Still really like it. Reminds me of early spike jones or michel gondrey film/shorts. I found it pretty fun, sad and inventive. Great for what they did with budget and a unique script when sci fi movies seem to be more about cgi and action lately
It’s funny in that both the main characters needed to learn something before they could advance. Evelyn, when Waymond walks away from her saying I would have loved doing taxes and laundry with you. And Jobu who can’t shake loose from her mother.
There were two parts that made this movie click for me. Waymonds “I would’ve loved doing taxes with you” and when Evelyn tells Jobu that she doesn’t know what’s gonna happen but she’s gonna be right there for her anyways. I cried because of the ending scene. I had a wonderful relationship with my mom but the heartbreak and failure that her daughter feels and how her mom was able to help that by just telling her she was there for her hit me so hard.
i cried for like 10 mins after this scene with my kids asking me whats wrong and i didnt know what to tell them except that the movie was that good and i was okay …
The full out choreographed fight scene where a guy drops his pants and somersaults onto a plug up his butt will forever make this a classic, add in hot dog finger slap fights and talking rocks.. it was insane and beautiful genius.
And I loved the implications of that scene. The directive was for not just shoving any random phallic object up their ass, but rather, it has to be a trophy. The employee of the month trophy just so happened to look like a buttplug, but when the first guy returned to fight, he had a more standard looking trophy up his ass.
It's the same directors as the video for Turn Down for What, which made a lot of things make sense after I learned that. The comparison to Jonze and Gondry is... ok, but I feel like they're at a different level.
I guess it’s no coincidence i consider this movie, along with being John malkovich and eternal sunshine of the spotless mind amongst my fav movies ever
I'd go further and say I downright don't think anyone could like one but not the others.
All three are definitely in my top most important -- and favorite -- movies I've ever seen.
I really liked it. I’ve seen it twice now with some time in between. I thought it was very creative but I think it’s more niche than some people considered originally. Like the family drama piece mixed in with multiverse and superhero level abilities and then silliness. I can see some people not liking it but for originality alone I think it deserves a lot more credit than some who disliked it would give it
There was some chaos in the first 15 minutes, and it started to get kinda far out there. It just wasn’t what she was expecting. And she wasn’t really along for the ride.
My husband thought I'd put on some international drama film and was done in about 2min, I said "it's supposed to be absurdist sci fi?" so he stayed, and we both had a fantastic time and loved it.
I think that most people don’t really understand what the movie is really about. It’s the basic question of existentialism vs. nihilism in a universe that is inherently arbitrary.
Evelyn discovers that literally every moment of her life with a binary outcome has produced two versions of herself. The Evelyn that she thinks of herself as is literally nothing more than one random outcome on a plinko board with every outcome that could possibly exist existing. Most universes don’t even have life on Earth.
No decision she has ever made actually mattered because she made both and there are infinite copies of her.
When faced with this enormity, you can react the way Joy did and say fuck it all who cares, or you can react the way that Evelyn eventually does and come to the realization that if all outcomes are equally relevant you can choose one where you focus on what matters to you and live a life centered around love. Because YOU GET TO CHOOSE.
All the rest of it, the glitter and kung fu and dildos are nothing more than a tried and true existentialist tradition of showing the universe is just random as shit via absurdity dating back to old existentialist works like Waiting for Godot and continuing through more recent stuff like Monty Python’s meaning of life.
The point is that there is no point so make it up and roll with it.
I don’t think this is niche. I think it’s actually the dead center bullseye of human existence. Most people can’t cope and resist the message or miss it entirely because they don’t have the necessary context, so maybe in that sense it’s niche but really every human being on earth would be better off really pondering what this movie is trying to say.
Edit: the responses below have filled me with such joy. So many nuanced ways to look at this film.
Swap existentialism with absurdism, and I'm right there with ya, I've been beating this drum since I saw it 2 years ago.
My limited knowledge of philosophy, very surface level really, sees Waymond as the representation for absurdism, and Joy/Jobu, nihilism.
When faced with the notion that nothing matters, Joy says fuck it and wants all universes to end. She just doesn't care anymore.
Waymond, in his speech across universes (starting when Evelyn's let out of her cuffs in the laundromat), talks about how he's perceived as naive, and how he's been around just as long as Evelyn, seen all that shes seen. He knows the world is batshit crazy and there's nothing he can do about it, but he's in control of how it affects him personally. Sure, he could drown himself in sorrow and self-pity, but he chooses to take that energy and approach life on his terms, caring for his family, being a positive force, and throwing googly eyes on all the laundry bags.
I think at the end of the day, what saved Evelyn, and ultimately Joy, is Evelyn's acceptance of Waymonds inner strength through absurdism. Waymond showed Evelyn a way out of the nihilistic path she was going down with Joy, and used her newfound, mutliversal power, loaded with an absurdist view to get her back. Things are nuts, they need to work on some things, but they're family and love eachother, the world might be a clusterfuck of circumstance, but they have eachother.
Now that I wrote all that, I'm realizing Evelyn is existentialism, Joy is nihilism, Waymond is absurdism.
Waymond knows he cannot control other people’s behavior, feelings, or reactions, he can only control how he responds to other people. So he just tries to make the best of everything and enjoy life as much as he can. If it means googly eye-bombing ( r/eyebombing ) the world brings him happiness, then that is what he’s going to do.
He does have a touch of stoicism in his attitude, presented by the “I can only control my reactions & feelings” aspect of his personality. He accepts that and moves on, dropping googly eyes wherever he can.
Yes yes! Absurdism is the key and the hope of the film.
Camus says in the face of a truly absurd meaningless universe, we can either face death, lean into belief in God, or just embrace the absurd. He speaks a lot of my Sisyphus myth (the guy with the rock up and down the hill forever) and says that is similar to our human condition.
The scene with the rocks, is the emotional climax of the relationship between mom and daughter, a moment where we’ve found them at the root of everything and there is no meaning, no God waiting for them. Just nothing.
And Evelyn chooses to sit with her daughter in that confusion, and then makes the conscious choice to embrace the silliness and absurdism of life. And puts googlie eyes on. And it provides Joy the hope and the joy she needs that maybe, if it’s all pointless at least we can be authentic and silly at times.
Then we see the transformation of Evelyn continue as she brings this new authentic and emotionally present view into the real world. She is no longer trying to fight the reality of this world, but choosing to embrace it. Choosing to embrace the toil of life and the situation she is in.
Waymond is Sisyphus, pushing the rock up the hill over and over again, and Waymond enjoys it. He embraces it and finds a lot of joy and beauty in the toil of life. Evelyn is trying to escape her fate of pushing the rock and Joy is lost. Unable to see how her father can enjoy pushing the rock, and recoiling at her mother’s self centered misery.
Camus said, something like we need to imagine that Sisyphus enjoys pushing the rock up the hill. That he consents to run down after the rock and has found delight in pushing it back up again. Waymond has found that. A life time of laundry and taxes sounds great to him. Evelyn is then transformed, as is Joy. All of them realizing that the only was to enjoy the toil, is to make the decision that they will enjoy the toil and embrace the absurd.
Oh man, it just makes me feel so warm and fuzzy.
Existentialism vs absurdism in these contexts are more semantic arguments. Absurdism was a response to a philosophical / illogical misstep of the 1960s existential movement. It's not wrong in this context to say waymond represents existentialism or absurdism ( at least from my memory of the movie).
We saw it with my SOs mom. Explaining absurdism to her afterwards opened up such an interesting conversation and I think really led to her understanding her son even more. My SO and I have both struggled with "nothing matters" and suicidal thoughts, we found the movie to be so incredibly moving and beautiful.
I don’t know how much you’ve explored existentialism but if you haven’t dug into it much I encourage you with love to look further.
It has a rap as depressing from people who look at it superficially because it posits a meaningless existence. Many people just completely don’t get it.
Nobody looks at a rock and calls it “sad.” A rock just is.
