Everything Everywhere All at Once

The imaginative film is inspired by real theories that suggest our universe is part of a vast multiverse where many alternate realities unfold.

In yet another, she’s a sentient rock with googly eyes. It’s a fantastical plot device, but also an extended riff on a real idea in physics. In one, she’s a glamorous movie star and kung fu master.

Will the Daniels' absurdist sci-fi pave the way for genre films to win Oscars … or is this just a glitch in the multiverse?

All in all, the film is nominated for 11 awards and has a good chance of carrying off at least six of them. Incredibly, it’s starting to look as if the first piece in the puzzle is moving into position. The assembled glitterati have made their way to the Dolby theatre in Los Angeles, but things are not as they used to be.

After 10 years of hiding my queer identity, I finally came out to my mom at the kitchen table of my childhood home in Irvine. Tearfully reading a letter ...

Instead of asking me why I wouldn’t just marry a man to fit into society, queer movies like “Bohemian Rhapsody” pushed my parents to consider why As she grows more comfortable with our movie nights and the possibility of my queer life lived happily ever after, I am reminded that we are a species that fears what we do not understand. The film captured exactly what my mom and I couldn’t previously communicate to each other. When Evelyn tearfully declares to Joy, “No matter what, I still want to be here with you,” I finally understood my mom — perhaps for the first time. Tearfully reading a letter full of “I know’s” and “I’m sorry’s,” I looked up, expecting her to disown me. After 10 years of hiding my queer identity, I finally came out to my mom at the kitchen table of my childhood home in Irvine.

I can almost guarantee that 2023 Academy Awards won't be as exciting as last year's event. There will be no Round 3 of the Will Smith vs.

I’d like to see “Top Gun: Maverick” upset “Avatar” in this category, but I just don’t see it happening. However, don’t count out Jamie Lee Curtis for “Everything Everywhere All at Once.” She did a wonderful job in a zany movie. I liked “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish” so much more than I anticipated and just a smidge more than “Turning Red,” which I personally preferred to “Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio” and “Avatar: The Way of Water.” I liked “The Sea Beast” better than those two, as well. “Elvis” received eight. Personally, if I had a vote, it would go to “The Fabelmans.” I think this is where the movie will be honored beyond Best International Film, which it is a shoo-in for. Hailing from near Memphis, I probably identify with this movie too much to be objective, but I found the movie just a joy to look at. “Countdown to the Oscars” begins at 5:30 p.m., also on ABC. Nearly everyone who saw the film has their own personal view of Elvis Presley in their mind’s eye. Splitting the vote on the two categories seems double-minded to me. Any other year, Farrell would likely be the favorite, but to me Butler’s work in “Elvis” was fantastic. Rock, a much smaller man, did not retaliate in the moment.

We revisit some of the now iconic locations this year's Oscar frontrunner, Everything Everywhere All At Once, was shot at.

Indeed, Everything Everywhere All At Once is a Cinderella story as far as movies go, with no one initially expecting a ton from the A24-fronted indie. Starting at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California, where the film is expected to clean up on Sunday night, Ryan takes us through the mostly Simi Valley-based locations where the movie was made. [Where It Was Made](https://www.joblo.com/tag/where-it-was-made/), our writer/director/editor/host Ryan Cultrera takes us through the movie’s iconic filming locations.

Expect there to be a few special moments, here and there, for “Everything Everywhere All at Once.” Many experts predict the wild and wildly inventive American film — about an ordinary woman (Michelle Yeoh) battling forces from across a multiverse, ...

