Michelle Yeoh, martial arts and the multiverse: inside the year’s wildest movie | Hacker News Reader

Michelle Yeoh, martial arts and the multiverse: inside the year’s wildest movie

theguardian.com

105 pointsnigerian198147 comments

Probably what makes this most relevant to HN is that the film marks a triumphant return to acting for Ke Huy Quan, who we all know as Data from The Goonies and Short Round in Temple of Doom.

It's a performance that shows surprising range and leverages his later career work as a stunt choreographer. I get the sense he was happy enough with his path after film school, but we've clearly been missing out on good stuff from him.

In a recent NYTimes interview he talked about work drying up after child roles, something to the effect of 'I got a single audition for a Viet Cong part, and I didn't even get that.'

I'm not saying this applies to him (we weren't in those audition rooms), but a lot of child actors dramatically lose acting skills as they get older. There is something in child acting that makes their lines believable with relatively little effort, which then disappears with age. Grown-up actors have to work harder to achieve believability, and some child actors never manage to. Casting directors will inevitably count this sort of phenomenon against ex-child actors. Maybe without those bumps in the road, he would not have put enough effort in the craft to actually reach this quality.

> Maybe without those bumps in the road, he would not have put enough effort in the craft to actually reach this quality.

I thought you said you weren't saying this applies to him? This sentence seems like a non-sequitur then.

I take your point about child actors losing acting skills, but why project that on him? We don't know if that was the cause in his case.

My point is that he doesn't know either. He complains that work dried up, but that might have been for a reason - maybe it's that casting directors have qualms about ex-child actors, maybe it's that those qualms were justified. The parent comment makes it sound like he was always good enough, and my comment is that we can't really know.

Casting directors get a lot of flack all the time, because they have some real power, but they are professionals doing a job (and often they are not even the problem, as directors and producers also have a big say on any major role).

I'm utterly confused by the article, so let me offer the roberebert.com version instead, which is far more succinct and readable:

https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/everything-everywhere-all...

3.5 stars, looks pretty promising

I really miss Roger Ebert and his reviews...

I caught this at the Brooklyn Alamo a few weeks back. After finishing it, I left the theater thinking it was the movie "The Matrix: Resurrections" should have been.

Well, Resurrections was a cash grab. Not sure if this was true, but supposedly Warner Brothers told the Wachowskis that they were doing another Matrix movie with or without them. One of the Wachowskis chose to participate.

There’s even a reference to this in the movie

I'm confused by the theaters selected to release this. The only theaters that are showing this in NYC are smaller theaters in Manhattan and Brooklyn. Literally no theaters I can find in Queens (where I am) are showing it (including in Flushing) despite having a massive Asian population.

I had assumed from the marketing this is not an indie film targeting hipsters (which would be fine too of course). And yet I can't go see it at a theater within an hour of me.

It is an indie film, in that it's being distributed by A24 and not a major studio. It's also incredible and I highly recommend seeing it.

The rollout has been a little unclearly messaged, but it's:

March 11 2022 - SXSW premiere

March 25 2022 - NY/LA/SF limited release (including some IMAX theaters)

April 8 2022 - Wider release

April 15 2022 - Full release

So your best bet is likely the end of this week for it to get closer to you. If a theater isn't showing it by then, it probably won't before the theatrical window closes.

The movie's own ticketing site might be helpful too: https://tickets.everythingeverywhereallatonce.movie

Thank you!

Now I look and see it is finally showing at Regal near me but only today through Wednesday. I'm surprised it won't show here on the weekend at all.

Guess I'll be going soon!

It may be that your theater just hasn't announced showtimes for Thursday and after (beyond whatever the big release is), which is usually when schedule changes are made.

Maybe but now I don't want to miss out...

If your theater is anything like mine, this is exactly what's happening - I bet if you check tomorrow, you will see showtimes on Thursday. I did the _same exact thing_ with this movie last week, and it was never showing any of the days - once Wednesday rolled around though, there was finally showings on Friday.

If that ends up not being the case, you'll still have tomorrow or Wednesday to go :)

Call them and ask

This might be the best movie made in my lifetime. Can not recommend it enough. Might have raised the bar for movies as as an art form.

But will you think of hot dogs the same ever again? The rock scene was my favorite

Do you think that's hyperbolic? What is your second favorite movie?

I agree. I was awestruck the entire time. I thought about the movie for hours and hours until I went to bed.

Saw it last weekend and loved it but still can't decide how much. Swiss Army Man was basically a screwball comdedy filmed like an art movie so when the wtf moments happen they stood out as WTF? Everywhere is very comic booky (almost too comic booky for my likeing) and it contains just as many wtf moments (if not more) but because of it's comic book nature the wtf stuff doesn't stand out as sharply as it did in Swiss Army Man. It all kinda blends into one big ball of crazy. Nonetheless, still lots of fun, lots of laughs.