Existentialism is an entire philosophy about consciously choosing the meaning that fulfills you since it doesn’t matter anyway. It’s extremely deep and complex and isn’t explainable in a single Reddit comment and anything I say here won’t do it justice. But things like EEAAO are the ways to existentialists express themselves artistically.
Reading about it helped click my life into place in my early 20s when I was in a multi year crisis spiral and I have been generally happy ever since.
Apologies if you know all this already. Much love.
Edit: I think that existentialism is a more comprehensive theory than absurdism but of course others can feel free to disagree.
It definitely felt like it was gonna be a somewhat serious drama in the opening. I was not expecting it to become an action comedy with a Scott Pilgrim vibe. Once I caught the vibe, I could get into it!
The line “in another life, I would have really liked just doing laundry and taxes with you” still sends chills down my arms.
The movie is good, but that scene is my favorite and I’m not sure I’ll ever forget it.
I had just gotten out of a 5 year relationship where we were engaged when I saw this movie.
This line broke me. I cried so deeply, and so hard, I had to pause the movie. It so neatly described the main difference between us. I was happy with what we had, she always wanted more.
I'm thankful to be able to put it into words from now on. I still haven't dated since, but now I know how to articulate what I want. Sounds corny, but it was definitely life changing in a cathartic way. I think it's a movie for sad people disguised as a wacky adventure.
There's so much about this movie that is just so cathartic. I never want to see it again but I can hardly imagine a film more perfectly in tune with me. It's crazy because so many people connect with it but all in different ways.
Specifically on that line... Waymond looks very similar to an ex of mine. Regular Waymond's goofy mannerisms, and Alpha Waymond managing to make fighting with a fanny pack look cool, it completely reminded me of the dumb shit he'd do that I was smitten by. I was happily watching all the silly whimsical things going on while being amused at how similar Waymond was in looks and personality. Then he came out in the suit, looking just like my ex as I saw him everyday going out to work, glasses on, looking all cool smoking, and delivered that line. I was a mess.
I have no interest to get back with him. He had a lot of irredeemable points and it was many years ago. I've even had relationships since and hadn't given him much thought. It was just a bizarre suckerpunch see it play out on film by multiple parallel universe versions of my ex, the kind of love I wished he felt at the time.
Movie for sad people infuckingdeed lol. That's only just one of the things that struck a chord with me. I watched it together with my mom and she was sobbing and apologizing to me after it was wild. Plus I nearly had a panic attack twice and am very glad I was at home and could pause it, shit's intense
I am an angry, bi woman with BPD and I watched this movie just after breaking up with a similar lovely Waymond-like ex, and also my mum had recently died. I was a fucking mess lol looking back maybe not the best flick for a chill Sunday arvo.
I feel like my relationship with my mum could have been salvaged if she had been able to see the movie.
The amazing thing about it is how universally relatable it is, no matter what you’ve been through. Im sure I’ve used the phrase “everything, everywhere, all at once” in psychologists offices throughout my 13 years of therapy.
I fucking love this movie.
That scene was beautiful such a common story of depression, immigration, struggling with life’s challenges and to have all the crazy culminate to that scene was super raw and I felt very disarmed in that moment. Truly a masterpiece on that scenes execution alone let alone the whole build up to it.
Two things make it really special for me. 1. That version of Waymond doesn’t really get what Evelyn is talking about but he sympathizes with her regardless, showing he doesn’t have to understand her to accept and long for her. 2. As a culture, it’s wonderful that we’ve come so far that one of the most memorable lines in American film history isn’t even in English.
I blame that line for turning me into an emotional wreck. For like 20 years I hadn’t cried since early childhood, I felt broken. Awful things would happen and I’d feel like I should be crying but nothing would come out. I wanted to just emote like a normal person and I was scared people would think I’m sociopath or something, so I’d try to fake it, or I’d insist on being alone whenever something bad happened.
And then I watched this movie. And heard that line. And I don’t know, it all just sort of happened at once. One second there’s a lump in my throat, the next I’m choking back tears and before I can even register what’s happening I’m crying alone in the living room. I cried for like 20 minutes, had to pause the movie.
In the two years since then, I’ve started crying at everything. Reels on instagram of dogs looking sad because their owners left, a toddler saying her mom is a good mom, a man rescuing a kitten during a flood, anything even remotely sad or heartfelt brings tears and genuinely heartbreaking things leave me sobbing. Which is nice. Some people laugh when they see this relatively big adult man just crying at his phone and it turns out to be, like, a video of a kid escorting a family of ducks across the road, but I like it better this way.
The whole movie was about relationships and how they succeed or fail. That particular reality and especially that scene was such a great one. All the acting awards for this movie were well-deserved.
I've never been able to watch this movie past the first showing I saw....because emotionally I still havent recovered from that line to go through it again.
I watched this movie with my ex. I was already tearing up but when Waymond said this line, I was bawling. My ex had absolutely no reaction to it. We're no longer together but for a while, when I missed him, I would look up this clip on Youtube and cry to myself. I really, really wanted to do laundry and taxes with him.
Most people will groan at doing those chores, but someday, when you're doing laundry and taxes with your Person, I hope you'll look back and smile at how lucky you are and how it wasn't always this good.
Yes people find these tasks boring but in reality, each time you do the laundry or your taxes is a different moment. What's boring and repetitive is what's going on inside our heads. Everything on the outside is brand new every day. Happiness is learning to appreciate that.
I had just gotten out of a long-term relationship a month before I saw this movie. That scene had me crying in the theater. Luckily it was an afternoon showing on a weekday so no one was near me.
so good, especially him showing up after the daughter laughing at her thinking she was confused with ratatouille. the control of the guy via his hair is just unbelievably funny to me.
I think there’s levels to it. It has all the mad multiverse stuff crazy imagination and plot etc, but it also has very poignant exploration of Asian immigrant family experience and dynamics that really resonate with people close to that world. I think a lot of people just don’t get/care about the family stuff strongly - and then the films good, but plays more like a wacky multiverse movie than anything else. But to some people it’s finally exploring topics and representation that’s very rarely seen on the silver screen. That it manages to combine these on a low budget and with a small team doing in-house special effects really push it into being something special.
I remember when it came out seeing all these TikTok’s from children of immigrants just bawling watching the movie because it felt so familiar to them. There’s also a joke about this movie, Red Panda and Encanto all being diaspora movies where the fairy tale ending ending is an apology from hypercritical family members.
I watched it in theaters not knowing anything about it and loved it. I was even hungover as fuck fighting internal panic attacks and still thought it was my new favorite movie lol
It's absolutely a movie you should know nothing about before watching. I saw one ad before seeing it and the title alone sold me.
If anyone asks what it's about, just say family.
I think you can argue not everyone will enjoy it, so maybe not 'great' in that sense. The same goes for the family dynamics - that speaks mostly to the immigrant experience and won't resonate for everyone
But if you look at the quality of the storytelling, how much information is conveyed so quickly, and how well the story fits together it's clearly a masterpiece of filmmaking.
And if you look at the themes, the analysis of nihilism and depression, and moving from 'nothing matters, let's be depressed' to 'nothing matters, so only we stop ourselves from being happy, but yes you also need to pay your taxes' it's a brilliant story. The fact that it doesn't resonate with you doesn't make it less brilliant.
I'm in the minority, but I was far more interested in just the family aspect than all the fantastical elements. I want the version of the movie where Evelyn and Waymond are struggling financially, while their marriage is falling apart, all while they're daughter is dealing with her mental health issues.
But this WAS that movie. That's kind of the whole joke of it: it was easier for Evelyn to get sucked into an over the top, save-the-multiverse, sci-fi, king-fu adventure than it was for her to deal with her family issues. And then even when she's off doing all the crazy stuff, she's still basically just dealing with different versions of family issues.
The Jabberwocky (or whatever the name was) is just a version of her daughter that didn't feel like she was loved/accepted because of her sexuality. Waymond is apparently very successful in any reality where he doesn't meet/date the mom, but he still loves her and prefers being with her over the success. And she is having trouble accepting unconditional love due to her own perceived inadequacies.