9/2 “The Academy has done such a noble effort, striving for international diversity and really pulled it off in terms of the span of nominees. “A lot of people love her.” “And then, all of a sudden, when you look at the charts that we have, you see this plunge for Cate Blanchett and this rocket ship ride for Michelle,” O’Neil says. Again, “Everything Everywhere” could experience several nice moments at the ceremony. “He told this very embarrassing story about his family,” O’Neil says. “And also it was beloved. It certainly is the far-and-away front runner given its awards history up to now.” 19/2 [GoldDerby.com](https://www.goldderby.com/), a site he founded in 2000 that is now owned by Penske Media Corp. 17/2 Gold Derby presents regularly updated predictions for the Oscars, as well as Emmys, Grammys and other industry awards.

The odds-on favorite to win best picture at this weekend's Oscars is not the best or even second-best movie among the nominees — those would be “Tár” and ...

But at the very least, the multiverse pushes God or any similar character farther up and away, makes his purposes that much more complex and inscrutable, and the place of humankind in all this drama more minor and obscure and random — just as a certain kind of scientific mind is conditioned to assume. “Last September, NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft smashed into an asteroid, deliberately altering the rock’s trajectory through space in a first test of planetary defense. “DART, which was the size of a golf cart, collided with a Great Pyramid-sized asteroid called Dimorphos. So the multiverse exists at once as a zippy pop-culture conceit and as a kind of scientific-philosophical counsel of despair — pushing God or purpose upward and away while placing hard-to-overcome limits on scientific understanding. The old stories, whether of Helen of Troy or Kal-El of Krypton, are endlessly rebooted because no new stories can be imagined, so “audiences and artists alike look backward to favorite legends from a golden age gone by,” Klavan says. There’s a touch of the concluding stanza of Matthew Arnold’s “ The movie has some lovely performances, especially from Ke Huy Quan, famous as a child actor in the 1980s for “The Goonies” and “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” and now re-emerging as a middle-aged adult. An infinitely branching timeline, in which every possible version of Superman or Spider-Man could have stories waiting to be told (and crossovers waiting to be plotted), was a way out of this impasse for comic-book writers decades ago. Amid many other negative social disruptions from the pandemic, there has been one positive change: Remote work has provided some individuals and families with more work-related flexibility and time with family. (The emergence of online haters, now that it seems likely to win the golden statuette, is more inevitable.) Now it serves the same role, with more self-seriousness, for the Marvel movies and similar cinematic properties. The movie’s protagonist, Evelyn, played by Michelle Yeoh, is a hardworking immigrant businesswoman struggling with her taxes and her daughter and a failing marriage.

Majers Coin Laundry has become an L.A. landmark thanks to its use as an Everything Everywhere All At Once set.

Despite the only on-site souvenirs from the shoot consisting of a “dented washer from a scene where Yeoh tees off with a baseball bat” and “signs written in Chinese advising customers not to overload the washing machines with clothes,” it keeps drawing Everything Everywhere All At Once fans. For Kenny and Irene, watching the movie being filmed and when finished in theaters was similarly emotional. The two, like the Wangs, have one daughter and Irene describes her and her husband’s personalities as fairly similar to Evelyn and Waymond’s. Others simply gawk at the washing machines and dryers, attempting to relive shots from the movie.” Irene, a former jazz vocalist, has since started working as a registered nurse but she formerly “did much of the office work” (including the taxes) at the laundromat while Kenny was largely responsible for working on the washing and drying machines. And with that extra attention, an unassuming laundromat in San Fernando, Los Angeles is likely to become even busier than it has been over the last year.

Exclusive: We chat with Everything Everywhere producer Jonathan Wang and awards experts about the role film festivals like SXSW play during Oscar season.

