“Verse-jumping” into an alternate life in which Evelyn and her IRS nemesis, Deirdre Beaubeirdra (Jamie Lee Curtis), are in love - and have wieners for fingers - rigid Evelyn is forced to rethink her worldview. “And when we went back into the script with that perspective, it became a way more nuanced and interesting character.” It’s just that they struggle to communicate with us,” said Scheinert. In an earlier draft, that wasn’t the case Evelyn was more close-minded and “overtly homophobic.” But that didn’t feel true to their own lives. “This is in some ways my way of saying thank you to my mom for constantly allowing space for the unexpected parts of us to exist in her worldview,” Kwan said. Seeing his own mother expand her comfort level with each phase of Kwan’s career inspired the ways in which Evelyn must continue to grow to accept the multitudes that Joy contains, including her queer identity. That resonated with Daniels as artists whose parents struggled to fully comprehend their career paths. There is a heartwrenching misunderstanding between Evelyn and Joy - and Joy’s nihilist alter ego, Jobu Tupaki, who has channeled her pain into a burning desire to implode the multiverse with a black hole everything bagel. “The fact that the parents kiss at the end is such a small gesture, but for a lot of people it was very powerful - because oftentimes our immigrant parents aren’t afforded the space to have romance or to have the ability to express themselves in that way.” Let’s do it as rocks, but silently!” Kwan said, adding that emotional feedback came from Asian American viewers after screenings. “We don’t want to say the things we actually want to say. There’s even something about Evelyn and Joy conversing as rocks overlooking the Grand Canyon that feels distinctly Asian American, he said. “The family dynamic in our film was interesting because even before we get into the multiverse, they’re already in different worlds they’re already speaking past each other,” Kwan said. The film’s mix of Cantonese, Mandarin, and blended Chinese and English may confuse some viewers, Kwan said - but it’s true to how he grew up, the son of immigrants from Taipei and Hong Kong. It wasn’t intentional, but it ended up being the perfect way to explore my parents’ story.” “So the multiverse was the perfect place for us to explore that, especially with a middle-aged immigrant person who has had a long life to look back on all their regrets. “The question of ‘what if?’ looms over anyone who has had to upend their life and move somewhere else,” Kwan said. Plus, anchoring a multiverse tale in an immigrant perspective lent deeper layers to the story, giving Evelyn cause to ponder the roads not taken. The filmmakers didn’t set out to build the film around immigrant heroes, but borrowing textures and dynamics from Kwan’s Chinese American family naturally made it so. But it’s the widening gulf between Evelyn and her daughter Joy (Stephanie Hsu) that threatens to unravel the fabric of existence as she learns that she’s just one in a vast multiverse of Evelyns - and the only one who can save it. “Everything Everywhere All at Once” follows Evelyn Wang (Yeoh), a woman drowning under the stress of her family’s failing laundromat, her ailing marriage to Waymond (Ke Huy Quan) and the elderly father (James Hong) who disapproves of her life choices. “It made us reflect: why did we feel the need to make something so strange - and why is it so hard for our parents to understand it?” “We showed it to our parents and it sparked so many conversations,” said Scheinert, who with Kwan spent a decade building their eccentric brand around mind-boggling music videos, shorts and films. Movies ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’: From critical darling to Oscar front-runnerįollowing its critical and box office successes, “Everything Everywhere All at Once” leads Oscar nominations.
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