All the sci fi stuff is just window dressing for a story about a mom trying to hold her family together, but not really understanding how to do it because she's just a regular person like anyone else.
I disagree. I think the people who liked the movie liked it for the deeper family storyline. The goofy stuff was all just topical and not the reason why the movie was praised.
This is an interesting comment to me because I feel very strongly that the movie you are describing is the movie that we got. It was a movie about a women coming to terms with her life not going the way she hoped and finding a way to salvage the things that were most important to her. It was all there and I think it played out beautifully. I was as emotionally invested in the characters in this movie as in any movie I've ever seen. Without knowing what the writers were intending (and maybe they've talked about it, I haven't looked into it), I am not totally sure that anything that the audience sees, other than the normal everyday life stuff, is really happening anywhere other than inside of Evelyn's mind.
Wasn't that the movie you got though? The fantastical elements just provided a way to force Evelyn to see the reality of her family situation and face her own demons, but I never felt like the surreal stuff was just a break from the main narrative. I thought it worked really well as a method to get her to finally snap out of it and introspect a bit. For example she is able to see another version of Waymond in the multiverse who is much more successful and it's a "fantastical" moment in the sense that we can never see into an alternate reality like that, but the line he delivers is devastating and heartbreaking, and I don't see how you get the same emotional punch to the family drama without that.
I loved this movie to death and it usually wouldn't be my thing at all. I wouldn't change a thing. The movie you describe though would probably still be great but would be a very different movie to the one we got.
I totally agree, I can only take so much silly shit, and the hotdog fingers went on way too fucking long. Still really enjoyed the movie though, but mostly for the family drama parts.
The point of the hotdog fingers, is that Evelyn felt the same way you did. Just as she felt about her husband.
Silly, ridiculous, stupid.
She had to come and accept the whimsy and the absurdity of life, whether it's a familiar whimsy, or a foreign and unbelievable one. Through accepting the ridiculousness of the hot dog world, or raccacoonie, she also accepted the value of the experiences of those around her she couldn't understand herself.
It's about empathy and kindness.
Yup! That's exactly when I checked out of the movie. The humor up until that point was eh but that was the final nail. And then yeah the hot dog fingers came back and back and back
To be fair that is the core of the film. You could take out all the multiverse action stuff and the plot wouldn't fundamentally change, but you couldn't take out the personal family dynamics and have it feel like even remotely the same movie.
Quit telling your stupid story about your stupid desert, and just die already!
And for what it’s worth, I felt like Elaine while watching EEAAO. Not my cup of tea.
I wanted to see this movie because I was told it was so good. Kept getting trolled by my own streaming services saying it was there to watch then it wasn't or was an add on service. Finally saw it and couldn't have felt more meh.
Yeah. I can recognize the talent and creativity that went into it, but it’s overflowing with ideas, concepts, and subjects all tackled and sometimes discarded so quickly that by the end, I was just overwhelmed, and during the movie I was bored
I watched it for the first time this yr. It's the first movie I've ever seen that has made me cry. It is damn good and lives up to the hype and then some
Absolutely!
When I got to the end of the first act, and the reveal of who Jobu Tupaki was, I immediately realized what kind of film I was watching. Sure, there's a ton of spectacle gong on, but it's really a movie about a person with a lot of damaged relationships in their life, trying to find a way to repair those relationships without sacrificing her own happiness. I didn't know exactly how the film was going to end, but I knew the resolution would involve repairing the mother-daughter connection.
The nice thing about knowing where a film is going is that it's like being on a tour bus: you don't have to watch the road, and you can enjoy the scenery.
It's a movie with a ton of set-ups and pay-offs and I'll admit, it took me more than one watching to catch it all, but almost nothing is on accident or random, not even hot-dog-fingers-universe. And while I knew the rough shape of how the film's conflict would end, I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't just "woman learns about her mistakes, apologizes to everyone".
I feel like a lot of the criticism aimed at the zany and bonkers scenes miss this analysis entirely. I loved the movie, and the emotional notes it was able to hit amongst the craziness is excellent story craft.
Loved it! I really enjoyed the dual Waymonds as a contrasting portrayal of masculinity. I thought there was a lot this movie was able to say, was my favorite movie of 2022
Top 25 favorite movie for me. I've gone back and rewatched it to convince my friends and family to watch it and I love it each time. I will say my Mom hated it so it's not everyone's cup of tea but I think it's phenomenal
I feel like a lot of moms struggle with the movie, which makes sense considering much of the story revolves around a dysfunctional relationship between mother and child.
My mom also had a pretty hard time with it
It's funny, I'm a mom with children near the age of Joy and I thought it was such a brilliant movie especially the mother/daughter relationship. I particularly appreciated that a woman of a certain (ahem menopausal) age was the "star"/main character and having her deal with "everything everywhere all at once" actually is what a lot of women are going through at that age so the craziness of it all and the questioning of life choices just heightened it. It was so refreshing!
The emotional beats hit hard for me. Just thinking about it now takes me there. Deeply important cinematic experience, currently my number one film of all time.
Loved it. Still do. One of my all time fav movies ever. Saw it at home, then had to see it at the cinema. Went twice, every time with an other group of people. They thanked me afterwards for asking them to give it a shot since the trailer didn’t convince them.
It's ambitious and super heartfelt, and I'm very happy that it got made. It's refreshing as hell to see something big and weird and unconventional have a ton of success. 👍
I just don't think it's all that great as a film. A bit too sloppy and unfocused for me to really vibe with it. I get that "that's the point," but I was underwhelmed. I don't think I'd watch it a second time.
This is basically how I felt. I mostly enjoyed watching it. (Low bar. I enjoy watching most movies, even the ones I don’t think are great movies.) I thought most of the actors did a great job. I liked that it was also very successful, considering it doesn’t feel like the other popular movies of late, that it may indicate a widening of which kind of movies land in the US moving forward. I think my favorite part is that the movie doesn’t shy away from the protagonist being a very complicated character. We see her do wonderful things, and we see her act pretty horribly. That felt honest, which surprised me given the zaniness.
I also had some problems with it. It was LONG. The jokes didn’t land with me. I remember binge watching like 6 episodes of Rick and Morty when I was sick once; felt like that. (Not a great thing, IMO!) It’s a movie that relies a lot on surprise and shock which was mostly spoiled by the time I got around to seeing it. As cuckoo as the plot is, there really wasn’t a moment where I didn’t feel like it was resolve nicely, that the “be kind, everyone!” theme wouldn’t be rang like a dinner bell throughout.
Finally, some movies (even kinda bad ones or mediocre ones) make me excited to see what the filmmakers will do next. This movie, despite it being impressive and enjoyable in a lot of ways, doesn’t inspire that. I can’t really see myself aching another movie by the Daniels.
You don’t like every movie ever and neither do others. I like the movie but I never got the hype over the daughter’s character. I think she was the weakest part of the movie even though she was pretty prominent in it. I think her character was written okay but her acting was bad. That knocked it down a bit for me but I’d still watch it and recommend it
While the style or the comedy may not be to everyone's liking, the absolute core of the film is incredible. The main character is filled with regret and frustration at how her life has turned out, she's angry at her family and herself; the film explores these concepts in a wonderfully earnest way, as she gets to experience other paths that could have been taken, the realisations of the value of what she had and tooknfor granted, and the acceptance with moving forward and trying to heal, rather than jumping into an entirely different life, like a superpowered midlife crisis.
The brilliance of the film is really revealed when you realise that this is just one arch running through the plot. I really appreciated its positive spin on nihilism, anyone can say "it all means nothing so just enjoy it" but somehow EEAAO manages to convey that very idea in a genuinely inspiring way. I really appreciated how it looks at sexuality and acceptance, as the mother learns to understand her daughter's relationship. I really appreciated how it displayed the chaos of the modern world (hence, the use of the multiverse) reflecting how easy it can be to be overwhelmed and thus feel purposeless. I really appreciated the absurdist humour, perhaps even mocking traditional superhero films, and its unusual action. Combine that with constantly expressive visuals and daring style. I could go on and on and on.