“I think it’s great to not be in the pressure position of being the first big film festival of the year or the festival that’s going to have all the Oscar nominees,” Godfrey says. “I have to give kudos to A24 for believing that this would be this sort of event that would be loud,” Wang says, acknowledging it was the studio who decided to submit for SXSW, as opposed to Sundance or TIFF, in part because of the festival’s more genre-loving, idiosyncratic audience. Simmons in [Whiplash](https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/whiplash-review/); Emerald Fennell’s script for [Promising Young Woman](https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/promising-young-woman-costumes-clothing/). [Blonde](https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/blonde-review-ana-de-armas-marilyn-monroe-deserve-better/) debuted at Venice,” says Davis. Among the big four of the fall, Venice is always the first since it’s also the oldest festival in the world, beginning in 1932. after debuting at other festivals (Tár, The Banshees of Inisherin, Decision to Leave) and those that still premiered elsewhere but were not yet out in general theaters, such as The Whale. “I see the distinction [between them], but the average person probably does not.” Nearly 44 percent of the last 15 years of Best Picture nominees, and over 85 percent of the winners, premiered at those fests. Ever since Crash (2005) became the first Best Picture winner to be acquired at a festival (the A dazzlingly original film that marries the existential weight of the universe to the intimacy of the Asian American immigrant experience—and all by way of multiverse theory, martial arts, and those marvelous hot dog fingers—the movie appeared to be a perfect opening night film for a festival at the intersection of cinema, music, technology, and just plain old innovation. [Oscars telecast](https://www.denofgeek.com/the-oscars/) beams out of the Dolby Theatre on Sunday, March 12, it will be one year and a day since Everything Everywhere All at Once enjoyed its world premiere at the [SXSW Film Festival](https://www.denofgeek.com/sxsw/). “There’s a video of me in the Zoom being like, ‘We’re on pace for 11,’ and everyone’s like, ‘What are you talking about?!’” Wang recalls. And to Jonathan Wang, producer of [Everything Everywhere All at Once](https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/everything-everywhere-all-at-once-best-multiverse-movie/), it was nothing short of surreal as he realized their little movie with wobbly hot dog fingers was on track to score 11 Oscar nominations—making it this year’s de facto frontrunner.

Comedy-drama “Everything Everywhere All at Once” will likely take Best Picture at Sunday's Academy Awards, but there's potential for upsets and surprises.

“All Quiet” might also have the edge for Best Cinematography, Best Sound and Best Original Score, a haul which could make it one of the night’s biggest winners. - Another likely single Oscar winner is “Naatu Naatu,” the tune from an incredible dance in action epic “RRR,” which is competing for Best Original Song. But “Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio” has been almost unstoppable on the awards circuit and will likely win at the Oscars. Why: Could there by anything more original than the story of “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” in which a family of Asian-American laundromat owners have to transform themselves into multiple avengers to save and/or destroy a multitude of universes? But this could also be a place where voters honour “The Banshees of Inisherin,” which owes so much to writer/director Martin McDonagh’s wicked sense of humour, and there’s much merit in fellow rivals “Tár” (my personal pick), “The Fabelmans” and “Triangle of Sadness.” Most pundits give it the win, but there’s major Canuck content in main rival “Fire of Love,” a volcanic romance produced by Montreal’s Ina Fichman and American-Canadian Shane Boris. The other contenders — “Living,” “Top Gun: Maverick” and “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” — all have their supporters, but likely not enough to make a difference. The two might well split the “Banshees” vote. Why: In theory, “Everything Everywhere All at Once” has this category all sewn up. “Everything Everywhere” achieved the nifty feat of winning top prizes bestowed by guilds for producers, directors, actors and writers, a potent combination that historically leads directly to Best Picture at the Oscars. I was also hugely impressed with Bill Nighy in “Living” and Paul Mescal in “Aftersun,” films I counted among favourites of 2022. If I had a vote it would go to “Tár,” an original story about power, celebrity and cancel culture that I wanted to talk about more than any other film this past year — with the exception of Jordan Peele’s sci-fi saga “Nope,” which didn’t get a single Oscar nom.

The others were Jerome Robbins and Robert Wise (“West Side Story,” 1961) and Ethan Coen and Joel Coen (“No Country for Old Men,” 2007).