I just pre-ordered the movie (digital copy). I hope it is released soon. I like owning a few movies like Prometheus, Ghost in the Shell, etc. even though they are widely available on streaming services we subscribe to.

A new friend who is a director and his wife are coming over for lunch today (I got up super early this morning to rewatch two of his movies) and it would be more than great if Everything Everywhere All at Once were to be released in the next four hours so we could watch it together.

Thanks for that, I didn't think to pre-order the digital copy. Done!

In the meantime, consider In the Mood for Love which is paid homage or Swiss Army Man, directed by the same fellas.

I loved Michelle Yeoh in the 90's "The Heroic Trio" and "The Executioners". I had "The Executioners" on video tape. I have followed her films ever since. I grew up in Brooklyn, a fan of Hong Kong action movies (mostly police action dramas and fantasy) flicks that played at the local theater - The Coliseum in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. I'll have to see this one!

https://www.polygon.com/what-to-watch/23013092/michelle-yeoh... has a good presenation of her early movies

I enjoyed this movie. But, if I'm honest, I don't know that it lived up to the high ratings it is getting (for example, on Rotten Tomatoes) in my opinion.

I don't want to spoil anything. (So maybe this comment is pointless). It's a crazy movie that has huge potential. But it doesn't quite live up to its potential.

The writing is really strange in this, I got about halfway through before getting annoyed that it wasn't saying anything. It reads a bit like a translation of a sponsored article.

And links ("Career defining role") are GDPR-blocked in the UK, which is a strange choice for a UK-based publication.

The writer of the piece is based in NYC, which probably explain the link to a US website.

The Guardian is not just "UK-based", they have a clear policy of news rotation following the sun - at some hours, you'll see a flood of US news, then Australian news, and then back to Europe. They clearly target the whole English-speaking world.

I love Chinese movies, but this sounds like a GEICO commercial

In no way this is a chinese movie

Chinese movies are like GEICO commercials too ever heard of Danny the Dog.

I think this is overhyped already. Most modern Hollywood movies and series suck. Can't put it nicely. Everything is shallow and movie makers are spelling everything out for us now. Incredibly boring. But people seem to love it. This movie is I think not much different.

I haven't stopped thinking about this movie since I saw it 2 days ago and I'm seeing it again this week/weekend.

I don't think I've ever seen a movie more than once in theaters. It's good - really good.

The last movie that was comparable was Interstellar, imo.

Did you watch the movie..?

Not yet. Just saying I am going into it without any expectations. Don't get me wrong, I hope the movie will prove me wrong, just don't think it will.

You first sentence says one thing, your second sentence says essentially the opposite: your expectations seem fully formed. I just hope they're not so crystallized as to prevent you from taking something away from the film.

I saw the trailer. Looks like a Chinese Marvel movie with a wacky premise like Inception or what not. I think I will pass.

I watched Drive My Car recently. That is a good movie!

Both were great

To the passing reader: I'd strongly recommend both, and would be less quick to dismiss the artistic merit of the movie in question. Whereas Marvel movies try to overlay a meaning onto plot, this to me feels like the reverse: the creators had something to say and found an unbelievably imaginative way to say it. There's quite a bit of depth, and lots of space for you to find something meaningful to you different than the person next to you. Personally, I wouldn't even watch the trailer.

There's an element of coming to terms with one's lost potential, and the backdrop of that against the meaningless of existence that I found really relatable and powerful. I laughed, cried, I was moved.

Seconded. It’s seemingly better if you have no idea what to expect. I took my girlfriend to see it last week on a “blind movie date” where she didn’t even know what we were seeing.

She is someone who never goes to theaters and isn’t anywhere as passionate about film as I am. She borders on indifferent. This is all to say that she was deeply DEEPLY touched by the film’s message. We solemnly left the theater and when we got into the car she broke down and bawled her eyes out because she didn’t want to make a scene in the theater.

It really is a spectacular, unique, absurd, hilarious film with a great message at it’s core. It is a type of film that comes around every ten years if we’re lucky.

Daniels absolutely nailed it.

I understand that you guys want people to be open-minded. But there is so much space in one's mind. In this day an age you have to be selective and filter aggressively.

If you filter out this movie, you should really think long and hard about your filter. It’s really that good. I know for a fact that I’ve never seen anything as inventive before in my life, and I think there’s a good chance I never will again. On top of that, it’s very emotionally rich.

You're filtering it out because it's chinese. It's not racist, but biased because it doesn't feature... I'll stop right there

I am filtering out because I am tired of Marvel, marvel derivatives, anything with a main character and superpowers.

I do love international films and seeing what different cultures can create. I feel sad when they imitate the lowest that we have to offer in terms of filmmaking.

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