert), don't know when to stop. In their efforts to beat you over the head with their brilliance, they render their film tiresome.....repetitive.....exhausting to sit through.
Boring. That's right, boring. I've watched the film twice now and both times its overall effect wore me out, simply exhausted me. I struggled to keep from dozing.....
And let me say it now......everybody stop with the multiverses. They're toxic.......just look at how they've turned the Marvel movies into laborious, unwatchable gibberish.
I'm perfectly fine with the actors though. Michelle Yeoh more than earned all the awards she's collecting. As superb as Cate Blanchett is, she couldn't possibly pull off Yeoh's work here....a performance brilliant in both emotion and physicality. And I've no real problem with Ke Huy Quan and Jamie Lee Curtis nailing the supporting role Oscars.
(And bless this movie for giving the immortal icon James Hong his (I kid you not) his Four Hundred and Fifty First acting credit.....)
But the film itself? Dazzling....infuriating.....all at once. So we're back to the key question. Will EEAAO stand the test of time if it walks away with Best Picture Of The Year? Years from now, will we still fondly hold it in esteem, come back to it for repeated viewings and let it take a still honored place among Oscar winners like "The Godfather", "Silence Of The Lambs" and "Titanic"?
Or will we all scratch our heads, pondering "we thought that was a Best Picture?"
You tell me. For right now and for all the good ,bad and ugly in the film 2 & 1.2 stars (**1.2)
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