See our [latest prediction champs](https://www.goldderby.com/best-prediction-scores/awards/league-data/). Speak up and share your huffy opinions in our [famous forums](https://www.goldderby.com/forums/) where 5,000 showbiz leaders lurk every day to track latest awards buzz. If the duo are honored in [Best Director](https://www.goldderby.com/odds/graph/oscars-winners-2023-predictions/best-director/), it would make for the third such instance in the category’s history, following the victories of Jerome Robbins and Robert Wise (“West Side Story,” 1961) and Ethan Coen and Joel Coen (“No Country for Old Men,” 2007). [Make your predictions](https://www.goldderby.com/leagues/) at Gold Derby now. Since they are both 35 years old (with only eight months separating them), the Daniels would be younger than either preceding team of directing champions by a margin of eight years. Download our free and easy app for [Apple/iPhone devices](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/id1460576753) or [Android (Google Play)](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.pmc.goldDerby) to compete against legions of other fans plus our experts and editors for best prediction accuracy scores. Ostlund is the only other general first-time Oscar nominee in the group, while Spielberg is the only returning directing contender, with two wins for “Schindler’s List” (1993) and “Saving Private Ryan” (1998) and six more past bids under his belt. Curtis and Hsu are the 36th pair of cast mates to face off in the featured female category, and theirs could be the 13th such case to produce a win for either woman involved. “Everything Everywhere All at Once” stars Michelle Yeoh as Evelyn Wang, an acerbic laundromat owner whose mounting tax debt proves to be the least of her problems after she is swept into a perilous multiversal adventure. The Daniels’ challengers in this directing contest are Todd Field (“TAR”), Martin McDonagh (“The Banshees of Inisherin”), Ruben Ostlund (“Triangle of Sadness”) and Steven Spielberg (“The Fabelmans”). [Daniel Kwan](https://www.goldderby.com/t/daniel-kwan/) and [Daniel Scheinert](https://www.goldderby.com/t/daniel-scheinert/) are now Oscar nominees thanks to their hit sophomore film, “ [Everything Everywhere All at Once](https://www.goldderby.com/t/everything-everywhere-all-at-once/).” The sci-fi comedy leads the pack this year in terms of Oscar bids, with a [total of 11](https://www.goldderby.com/gallery/everything-everywhere-all-at-once-oscar-nominations/) including three for the Daniels’ writing, directing and producing work. [Best Picture](https://www.goldderby.com/odds/graph/oscars-winners-2023-predictions/best-picture/) nomination with fellow Oscars newcomer Jonathan Wang, who also co-produced “Swiss Army Man.” Aside from this and the duo’s [Best Original Screenplay](https://www.goldderby.com/odds/graph/oscars-winners-2023-predictions/best-original-screenplay/) bid, “Everything Everywhere All at Once” earned craft notices for its costume design, film editing, score and the song “This Is a Life,” as well as acting mentions for lead Yeoh and supporting players Hsu, Quan and Jamie Lee Curtis.

Everything Everywhere All At Once's Costume Designer Shirley Kurata on the Meaning of a Chinatown Cardigan, and Finding Her Oscars Fit (Hint: It's Rodarte). By ...

We spoke to Kurata a week after winning a Costume Designer’s Guild Award for Excellence in Sci-Fi film, and three days ahead of the Academy Awards ceremony itself about Rodarte’s return to New York last month, the process of putting together costumes for the film, and how she’s preparing for her big night ahead. Kurata’s costumes add an indelible layer of meaning—and sometimes humor—to the film, culminating in an Academy Award nomination for Best Costume Design. Kurata, who is also a stylist, has worked alongside [Rodarte](https://www.vogue.com/fashion-shows/designer/rodarte)’s Kate and Laura Mulleavy since they first launched their label in 2006, and was a frequent collaborator of [Opening Ceremony](https://www.vogue.com/fashion-shows/designer/opening-ceremony) and Kenzo’s Humberto Leon and Carol Lim.

