“Everything Everywhere All at Once” parachutes into the Martha’s Vineyard Film Center on the day of Good Friday and Passover, April 15. This wacko movie is said to land as an explosive mix of sci-fi, fantasy, and comedy. Directed by Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, known collectively as Daniels, the film stars Michelle Yeoh as Evelyn Wang, who runs a Southern California laundromat with her putatively henpecked husband Waymond, played by Ke Huy Quan, who is getting ready to divorce his wife.
Malaysian native Yeoh, best known for “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”’ and, more recently, “Crazy Rich Asians,” is said to give a tour-de-force performance as Evelyn. Vietnamese native Quan built his reputation as a child actor in “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.” Others in this family-grounded film include Evelyn and Waymond’s daughter, Joy (Stephanie Hsu), and Evelyn’s father, Gong Gong (James Hong). Joy, a college dropout with a girlfriend, explores a contentious relationship with her mother. Gong has arrived from China for the Wangs’ Chinese New Year’s party, and Evelyn is reluctant to let Gong know Joy is gay. In the meantime, the Wangs’ laundromat is being audited by IRS bureaucrat Deirdre Beaubeirdra (described as an entertaining Jamie Lee Curtis).
The rest of the film goes from a conventional plot into a haywire sci-fi comedy of multiple universes with hotdog fingers, piano playing with one’s feet, a piñata at a children’s birthday party, and a giant bagel as the Hitchcockian MacGuffin. For starters, Waymond turns into a sci-fi action fighter.
Evelyn finds herself entering a multi-universe with wireless earpieces to combat the evil, power-mad fiend Jobu Tupaki (played by Hsu), as the only one able to do it. There’s a question of whether linear time even exists for them anymore, as Evelyn bounces from one surreal universe to the next, depending on the choices she’s made. In one, she has become a kung fu action star; in another, she roller-coasters into a knife-wielding hibachi chef. Or she may be a rock that talks to another rock.
As Vanity Fair critic Maureen Ryan says about meaning, truth, grace, or love, “This movie uses absurdity to explore those ideas … But when it’s on its A game — and with this cast, it often is — it’s anything but grim.” This reviewer hasn’t been able to see it yet, but is certainly looking forward to it.
Information and tickets for “Everything Everywhere All at Once” are available at mvfilmsociety.com. Information about films playing at Edgartown Cinemas is available at entertainmentcinemas.com/locations/edgartown.