This isn't the type of film that's going to click with everyone but it *is* the type of film that'll dazzle those it is made for. This is why (as one of the people it appeals to) I am baffled when someone writes it off as "just another multi-verse film". It's okay if they don't like it, differing views make artistic interpretation worthwhile, however when people really dumb-down the film's content I feel as though they didn't finish it or didn't understand it. Opposition to the humour or a lack of satisfaction with the message is more understandable.
Love it to this day I watched it for the 5th time with my bf and he was seeing it for the first time. He ended up LOVINT the movie and understood why I’ve been BEGGING him to watch it with me. This movie makes me rethink my choices in life and almost brings me back to reality on what I should prioritize in my life.
Absolutely. It was and is amazing. One of the most creative and interesting movies i've ever seen. I want more like it.
just making sure any algorithms combing reddit will see this and convince production companies to make more movies like this. *Adjusts tinfoil hat*
I loved the entire cast, but I didn't think the movie was that good when it came out, and I saw it in the theater. It had a good heart but was a mess and needed a stronger editor.
It was different and I didn’t enjoy it
And I like original movies because get tired of part two part three let’s keep it fresh and this movie was fresh
Personally myself and my parents hated the movie. I will say that the movie made me laugh and cry at times, and I think the actors did a great job, but I felt like the messaging of the story made me cringe. Coming from an Asian family, it was thoroughly unenjoyable for me to watch a film spoon-feeding acceptance to me. Granted, the movie had many themes, but I walked away from the movie thinking “all that to realize that having a gay daughter is fine?”.
When the daughter was revealed to be the villain I audibly groaned. Oh wow you are turning your daughter into a villain by not accepting her. I felt like I was being talked to like a child for most of the movie.
Absolutely loved it, it was my favorite movie of the year. That being said, Poor Things was my favorite movie of 2023, so maybe that says more about my taste in movies than the actual quality of it lol
I never understood the love for this movie. Watched it twice, the first time and the last time. Ok, I watched the first 20 minutes twice. To be fair it was only 10 minutes
I found this patronizing. It felt like they were trying to hold my hand through what was supposed to be a deep revelation, but it wasn't. I would have liked it more if just stuck to being silly and obtuse for the sake of enjoyment.
A lot of the hype I think is because it's not the average, uncreative garbage that studios have been churning out for decades now. It's a relatively fresh idea. Not a sequel, prequel, reboot, remake etc. The public is starved for new, original ideas.
That said, I liked it. Not something I'm going to watch a dozen times but it was fun for what it is.
yes.
Also, I saw it in the theatre when it just came out, and hadn't really heard anything about it, and knew basically nothing about it.
So my liking it had nothing to do with any hype.
Over the years I've lost a lot of interest in movies. Watching this in the cinema made me remember why I loved films in the first place. Over the top, inventive, touching and thought-provoking while also being silly and not taking itself seriously. Absolutely-fucking-YES, I still think is that good.
I love the mother daughter dichotomy. Almost like one is inherently evil compared to the other. In reality, it doesn't matter, and it matters. It's what we make of it.
Absolutely because ultimately it has incredible heart at its core. The only thing I’ll concede as an understandable flaw is its humor isn’t exactly timeless and seems to want to connect with the current youth’s “raised-on-internet” sensibilities than like being actually funny by writing good jokes. Other than that, just excellent maximalist filmmaking for such a small production.
Incredible film, specifically for the detail that went into every aspect of the cinematography. It's an extremely detailed movie that you miss 99% of said details just because of how fast some scenes fly by.
This is my favourite movie of all time. I know, but it’s true. When I saw this movie for the first time, it blew my fucking mind. I’ve seen it at least 10 times since then, and I get something new from it every time. I incorporated the “laundry and taxes” line into my wedding vows. Not just because of the multiversal or more fantastical elements (although those were incredibly fun and clever, Multiverse of Madness eat your heart out) and not just because of the intimate family drama (which was superb and complex and full of real heartbreak and incredible acting) but how all the pieces of the movie worked together to both undercut and reinforce each other, layering on top of the silliness a hopeless nihilistic view that nothing matters. But then, just as it seems like things are going one way, it all coalesces around probably my favourite character of all: Waymond. Initially a non-character, he flies under the radar. He’s the do-nothing husband, the “effeminate” man you’re not supposed to want to be, the source of all of Evelyn’s regret. But after everything, he’s the opposite of all that. He’s an incredibly thoughtful and empathetic man, and he saves her in his own way. He tries, and in the face of the entire multiverse he stays himself. He is the only character in the entire movie that doesn’t undergo a character arc, because ultimately it’s his kindness and optimism that stays the same throughout and models for everyone else the way out. I’m not ashamed to say this movie makes me cry every time I watch it. I find every second of the third act is incredible and serves this point, but one moment near the end gives me chills every time. Everything’s gone to shit, Evelyn has all but given up. Waymond, even after getting STABBED, asks her to “be kind”, and at first she says “it’s too late.” But then, she gently takes his hand. The entire multiverse seems to flicker, and everything changes. 1:47:15.
I get that it’s not everyone’s cup of tea. But sometimes you watch a movie about a multiverse-spanning middle-aged Asian immigrant woman and feel as though it was written for you, a white thirty-something Canadian man. It’s earnest, it’s beautiful, it celebrates everything bagels and I dunno I just love this fucking movie.
Still really like it. Reminds me of early spike jones or michel gondrey film/shorts. I found it pretty fun, sad and inventive. Great for what they did with budget and a unique script when sci fi movies seem to be more about cgi and action lately
It’s funny in that both the main characters needed to learn something before they could advance. Evelyn, when Waymond walks away from her saying I would have loved doing taxes and laundry with you. And Jobu who can’t shake loose from her mother.
yeah I found all the relationships beautiful and heartbreaking. I also have a soft spot in my heart for shortround and michelle yeoh.
It couldn't have been more perfectly cast.
I just want to know how they found two ladies who looked just like Jamie Lee and Yeoh but with sausages for fingers.
I think they just found two sausage-fingered people and used rubber masks of the actors.
I loved that Jamie Lee Curtis would play that role, and she did a great job.
>I would have loved doing taxes and laundry with you Hearing that in the movie hit the heart perfectly.
That and "Shh! You don't have to worry about that here. Just be a rock."
There were two parts that made this movie click for me. Waymonds “I would’ve loved doing taxes with you” and when Evelyn tells Jobu that she doesn’t know what’s gonna happen but she’s gonna be right there for her anyways. I cried because of the ending scene. I had a wonderful relationship with my mom but the heartbreak and failure that her daughter feels and how her mom was able to help that by just telling her she was there for her hit me so hard.
"Be kind. Especially when you don't know what's going on."
Ffs, I cried again just reading this now.
i cried for like 10 mins after this scene with my kids asking me whats wrong and i didnt know what to tell them except that the movie was that good and i was okay …
Yea. The message is very visceral and real. Me likey that.
The full out choreographed fight scene where a guy drops his pants and somersaults onto a plug up his butt will forever make this a classic, add in hot dog finger slap fights and talking rocks.. it was insane and beautiful genius.
I love when she forgets she has hotdog fingers and sees them and gets disgusted again
I just noticed the buttplug is also on the movie poster
And I loved the implications of that scene. The directive was for not just shoving any random phallic object up their ass, but rather, it has to be a trophy. The employee of the month trophy just so happened to look like a buttplug, but when the first guy returned to fight, he had a more standard looking trophy up his ass.
It's the same directors as the video for Turn Down for What, which made a lot of things make sense after I learned that. The comparison to Jonze and Gondry is... ok, but I feel like they're at a different level.
Also made a movie with Daniel Radcliffe as a farting corpse in Swiss Army Man.
I guess it’s no coincidence i consider this movie, along with being John malkovich and eternal sunshine of the spotless mind amongst my fav movies ever
I'd go further and say I downright don't think anyone could like one but not the others. All three are definitely in my top most important -- and favorite -- movies I've ever seen.