'Everything Everywhere All At Once' was an indie spring release, while most Oscar heavy hitters premiere at prestigious fall film festivals.

The bagel is, in many ways, a microcosm for the film. [own Wikipedia page](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_accolades_received_by_Everything_Everywhere_All_at_Once). [half a million dollars](https://deadline.com/2022/03/everything-everywhere-all-at-once-a24-specialty-box-office-rrr-1234987724/) in its opening weekend. [Rise](https://www.harpercollins.com/pages/Rise): A Pop History of Asian America From the Nineties to Now. But then there is, of course, the everything bagel. The report revealed that 20 nominations, or 9% of all Asian nominees, were named in 2023—the highest number and percentage yet. Smith, the founder of the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative. [return to acting](https://www.gq.com/story/ke-huy-quan-everything-everywhere-all-at-once) after nearly two decades away. The Producers Guild (PGA) bestowed the film its top honor. The Writers Guild (WGA) named Everything Everywhere Best Original Screenplay. But they really are this weird sense of us clutching at the hem of the Hollywood establishment.” The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) showered it with awards.

Sci-fi action-comedy family drama is favored in most top categories at Sunday's Academy Awards.

The chatter: "Everything Everywhere" director duo Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, collectively known as Daniels, won't be the first pair to win a co-Best Director trophy — the Coen Brothers won for "No Country for Old Men" in 2007, and Jerome Robbins and Robert Wise won for "West Side Story" in 1961 — but they will be the latest, completing the near-sweep of "Everything Everywhere All at Once" at the top of the show. The chatter: Ideally, every Oscar year has a heartwarming narrative that everyone can get behind, and this year it's Ke Huy Quan, the former child actor (you remember him from "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" and "The Goonies") who flushed out of Hollywood for a long time and came roaring back in "Everything Everywhere All at Once." Bassett is powerful in "Black Panther," Condon is terrific in "Banshees" and Curtis, well, it's great to see Curtis in a movie where she isn't battling Michael Myers. The one sure thing in this category is that Hong Chau was nominated for the wrong movie — it should have been "The Menu," where she was an ice-cold scene stealer. Take him out of the race and it's possible that Keoghan gets a look for "Banshees" and that viral clip from the movie that shows him going through about six shades of heartbreak in 60 seconds, but this race is all Quan, all the time, all at once. It could go either way here, but we're going with the "Elvis" actor to be crowned King. The chatter: The year's most nominated film (it has 11 nods total), the wildly inventive "Everything Everywhere All at Once," which is like if every movie in your streaming queue somehow played at the same time, is favored to win here, having already won top honors at the Directors Guild of America Awards, Producers Guild of America Awards, Writers Guild of America Awards and Screen Actors Guild Awards. Several of the evening's big categories are wide open, including Best Picture, where the wackadoodle genre mashup "Everything Everywhere All at Once" is favored to win, unless that prize goes to the World War I drama "All Quiet on the Western Front," or if the mega-blockbuster "Top Gun: Maverick" somehow swoops in and takes top honors. The Best Actor race is a lock for "Elvis" star Austin Butler, unless comeback kid Brendan Fraser takes the trophy for "The Whale." You can crunch the results of the various guild awards, you can play the politics of the various categories and nominees, but in the end, it all comes down to a gut feeling. There's a school of thought that says the Academy's older voters may brisk at "Everything Everywhere's" fluid approach to genre and style, and may instead favor the more conventional war epic "All Quiet on the Western Front," itself a time-honored Oscar brand (the 1930 version was a previous Best Picture winner). And then there's the Best Supporting Actress category, an all-out wrestling match between "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever's" Angela Bassett, "The Banshees of Inisherin's" Kerry Condon and "Everything Everywhere All at Once's" Jamie Lee Curtis.

Big Nose is a character in the film played by Jenny Slate, who's introduced on-screen by Evelyn (Michelle Yeoh) reacting in shock when she sees her. She says of ...

