Everything Everywhere All At Once is a marvellous, inventive and potent film

At a time when every movie seems to be a rehash of something else, an original and inventive new film really stands out.

Given screen goddess Michelle Yeoh’s many talents, perhaps it’s not surprising that her career-defining role in Everything Everywhere All At Once calls on her to draw on all of them.

From hard hitting dramatic beats and farcical comedy to pulsating action and martial arts, Yeoh’s full range is on display in this wild and imaginative sci-fi movie from the directors known as the Daniels – Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert.

You just can’t imagine anyone else could’ve played this role. The world is fortunate that Yeoh exists and took on the challenge.

As downtrodden Chinese-American laundromat owner Evelyn, Yeoh’s performance is both relatable and out-of-this-world. It’s the careful balance between the two that pulls together this high-concept sci-fi film that might seem narratively inaccessible – at first – but is so emotionally grounded that it will punch you right in the feels.

It’s a wholly original movie at a time when originality is in short supply.

Everything Everywhere All At Once is the role Michelle Yeoh was born for. Picture: Roadshow

Everything Everywhere All At Once really does what it promises in the title, propelled by the Daniels’ ambitious ideas (they also wrote the screenplay) in framing a story about family, regret and depression through a bold execution that knows when to ramp up the action and when to let a moment breathe.

It’s one of the most exciting films to come along in a long while.

Evelyn is having a bad life but she’s having an especially bad week. She’s in the middle of a tax audit on her business, her husband Waymond (Ke Huy Quan) is about to hand her divorce papers, her relationship with daughter Joy (Stephanie Hsu) is at a nadir and her disapproving father (James Hong) is visiting.

As she is later told, she is the most unsuccessful version of herself, having failed at everything she’s ever tried to do.

Everything Everywhere All At Once balances high-concept ideas and action with emotional breakthroughs. Picture: Roadshow

During her tax audit, Waymond’s personality undergoes a dramatic switch. He’s confident, assertive and tells her about the existence of parallel universes in which there are different versions of everyone.

All the universes are under threat thanks to a technology developed by the Evelyn of the Alpha world. Laundromat Evelyn is befuddled at the idea that there are more versions of her out there, but there’s no time to wonder if it’s true because all of a sudden, she’s tunnelling into the consciousness of the other hers.

Evelyn, it turns out, is the only person who can stop a malevolent force whose embrace of chaos and nihilism will destroy not just one universe but all of them. But she can only succeed if she levels up on her powers by co-opting them from the other versions of her.

That’s where the martial arts arse-kicking comes in, but given the plethora of universes, kung-fu isn’t the most impressive part. Everything Everywhere All At Once’s inventiveness means the possibilities of the other universes and the other Evelyns make for a fanciful, intense and sometimes comical adventure.

You’ll never look at frankfurts or Jamie Lee Curtis or Ratatouille the same way again.

Jamie Lee Curtis and Michelle Yeoh in Everything Everywhere All At Once. Picture: Roadshow

Like the Daniels’ previous film, Swiss Army Man in which Daniel Radcliffe plays a corpse, Everything Everywhere All At Once may seem convoluted or overwhelming with its verse-jumping or complex set-pieces but its central conceit is straightforward.

This is a story about loneliness and that crippling distance we feel when we put up walls between us. Everything Everywhere All At Once tears down those walls and it does so with kindness, empathy and aplomb.

It’s a marvellous, vivid and potent film.

Rating: 4/5

Everything Everywhere All At Once is in cinemas now