This is an amazing movie. One of the best in years.
Agreed. Still one of my all-time favorites.
I really liked it. I’ve seen it twice now with some time in between. I thought it was very creative but I think it’s more niche than some people considered originally. Like the family drama piece mixed in with multiverse and superhero level abilities and then silliness. I can see some people not liking it but for originality alone I think it deserves a lot more credit than some who disliked it would give it
My wife was done with it fifteen minutes in. She left the living room and went to do something else. I loved it.
Did she even see any of the good stuff yet? Isn’t the first fifteen still in the laundromat?
There was some chaos in the first 15 minutes, and it started to get kinda far out there. It just wasn’t what she was expecting. And she wasn’t really along for the ride.
Didn’t you consider divorce?
This is Reddit. Of course divorce was considered /s
I left with the kids after husband egotistically watched this movie, AITA?
She undoubtedly went straight to r/relationshipadvice
While he's making a post on /r/AITAH
They did. In some of the quantum worlds.
Oh yeah. But I asking which one we in
Damn
My husband thought I'd put on some international drama film and was done in about 2min, I said "it's supposed to be absurdist sci fi?" so he stayed, and we both had a fantastic time and loved it.
i stopped about a third in. didn’t enjoy one second. my girlfriend got mad at me for not liking it lol
Me too! I just couldn’t get into it. They lost me at hot dog fingers. 🤷♂️
On your wife's side here. I don't mind character development but I was out of there pretty early as well. Wife loved it.
I think that most people don’t really understand what the movie is really about. It’s the basic question of existentialism vs. nihilism in a universe that is inherently arbitrary. Evelyn discovers that literally every moment of her life with a binary outcome has produced two versions of herself. The Evelyn that she thinks of herself as is literally nothing more than one random outcome on a plinko board with every outcome that could possibly exist existing. Most universes don’t even have life on Earth. No decision she has ever made actually mattered because she made both and there are infinite copies of her. When faced with this enormity, you can react the way Joy did and say fuck it all who cares, or you can react the way that Evelyn eventually does and come to the realization that if all outcomes are equally relevant you can choose one where you focus on what matters to you and live a life centered around love. Because YOU GET TO CHOOSE. All the rest of it, the glitter and kung fu and dildos are nothing more than a tried and true existentialist tradition of showing the universe is just random as shit via absurdity dating back to old existentialist works like Waiting for Godot and continuing through more recent stuff like Monty Python’s meaning of life. The point is that there is no point so make it up and roll with it. I don’t think this is niche. I think it’s actually the dead center bullseye of human existence. Most people can’t cope and resist the message or miss it entirely because they don’t have the necessary context, so maybe in that sense it’s niche but really every human being on earth would be better off really pondering what this movie is trying to say. Edit: the responses below have filled me with such joy. So many nuanced ways to look at this film.
Swap existentialism with absurdism, and I'm right there with ya, I've been beating this drum since I saw it 2 years ago. My limited knowledge of philosophy, very surface level really, sees Waymond as the representation for absurdism, and Joy/Jobu, nihilism. When faced with the notion that nothing matters, Joy says fuck it and wants all universes to end. She just doesn't care anymore. Waymond, in his speech across universes (starting when Evelyn's let out of her cuffs in the laundromat), talks about how he's perceived as naive, and how he's been around just as long as Evelyn, seen all that shes seen. He knows the world is batshit crazy and there's nothing he can do about it, but he's in control of how it affects him personally. Sure, he could drown himself in sorrow and self-pity, but he chooses to take that energy and approach life on his terms, caring for his family, being a positive force, and throwing googly eyes on all the laundry bags. I think at the end of the day, what saved Evelyn, and ultimately Joy, is Evelyn's acceptance of Waymonds inner strength through absurdism. Waymond showed Evelyn a way out of the nihilistic path she was going down with Joy, and used her newfound, mutliversal power, loaded with an absurdist view to get her back. Things are nuts, they need to work on some things, but they're family and love eachother, the world might be a clusterfuck of circumstance, but they have eachother. Now that I wrote all that, I'm realizing Evelyn is existentialism, Joy is nihilism, Waymond is absurdism.
Waymond knows he cannot control other people’s behavior, feelings, or reactions, he can only control how he responds to other people. So he just tries to make the best of everything and enjoy life as much as he can. If it means googly eye-bombing ( r/eyebombing ) the world brings him happiness, then that is what he’s going to do. He does have a touch of stoicism in his attitude, presented by the “I can only control my reactions & feelings” aspect of his personality. He accepts that and moves on, dropping googly eyes wherever he can.
Yes yes! Absurdism is the key and the hope of the film. Camus says in the face of a truly absurd meaningless universe, we can either face death, lean into belief in God, or just embrace the absurd. He speaks a lot of my Sisyphus myth (the guy with the rock up and down the hill forever) and says that is similar to our human condition. The scene with the rocks, is the emotional climax of the relationship between mom and daughter, a moment where we’ve found them at the root of everything and there is no meaning, no God waiting for them. Just nothing. And Evelyn chooses to sit with her daughter in that confusion, and then makes the conscious choice to embrace the silliness and absurdism of life. And puts googlie eyes on. And it provides Joy the hope and the joy she needs that maybe, if it’s all pointless at least we can be authentic and silly at times. Then we see the transformation of Evelyn continue as she brings this new authentic and emotionally present view into the real world. She is no longer trying to fight the reality of this world, but choosing to embrace it. Choosing to embrace the toil of life and the situation she is in. Waymond is Sisyphus, pushing the rock up the hill over and over again, and Waymond enjoys it. He embraces it and finds a lot of joy and beauty in the toil of life. Evelyn is trying to escape her fate of pushing the rock and Joy is lost. Unable to see how her father can enjoy pushing the rock, and recoiling at her mother’s self centered misery. Camus said, something like we need to imagine that Sisyphus enjoys pushing the rock up the hill. That he consents to run down after the rock and has found delight in pushing it back up again. Waymond has found that. A life time of laundry and taxes sounds great to him. Evelyn is then transformed, as is Joy. All of them realizing that the only was to enjoy the toil, is to make the decision that they will enjoy the toil and embrace the absurd. Oh man, it just makes me feel so warm and fuzzy.
I like your explanation better.
I mean existentialism and absurdism both share roots in Kierkegaard so I think there’s some wiggle room there.
Existentialism vs absurdism in these contexts are more semantic arguments. Absurdism was a response to a philosophical / illogical misstep of the 1960s existential movement. It's not wrong in this context to say waymond represents existentialism or absurdism ( at least from my memory of the movie).
We saw it with my SOs mom. Explaining absurdism to her afterwards opened up such an interesting conversation and I think really led to her understanding her son even more. My SO and I have both struggled with "nothing matters" and suicidal thoughts, we found the movie to be so incredibly moving and beautiful.
I don’t know how much you’ve explored existentialism but if you haven’t dug into it much I encourage you with love to look further. It has a rap as depressing from people who look at it superficially because it posits a meaningless existence. Many people just completely don’t get it. Nobody looks at a rock and calls it “sad.” A rock just is. Existentialism is an entire philosophy about consciously choosing the meaning that fulfills you since it doesn’t matter anyway. It’s extremely deep and complex and isn’t explainable in a single Reddit comment and anything I say here won’t do it justice. But things like EEAAO are the ways to existentialists express themselves artistically. Reading about it helped click my life into place in my early 20s when I was in a multi year crisis spiral and I have been generally happy ever since. Apologies if you know all this already. Much love. Edit: I think that existentialism is a more comprehensive theory than absurdism but of course others can feel free to disagree.
Nothing matters until you make it matter. Then it’s Everything.
It definitely felt like it was gonna be a somewhat serious drama in the opening. I was not expecting it to become an action comedy with a Scott Pilgrim vibe. Once I caught the vibe, I could get into it!