But that doesn’t make the “Big Nose” character any less troubling, and it certainly doesn’t absolve the film of including the stereotype. “It's nothing to do with the Jewish people, which now we're realizing, ‘Oh, fuck.’” The Daniels also explained that there was more to Slate’s character, and there was a redemption filmed, but it ended up on the cutting room floor. Whether the cut footage would have alleviated the antisemitic undertones is impossible to know, and the fact that the stereotype’s meaning in Chinese culture differs from that elsewhere doesn’t make it sit any less uncomfortably. “One of the weird blind spots that happened was that in Chinese culture, everyone who is white is called ‘Big Nose,’” explained Kwan. In fact, it’s the opposite: Evelyn defines Slate’s character only by the size of her nose, diving headfirst into a well-worn antisemitic trope. A core part of the movie lies in their evolving relationship, which illustrates the power of how seeing things in a new light can expand our minds and ourselves. The scene between the two of them provides an opportunity for Evelyn to grow from her prejudiced comments, but instead, a dog ends up receiving more humanity than Slate’s character. Frankly, the lack of discourse around “Big Nose'' may be due to the larger narrative surrounding the film— But one of the most long-standing antisemitic tropes is that Jewish people are identifiable by their supposedly big noses. But there remains a nagging problem that lies at [the heart of EEAAO](https://www.thedailybeast.com/obsessed/the-michelle-yeoh-moment-with-everything-everywhere-all-at-once-is-already-changing-hollywood), best summarized in two words: “Big Nose.” Yet the conversation around the film rarely involves or interrogates the fact that one of the characters in the film is a walking Jewish American Princess stereotype, known only by a facial feature closely tied to prejudiced beliefs. [Everything Everywhere All at Once](https://www.thedailybeast.com/obsessed/the-trippy-everything-everywhere-all-at-once-transports-sxsw-to-the-hot-dog-fingered-multiverse) absolutely dominated the SAG Awards, winning best supporting actor, best supporting actress, best actress, and the big award of the night, best motion picture cast.

The Daniels' genre-bending epic is nominated for a whopping 11 Oscars, unheard-of for a movie full of sci-fi themes and everything bagels.

[Matrices](https://www.wired.com/story/the-matrix-resurrections-review-essay/)—was usually honored for technical achievements, if not much else. Avatar, for example, was nominated for nine Oscars—including a Best Director nod for James Cameron—but only won in the cinematography, VFX, and art direction categories. Ke Huy Quan, who plays her husband in the film, also [made history](https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/26/entertainment/ke-huy-quan-sag-award-2023/) for his SAG win. [The Shape of Water](https://www.wired.com/story/academy-awards-2018-genre-movies/) and Gravity have racked up wins. Most of the credit for this goes to Daniels and their stars. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King made inroads for the fantasy genre back in 2003. Star Michelle Yeoh [canoodling](https://twitter.com/PopBase/status/1632135730628636693) with Cate Blanchett on red carpets, the directors—the duo known as [Daniels](https://www.wired.com/video/watch/the_last_thing_on_your_phone_the_daniels)—doing [skits](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23sRimLcTBk) for The Late Show. But beyond that, Everything Everywhere All at Once’s impressive run shows not only a long overdue shift in who gets nominated for Academy Awards, but also what style of films do. Sci-fi, of course, has been part of cinema since Metropolis in 1927. Yeoh [threatening to beat up](https://twitter.com/A24/status/1613006980851068930) a pianist who tried to play her off stage during her Golden Globes acceptance speech. [first Asian woman](https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/26/entertainment/michelle-yeoh-2023-sag-award/) to do so. [Everything Everywhere All at Once](https://www.wired.com/story/everything-everywhere-all-at-once-review/) awards season performance.

It may have swept awards season so far, but the Daniels' absurdist comedy-drama is still an underdog in this race. Annabel Nugent makes the case that it's a ...

