Daniels brings the multiverse to madcap life in Everything Everywhere All at Once
Enlarge / Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert-collectively known as Daniels-are the directors of the new sci-fi action/dramedy Everything Everywhere All at Once, starring Michelle Yeoh. (credit: A24)
The incomparable Michelle Yeoh plays a harried Chinese American laundromat owner facing an IRS audit in the new science-fiction action comedy Everything Everywhere All at Once. Evelyn Wang is just trying to sift through a mountain of paperwork and crumpled receipts to keep her life from falling apart when she unexpectedly gets pulled into an epic battle across multiple timelines. And the stakes couldn't be higher: the very survival of the entire multiverse is on the line.
Directors Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert-collectively known as Daniels-are known for their ability to straddle genres, deftly blending comic absurdity and outre weirdness with moments of gut-wrenching poignancy. Everything Everywhere All at Once is only their second feature film together, but you'd never know it by the assured hand Daniels brought to bear on the project, somehow bringing a chaotic jumble of disparate elements together into a coherent whole that both surprises and delights. The two creators said they found inspiration while writing the script in classic kung-fu films, as well as The Matrix and Fight Club.
"I fell in love with those movies," Kwan said. "I was like, man, if I could just make something half as fun as The Matrix, but with our own stamp and our spirits, I would just die happy."