Reluctantly Not on the 2022 List: Everything Everywhere All At Once

I know, I know, here I go again, being the party pooper, disliking a movie that everyone else loved. Let me be clear: This is a well-made movie. I was impressed with it. I liked the performances, and wouldn’t mind if they won things. I laughed at some things. I would call these visionary filmmakers and admired their ability to get their vision on screen.

So why did the movie ultimately leave me cold? Why could I not bring myself to put it on my top ten list?

Here’s the thing: As I’ve gotten older, I’ve had a harder time following confusing stories. In this movie, once things get super-weird, they explain what’s going on so quickly that I just got lost. Really lost. I considered pausing the movie and asking Betsy to explain what was going on, but I decided it was hopeless and just mentally checked out. I spent the whole rest of the moving just saying “Huh? What?” until it ended. I didn’t get a word of it.

The next morning, Betsy was explaining the plot of the movie to our kids and I was gobsmacked. Where was she getting all this from? How had she been able to follow any of it? Then the movie became the most beloved on the year and I felt increasingly stupid. I considered rewatching it so that I could re-evaluate it for this list, but ultimately decided that no, I gave it a fair shot, and it just didn’t do anything for me.

This is a subjective list. There will be movies on it that make you say “He liked that more than Everything Everywhere All At Once??” I just gotta call ‘em like I see ‘em.

I must say that the thing I admired most about this movie was this interview with Daniel Kwan calling out toxic fandom and excusing critics not putting the movie on their top ten lists.  Thanks for having my back, Dan!