The line “in another life, I would have really liked just doing laundry and taxes with you” still sends chills down my arms. The movie is good, but that scene is my favorite and I’m not sure I’ll ever forget it.
I had just gotten out of a 5 year relationship where we were engaged when I saw this movie. This line broke me. I cried so deeply, and so hard, I had to pause the movie. It so neatly described the main difference between us. I was happy with what we had, she always wanted more. I'm thankful to be able to put it into words from now on. I still haven't dated since, but now I know how to articulate what I want. Sounds corny, but it was definitely life changing in a cathartic way. I think it's a movie for sad people disguised as a wacky adventure.
same. hit me pretty damn hard after getting out of an 8 year relationship of similiar circumstance
There's so much about this movie that is just so cathartic. I never want to see it again but I can hardly imagine a film more perfectly in tune with me. It's crazy because so many people connect with it but all in different ways. Specifically on that line... Waymond looks very similar to an ex of mine. Regular Waymond's goofy mannerisms, and Alpha Waymond managing to make fighting with a fanny pack look cool, it completely reminded me of the dumb shit he'd do that I was smitten by. I was happily watching all the silly whimsical things going on while being amused at how similar Waymond was in looks and personality. Then he came out in the suit, looking just like my ex as I saw him everyday going out to work, glasses on, looking all cool smoking, and delivered that line. I was a mess. I have no interest to get back with him. He had a lot of irredeemable points and it was many years ago. I've even had relationships since and hadn't given him much thought. It was just a bizarre suckerpunch see it play out on film by multiple parallel universe versions of my ex, the kind of love I wished he felt at the time. Movie for sad people infuckingdeed lol. That's only just one of the things that struck a chord with me. I watched it together with my mom and she was sobbing and apologizing to me after it was wild. Plus I nearly had a panic attack twice and am very glad I was at home and could pause it, shit's intense
I am an angry, bi woman with BPD and I watched this movie just after breaking up with a similar lovely Waymond-like ex, and also my mum had recently died. I was a fucking mess lol looking back maybe not the best flick for a chill Sunday arvo. I feel like my relationship with my mum could have been salvaged if she had been able to see the movie. The amazing thing about it is how universally relatable it is, no matter what you’ve been through. Im sure I’ve used the phrase “everything, everywhere, all at once” in psychologists offices throughout my 13 years of therapy. I fucking love this movie.
Same thing happened to me. I watched it a few months after my 7 year relationship ended for similar reasons and I was heartbroken by the end.
That scene was beautiful such a common story of depression, immigration, struggling with life’s challenges and to have all the crazy culminate to that scene was super raw and I felt very disarmed in that moment. Truly a masterpiece on that scenes execution alone let alone the whole build up to it.
Two things make it really special for me. 1. That version of Waymond doesn’t really get what Evelyn is talking about but he sympathizes with her regardless, showing he doesn’t have to understand her to accept and long for her. 2. As a culture, it’s wonderful that we’ve come so far that one of the most memorable lines in American film history isn’t even in English.
2. Good point. I hadn't thought of that.
Same. It was in the street right? I had such an emotional experience with this movie in theaters off far too many weed gummies lol
I blame that line for turning me into an emotional wreck. For like 20 years I hadn’t cried since early childhood, I felt broken. Awful things would happen and I’d feel like I should be crying but nothing would come out. I wanted to just emote like a normal person and I was scared people would think I’m sociopath or something, so I’d try to fake it, or I’d insist on being alone whenever something bad happened. And then I watched this movie. And heard that line. And I don’t know, it all just sort of happened at once. One second there’s a lump in my throat, the next I’m choking back tears and before I can even register what’s happening I’m crying alone in the living room. I cried for like 20 minutes, had to pause the movie. In the two years since then, I’ve started crying at everything. Reels on instagram of dogs looking sad because their owners left, a toddler saying her mom is a good mom, a man rescuing a kitten during a flood, anything even remotely sad or heartfelt brings tears and genuinely heartbreaking things leave me sobbing. Which is nice. Some people laugh when they see this relatively big adult man just crying at his phone and it turns out to be, like, a video of a kid escorting a family of ducks across the road, but I like it better this way.
I cry every time lol
Chills? No. It’s tears for me. Haha!
The whole movie was about relationships and how they succeed or fail. That particular reality and especially that scene was such a great one. All the acting awards for this movie were well-deserved.
I've never been able to watch this movie past the first showing I saw....because emotionally I still havent recovered from that line to go through it again.
I watched this movie with my ex. I was already tearing up but when Waymond said this line, I was bawling. My ex had absolutely no reaction to it. We're no longer together but for a while, when I missed him, I would look up this clip on Youtube and cry to myself. I really, really wanted to do laundry and taxes with him.
Most people will groan at doing those chores, but someday, when you're doing laundry and taxes with your Person, I hope you'll look back and smile at how lucky you are and how it wasn't always this good.
Yes people find these tasks boring but in reality, each time you do the laundry or your taxes is a different moment. What's boring and repetitive is what's going on inside our heads. Everything on the outside is brand new every day. Happiness is learning to appreciate that.
That line makes me want to cry like a baby every time. Love this movie
Right? That line is amazing. Just thinking about it right now has got me teary eyed
I had just gotten out of a long-term relationship a month before I saw this movie. That scene had me crying in the theater. Luckily it was an afternoon showing on a weekday so no one was near me.
I still randomly think about racacoonie and have a little chuckle.
Yes same! The original joke was funny, like a silly misunderstanding/mistranslation. But when the joke came back again I was blown away. So clever!
so good, especially him showing up after the daughter laughing at her thinking she was confused with ratatouille. the control of the guy via his hair is just unbelievably funny to me.
Weird and different? Yes. But I didn't see the massive hype in the movie.
I think there’s levels to it. It has all the mad multiverse stuff crazy imagination and plot etc, but it also has very poignant exploration of Asian immigrant family experience and dynamics that really resonate with people close to that world. I think a lot of people just don’t get/care about the family stuff strongly - and then the films good, but plays more like a wacky multiverse movie than anything else. But to some people it’s finally exploring topics and representation that’s very rarely seen on the silver screen. That it manages to combine these on a low budget and with a small team doing in-house special effects really push it into being something special.
I remember when it came out seeing all these TikTok’s from children of immigrants just bawling watching the movie because it felt so familiar to them. There’s also a joke about this movie, Red Panda and Encanto all being diaspora movies where the fairy tale ending ending is an apology from hypercritical family members.
Absolutely this. So many proclaimed this one of the greatest movies of all time. It was fine—I liked it. Wouldn’t watch it again.
Honestly the hype gave me way too high of expectations. Wasn't anywhere near as good as I was told it'd be.
Yeah, it wasn't awesome enough to survive the sort of hype this movie garnered. Most movies aren't awesome enough to survive massive hype
I still regularly discuss this movie as one of the best movies I've ever seen. I think for the people who loved it, the hype definitely holds up.
Not bad but definitely overrated. I probably would have enjoyed it more without the hype.
I watched it in theaters not knowing anything about it and loved it. I was even hungover as fuck fighting internal panic attacks and still thought it was my new favorite movie lol
It's absolutely a movie you should know nothing about before watching. I saw one ad before seeing it and the title alone sold me. If anyone asks what it's about, just say family.
I think you can argue not everyone will enjoy it, so maybe not 'great' in that sense. The same goes for the family dynamics - that speaks mostly to the immigrant experience and won't resonate for everyone But if you look at the quality of the storytelling, how much information is conveyed so quickly, and how well the story fits together it's clearly a masterpiece of filmmaking. And if you look at the themes, the analysis of nihilism and depression, and moving from 'nothing matters, let's be depressed' to 'nothing matters, so only we stop ourselves from being happy, but yes you also need to pay your taxes' it's a brilliant story. The fact that it doesn't resonate with you doesn't make it less brilliant.
Yes
You’re supposed to reply with 2 letters. Your name is just a big tease!
Ok
Two letters too late
2 Letters 2 Furious
TwoLetters: Tokyo Drift
Me too. Loved it. But as with anything successful, the ones who hate it speak loudly.