Yeoh is one of the most recognisable Asian actors in the world, but EEAO is the first time the actor has topped a Hollywood call sheet. In a way, EEAO is a victim of its own success. Even recently, as the crazy rich mum in Crazy Rich Asians, she doesn’t have a hair out of place. It’s fair to say, then, that EEAO is worlds away from the sort of prestige drama that usually gets the Academy going. And for once, the same can be said of much of its competition. They made good on that buzz this year, as the film swept awards season in remarkable fashion, turning out a slew of heartwarming acceptance speeches that have gone viral every time.

For Asian Americans, the award accolades for Michelle Yeoh and Ke Huy Quan have been an exhilarating contrast to the increasing anti-Asian hate and the ...

Keeravani and Chandrabose (Best Original Song, "RRR"). The awards "EEAAO" has received may signify, "We've arrived; we finally have a seat at the table. There are the museum, the archives, the library and the educational and mentorship programs many people aren't aware of." Sunday, award season will come to an end with the Oscars; " [Everything Everywhere All at Once](/reviews/everything-everywhere-all-at-once-2022)" has 11 nominations. Chu is the nation's first Chinese-American congresswoman and the chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus. I’m crossing my fingers for Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan, and the entire cast and crew’s continued success this awards season.

Michelle Yeoh looking at her hands in disbelief with Jamie Lee Curtis and Ke Huy Quan. “Everything Everywhere All at Once” is the exception to the industry's ...

[Avatar: The Way of Water](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/12/26/avatar-the-way-of-water-is-split-by-james-camerons-contradictory-instincts)” on one side, indies such as “ [Triangle of Sadness](https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-front-row/triangle-of-sadness-reviewed-were-on-a-yacht-and-were-puking)” and “ [Women Talking](https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-front-row/women-talking-reviewed-a-sublime-script-a-merely-very-good-movie)” on the other. Yeoh also travelled the fall-festival circuit, with a special screening of “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” at Telluride and an honorary award at Toronto. [Tár](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/10/10/cate-blanchett-is-imperious-and-incandescent-in-tar),” a chillier, more sardonic movie that leaves its audience conflicted over its disgraced antiheroine. “You start with Michelle, because she is the movie.” By October, the Times was The film finished production on March 13, 2020, on the cusp of the pandemic. On its surface, “Everything Everywhere” doesn’t have the hallmarks of Oscar bait: it’s a sci-fi comedy (two genres that the Academy tends to overlook) about a middle-aged Chinese American woman who runs a laundromat, with a premise that is comprehensible mostly to philosophers and comic-book geeks (verse-jumping?), and subplots involving talking rocks, an enchanted everything bagel, and butt plugs. This voter, who had picked “Everything Everywhere” for Best Picture, was drawn to the story of “a woman trying to deal with her life” and observed that the film has a more uplifting ending than many of its competitors: “As we’ve seen with the Oscars over past years, it’s the film that makes you feel happiest when you walk out.” The movie has the spectacle of a superhero blockbuster and the idiosyncratic style of an indie dramedy, but at its core it’s a heartwarming tale of a woman finding her purpose, saving her frayed marriage, and reconciling with her queer daughter. And yet “Everything Everywhere” more than endured—it soared. In yet another reality that we are definitely not in, “ [The Woman King](https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/sisterhood-and-slavery-in-the-woman-king)” will herald a new era of Black-female empowerment in Hollywood when it wins Best Picture, Best Director (Gina Prince-Bythewood), and Best Actress (Viola Davis). In the fall and winter, a cavalcade of Oscar-worthy films burst onto the scene, tugging awards speculation in other directions: There is still a world in which “Everything Everywhere” loses all eleven awards for which it’s nominated—but we probably don’t live in that universe, either. [Everything Everywhere All at Once](https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-front-row/everything-everywhere-all-at-once-reviewed-theres-no-there-there)” is the dominant front-runner for Best Picture.