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Everything Everywhere: a bit much and way too long

Director: Dan Kwan, Daniel Scheinert
Starring: Michelle Yeoh, Stephanie Hsu, Ke Huy Quan, Jamie-Lee Curtis

Sitting at home drinking a cup of CBD Coffee (what an incredible nightcap, tastes like great coffee; helps you to sleep) and trying to un-jumble my feelings about the movie Everything Everywhere All at Once, which I saw tonight at the wonderful, old-fashioned Labia movie house on Orange Street (even though I had not wanted to see it at all … in fact, after seeing the trailer twice I was certain this was a movie to miss).

As an aside, I wonder what it means if your beloved and your best friend think “OMG I think this might be the best movie I have ever seen”, or some such nonsense, and you think, “Jeez, what an ordeal!”

Part slapstick, part futuristic movie (that will surely inspire a cult following for decades to come), Everything everywhere gets full marks for creativity and 150% for guts.

Its main flaw is that it is just way too long. There is only so long one should be expected to suspend belief (and all reason), while being subjected to gratuitous violence. (Completely unnecessary, in my opinion, as were some of the caricatures, which seemed very heavy-handed).

Most compelling performances came from: Michelle Yeoh is fantastic, really comfortable in so many different roles, and gorgeous to boot. And then there is Jamie-Lee Curtis, quite the mean-spirited, tax-collecting bitch, who apparently said in an interview she was so glad not to have to pull her tummy in for this movie, something she had “been doing since she was 12”.

I was prepared to not like Everything everywhere much at all (set up for failure, you might say). But I am experimenting outside my comfort/control zone and quite enjoyed the flight of fantasy slipping through cracks between universes for the first 30 or 40 mins.

It may be important to mention that I have no doubt at all that there are so many versions of me living our different lives in parallel universes. It is not that I don’t know the truth.

Jamie-Lee Curtis not pulling her stomach in

But more than 2 hours, with the entire plan for keeping the audience engaged seemingly to be to make things spin faster? It’s a bit much.

Consider also that the audience gets a decent picture of the main characters and the plot in the first 10 minutes. So the only way is down.

This is a movie that was always going to divide audiences into fans and haters, but few would argue that his film is ‘living’ proof that the monopoly of Boy meets girl, saves girl, screws girl style of film-making is under threat.

Everything Everywhere is light and dark, sometimes deep and always intentionally shallow, and self-deprecatingly funny. It is the work of genius. What a pity that I just don’t have that gene.

Then to Nonna Lina for a bite to eat. Because I have been eating at this warm, friendly Italian for so many years, I handed the pen to my dinner companion, previously a Nonna Lina virgin, who said: ‘Look, I was ravenous after that totally unhinged and exhausting movie, but even if wasn’t I would have found the Penne Arrabiata perfect: the right amount of everything – pasta to-sauce ratio; the right touch of chilli and perfectly al dente pasta.

“10/10 for me. The only misstep was the waiter adding Parmesan before I could stop him so, if you don’t eat dairy, protect your plate!)”

Their pizzas are a knockout, too, always, everywhere and all the time (thanks Uber Eats).

Altogether a good night out in the hood.

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