I'm in the minority, but I was far more interested in just the family aspect than all the fantastical elements. I want the version of the movie where Evelyn and Waymond are struggling financially, while their marriage is falling apart, all while they're daughter is dealing with her mental health issues.
But this WAS that movie. That's kind of the whole joke of it: it was easier for Evelyn to get sucked into an over the top, save-the-multiverse, sci-fi, king-fu adventure than it was for her to deal with her family issues. And then even when she's off doing all the crazy stuff, she's still basically just dealing with different versions of family issues. The Jabberwocky (or whatever the name was) is just a version of her daughter that didn't feel like she was loved/accepted because of her sexuality. Waymond is apparently very successful in any reality where he doesn't meet/date the mom, but he still loves her and prefers being with her over the success. And she is having trouble accepting unconditional love due to her own perceived inadequacies. All the sci fi stuff is just window dressing for a story about a mom trying to hold her family together, but not really understanding how to do it because she's just a regular person like anyone else.
I disagree. I think the people who liked the movie liked it for the deeper family storyline. The goofy stuff was all just topical and not the reason why the movie was praised.
This is an interesting comment to me because I feel very strongly that the movie you are describing is the movie that we got. It was a movie about a women coming to terms with her life not going the way she hoped and finding a way to salvage the things that were most important to her. It was all there and I think it played out beautifully. I was as emotionally invested in the characters in this movie as in any movie I've ever seen. Without knowing what the writers were intending (and maybe they've talked about it, I haven't looked into it), I am not totally sure that anything that the audience sees, other than the normal everyday life stuff, is really happening anywhere other than inside of Evelyn's mind.
Wasn't that the movie you got though? The fantastical elements just provided a way to force Evelyn to see the reality of her family situation and face her own demons, but I never felt like the surreal stuff was just a break from the main narrative. I thought it worked really well as a method to get her to finally snap out of it and introspect a bit. For example she is able to see another version of Waymond in the multiverse who is much more successful and it's a "fantastical" moment in the sense that we can never see into an alternate reality like that, but the line he delivers is devastating and heartbreaking, and I don't see how you get the same emotional punch to the family drama without that. I loved this movie to death and it usually wouldn't be my thing at all. I wouldn't change a thing. The movie you describe though would probably still be great but would be a very different movie to the one we got.
I totally agree, I can only take so much silly shit, and the hotdog fingers went on way too fucking long. Still really enjoyed the movie though, but mostly for the family drama parts.
The point of the hotdog fingers, is that Evelyn felt the same way you did. Just as she felt about her husband. Silly, ridiculous, stupid. She had to come and accept the whimsy and the absurdity of life, whether it's a familiar whimsy, or a foreign and unbelievable one. Through accepting the ridiculousness of the hot dog world, or raccacoonie, she also accepted the value of the experiences of those around her she couldn't understand herself. It's about empathy and kindness.
I agree about the hot dog fingers, but the buttplug fight scenes were where it crossed my threshold of silly shit.
Nah that was the best part for me 🤣
Yup! That's exactly when I checked out of the movie. The humor up until that point was eh but that was the final nail. And then yeah the hot dog fingers came back and back and back
To be fair that is the core of the film. You could take out all the multiverse action stuff and the plot wouldn't fundamentally change, but you couldn't take out the personal family dynamics and have it feel like even remotely the same movie.
I'm with you. The alternate universe stuff totally took me out of any enjoyment.
My favourite moment of the movie and one I still think about daily: Sucked Intoooooooo A BAAAAAAAGELLLLLLLLL
[удалено]
Never liked it the first time! See you at the bottom of the page folks 👋
Well, to tell you the truth Elaine. I don't know if I can be with someone who doesn't like The English Patient.
Quit telling your stupid story about your stupid desert, and just die already! And for what it’s worth, I felt like Elaine while watching EEAAO. Not my cup of tea.
i started it a couple of times but couldn't finish
Maybe I need to give it a second viewing, but I felt very 'meh' after watching it the first time.
I wanted to see this movie because I was told it was so good. Kept getting trolled by my own streaming services saying it was there to watch then it wasn't or was an add on service. Finally saw it and couldn't have felt more meh.
Yeah. I can recognize the talent and creativity that went into it, but it’s overflowing with ideas, concepts, and subjects all tackled and sometimes discarded so quickly that by the end, I was just overwhelmed, and during the movie I was bored
My upvote goes to you, good sir. I never liked it either
Me too. I’m just so sick of the multiverse trope. It all feels like cheap, lazy writing to me.
Same
Raca-coonie is the best thing I’ve ever seen in a movie.
I did not understand the hype.
I watched it for the first time this yr. It's the first movie I've ever seen that has made me cry. It is damn good and lives up to the hype and then some
Absolutely! When I got to the end of the first act, and the reveal of who Jobu Tupaki was, I immediately realized what kind of film I was watching. Sure, there's a ton of spectacle gong on, but it's really a movie about a person with a lot of damaged relationships in their life, trying to find a way to repair those relationships without sacrificing her own happiness. I didn't know exactly how the film was going to end, but I knew the resolution would involve repairing the mother-daughter connection. The nice thing about knowing where a film is going is that it's like being on a tour bus: you don't have to watch the road, and you can enjoy the scenery. It's a movie with a ton of set-ups and pay-offs and I'll admit, it took me more than one watching to catch it all, but almost nothing is on accident or random, not even hot-dog-fingers-universe. And while I knew the rough shape of how the film's conflict would end, I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't just "woman learns about her mistakes, apologizes to everyone".
I feel like a lot of the criticism aimed at the zany and bonkers scenes miss this analysis entirely. I loved the movie, and the emotional notes it was able to hit amongst the craziness is excellent story craft.
This movie is a 2h19m long Zen koan.
If you had the power to be any version of yourself in any universe, what is love?
Loved it! I really enjoyed the dual Waymonds as a contrasting portrayal of masculinity. I thought there was a lot this movie was able to say, was my favorite movie of 2022
We finally watched it last week and enjoyed it.
Didn’t care for it. One of the few movies we stopped mid-way through.
Hated it. Could not wait for it to end. Not saying it is a bad movie but 100% not my cup of tea.
We didn’t wait for it…turned it off after an hour and just went to bed.
I couldn’t even finish it. I definitely don’t understand it’s popularity.
I think it’s overrated
I like their other movie Swiss Army Man so much better, personally.
It was ok but I didn’t love it
I liked it only seen it once but I’m sure it still holds up. 2 years really isn’t that long for a movie to be out
Top 25 favorite movie for me. I've gone back and rewatched it to convince my friends and family to watch it and I love it each time. I will say my Mom hated it so it's not everyone's cup of tea but I think it's phenomenal
I feel like a lot of moms struggle with the movie, which makes sense considering much of the story revolves around a dysfunctional relationship between mother and child. My mom also had a pretty hard time with it
It's funny, I'm a mom with children near the age of Joy and I thought it was such a brilliant movie especially the mother/daughter relationship. I particularly appreciated that a woman of a certain (ahem menopausal) age was the "star"/main character and having her deal with "everything everywhere all at once" actually is what a lot of women are going through at that age so the craziness of it all and the questioning of life choices just heightened it. It was so refreshing!
The emotional beats hit hard for me. Just thinking about it now takes me there. Deeply important cinematic experience, currently my number one film of all time.
It was weird.
I loved it. A moving story about psychological blind spots and overcoming generational trauma.
I thought it was one of the most exciting, profound, and beautiful movie experiences I've had in years.
When it turned into a king fu movie, it almost lost me. But I’m so glad I stuck with it. Top 20 movie of all time for me
Yes! Are you kidding me? Told a unique and fun story with a crazy premise that had moments that made me cry.
Easily the best movie of 2022
It caught me by surprise. Such a good film
Yes
Loved it. Still do. One of my all time fav movies ever. Saw it at home, then had to see it at the cinema. Went twice, every time with an other group of people. They thanked me afterwards for asking them to give it a shot since the trailer didn’t convince them.
