by Sam H.
Everything Everywhere All At Once isn’t only a beautiful film in terms of its cinematography – its creativity has prompted fans of the movie to analyze every detail of the film to find every last hidden meaning. But after watching tons of videos about what the googly eyes and bagels all represent, my favorite way to view the movie is through a much larger, thematic lens.
To contribute to the large, ever-expanding pool of thematic interpretations of the film, I’d like to discuss Everything Everywhere All At Once exploring the idea of home. In a physical sense, the Wangs live on the upper floor of the laundromat they own and operate, forcing Evelyn to intertwine her work life and personal life. Their living space is clustered with their belongings, leaving little space for the family to separate themselves from one another. This crowded environment contributes to each family member feeling trapped: Waymond with his marriage, Evelyn with her work, and Joy with her family. That’s part of the reason why other universes are so expansive, both literally and figuratively. In the universe of rocks, Evelyn and Joy are simply rocks, overlooking a vast canyon that stretches out to the horizon and doesn’t seem to ever end. In another universe, Evelyn is a successful actress. The other universes that Jobu Tupaki shows Evelyn pinpoints a desire to escape the monotony that’s associated with home.
Though the film shows how home can be a difficult space that can trap people within their fears and doubts, it also acknowledges that it can be even harder to leave. In the climax of the film, Evelyn tells Joy to stop running, and Joy breaks down into tears in the parking lot of the laundromat, begging her mother to let her go. At this point, Joy associates home with her family and can’t stand to be around either because it reminds her of how her identity seems to contradict her identity as a first-generation Chinese American and could disrupt her relationship with her grandfather. To Joy, her family and the laundromat aren’t home because, just like her, they’re ideas that Evelyn tries to project her own desires onto them in hopes that she can rectify her past disappointments to her father.
When Evelyn realizes this and seems to let Joy go, the audience sees that Evelyn has let all these expectations go. But, we’re suddenly pulled back into the parking lot again where Evelyn tells Joy to stop and reveals that out of all the places in the world she could be, she wants to be with her daughter, living a mundane life. Even though Evelyn can access these universes via a simple Bluetooth headpiece or by falling through the creases of a couch in her own apartment, she chooses to stay in her reality and make the best out of it because her family is worth trying for, despite all the hardships. This is where the idea of home shifts from the one of a physical location, or even a possible alternative universe, to a concept sustained by love for family and others. The movie never tries to separate home and family but rather chooses to reframe it to show that creating a safe and loving home is a choice that families make, breaking the cycle of associating home and family with suppression and unreachable expectations. Ultimately, Joy learns to accept her family too and shirks her own expectations for her family and what they could be. And Waymond – well, Waymond, who has always seen the best in people, finally realizes the value of his kindness through his support of Evelyn during the multiversal tribulation and learns to do the same as well.
Everything Everywhere All At Once leaves the audience with either an aching for home or an appreciation of people who make them feel at home, especially first-generation Asian Americans. Many of us have a complicated relationship with our identity because we often feel disconnected from our cultural identity. While we may speak the language and celebrate cultural traditions, we’re also deeply immersed in American culture – yet, non-Asian Americans often see as us Asian before American. This leaves us feeling lost, often having trouble confiding in our immigrant parents who are also going through the same conflict but often refuse to explicitly acknowledge it. The film references this diasporic struggle by showing clips of Evelyn debating on whether to move to America with Waymond and start a completely new life. Furthermore, Joy being a lesbian in addition to being Asian American extends this consideration by bringing into question whether these identities can co-exist without constantly fostering a clashing internal conflict that manifests itself in the form of nihilism.
The best part about this movie is that the theme of home is only one interpretation. Everyone who has watched the movie has provided their own interpretation of the movie. But from analyzing Waymond’s unconditional kindness in relation to portrayals of Asian masculinity to Evelyn’s alternate selves disproving the stereotype of a passive Asian woman, the beauty of these interpretations is that they can exist in harmony, everywhere and all at once.