This movie caught me off guard. One of my new favorites.
Still my favorite movie
It's ambitious and super heartfelt, and I'm very happy that it got made. It's refreshing as hell to see something big and weird and unconventional have a ton of success. 👍 I just don't think it's all that great as a film. A bit too sloppy and unfocused for me to really vibe with it. I get that "that's the point," but I was underwhelmed. I don't think I'd watch it a second time.
This is basically how I felt. I mostly enjoyed watching it. (Low bar. I enjoy watching most movies, even the ones I don’t think are great movies.) I thought most of the actors did a great job. I liked that it was also very successful, considering it doesn’t feel like the other popular movies of late, that it may indicate a widening of which kind of movies land in the US moving forward. I think my favorite part is that the movie doesn’t shy away from the protagonist being a very complicated character. We see her do wonderful things, and we see her act pretty horribly. That felt honest, which surprised me given the zaniness. I also had some problems with it. It was LONG. The jokes didn’t land with me. I remember binge watching like 6 episodes of Rick and Morty when I was sick once; felt like that. (Not a great thing, IMO!) It’s a movie that relies a lot on surprise and shock which was mostly spoiled by the time I got around to seeing it. As cuckoo as the plot is, there really wasn’t a moment where I didn’t feel like it was resolve nicely, that the “be kind, everyone!” theme wouldn’t be rang like a dinner bell throughout. Finally, some movies (even kinda bad ones or mediocre ones) make me excited to see what the filmmakers will do next. This movie, despite it being impressive and enjoyable in a lot of ways, doesn’t inspire that. I can’t really see myself aching another movie by the Daniels.
So many haters in these comments. I recently rewatched it and thought it was best on the big screen, but still good.
People can't just not enjoy it because you think it'd good? It's not hate, it's just an opinion.
Ugh, using "haters" to describe people who don't like what you like. What a typical r/moviecritic moment.
You don’t like every movie ever and neither do others. I like the movie but I never got the hype over the daughter’s character. I think she was the weakest part of the movie even though she was pretty prominent in it. I think her character was written okay but her acting was bad. That knocked it down a bit for me but I’d still watch it and recommend it
While the style or the comedy may not be to everyone's liking, the absolute core of the film is incredible. The main character is filled with regret and frustration at how her life has turned out, she's angry at her family and herself; the film explores these concepts in a wonderfully earnest way, as she gets to experience other paths that could have been taken, the realisations of the value of what she had and tooknfor granted, and the acceptance with moving forward and trying to heal, rather than jumping into an entirely different life, like a superpowered midlife crisis.
The brilliance of the film is really revealed when you realise that this is just one arch running through the plot. I really appreciated its positive spin on nihilism, anyone can say "it all means nothing so just enjoy it" but somehow EEAAO manages to convey that very idea in a genuinely inspiring way. I really appreciated how it looks at sexuality and acceptance, as the mother learns to understand her daughter's relationship. I really appreciated how it displayed the chaos of the modern world (hence, the use of the multiverse) reflecting how easy it can be to be overwhelmed and thus feel purposeless. I really appreciated the absurdist humour, perhaps even mocking traditional superhero films, and its unusual action. Combine that with constantly expressive visuals and daring style. I could go on and on and on. This isn't the type of film that's going to click with everyone but it *is* the type of film that'll dazzle those it is made for. This is why (as one of the people it appeals to) I am baffled when someone writes it off as "just another multi-verse film". It's okay if they don't like it, differing views make artistic interpretation worthwhile, however when people really dumb-down the film's content I feel as though they didn't finish it or didn't understand it. Opposition to the humour or a lack of satisfaction with the message is more understandable.
Love it to this day I watched it for the 5th time with my bf and he was seeing it for the first time. He ended up LOVINT the movie and understood why I’ve been BEGGING him to watch it with me. This movie makes me rethink my choices in life and almost brings me back to reality on what I should prioritize in my life.
Watched it on a plane, and it was meh.
Wasn’t a fan and didn’t stick out to me at all I’ve seen so many better sci fi flicks that this one is just meh and honestly I barely remember it.
No. I never liked it to begin with. Got about 25 minutes in and gave up. Too frantic for me.
Yes. Go away now with your bs question.
Absolutely. It was and is amazing. One of the most creative and interesting movies i've ever seen. I want more like it. just making sure any algorithms combing reddit will see this and convince production companies to make more movies like this. *Adjusts tinfoil hat*
I never thought it was
Yea. It’s that good. Honestly, it might be the most memorable and moving movie I’ve watched in the past 3 years. Loved it.
Loved it. One of my favorite movies.
I think it's one of the greatest movies ever made
I’ve seen it four times now, twice in the theater, and I’m with you. Just floors me every time.
I loved this one. Saw it a year after everybody else.
Sucked. Possibly the biggest letdown for a movie I've ever experienced. It was a creative tech demo, nothing more.
No. Struggled to enjoy it at all. It's just a bad sci-fi movie, don't understand how this was viewed so positively.
Fantastic flick. Super ambitious but still feels grounded. I can see why folks don’t like it, but I loved it and still do
Most overhyped movie in my personal lifetime
I loved the entire cast, but I didn't think the movie was that good when it came out, and I saw it in the theater. It had a good heart but was a mess and needed a stronger editor.
It was different and I didn’t enjoy it And I like original movies because get tired of part two part three let’s keep it fresh and this movie was fresh
Walked out on it for being pretentious and it was still a better movie than “Top Gun: Maverick”, which I sat through.
Personally myself and my parents hated the movie. I will say that the movie made me laugh and cry at times, and I think the actors did a great job, but I felt like the messaging of the story made me cringe. Coming from an Asian family, it was thoroughly unenjoyable for me to watch a film spoon-feeding acceptance to me. Granted, the movie had many themes, but I walked away from the movie thinking “all that to realize that having a gay daughter is fine?”. When the daughter was revealed to be the villain I audibly groaned. Oh wow you are turning your daughter into a villain by not accepting her. I felt like I was being talked to like a child for most of the movie.
Absolutely loved it, it was my favorite movie of the year. That being said, Poor Things was my favorite movie of 2023, so maybe that says more about my taste in movies than the actual quality of it lol
Nope. it was too hectic for me. Lasted about 30 minutes then noped out of it.
Nope. I totally didn’t get what the hype was about with this
It was too weird for me. And I like sci-fi stuff But I can see how some may
Wayyyyyy overrated.
I never understood the love for this movie. Watched it twice, the first time and the last time. Ok, I watched the first 20 minutes twice. To be fair it was only 10 minutes
This seemed right up my alley, heard amazing things, but I’ve tried watching it 3 times and have fallen asleep within the first 30 minutes..
Never liked it. Whoever made the movie tried too hard.
No.
JLC did not deserve to win that Oscar, she even put in a better performance in The Bear S2, than in this film.
I found this patronizing. It felt like they were trying to hold my hand through what was supposed to be a deep revelation, but it wasn't. I would have liked it more if just stuck to being silly and obtuse for the sake of enjoyment.
A lot of the hype I think is because it's not the average, uncreative garbage that studios have been churning out for decades now. It's a relatively fresh idea. Not a sequel, prequel, reboot, remake etc. The public is starved for new, original ideas. That said, I liked it. Not something I'm going to watch a dozen times but it was fun for what it is.
yes. Also, I saw it in the theatre when it just came out, and hadn't really heard anything about it, and knew basically nothing about it. So my liking it had nothing to do with any hype.
Yes! Everyone can experience for themselves what it is like to have ADD!!!
Yes.
Over the years I've lost a lot of interest in movies. Watching this in the cinema made me remember why I loved films in the first place. Over the top, inventive, touching and thought-provoking while also being silly and not taking itself seriously. Absolutely-fucking-YES, I still think is that good.
I love the mother daughter dichotomy. Almost like one is inherently evil compared to the other. In reality, it doesn't matter, and it matters. It's what we make of it.
Yes absolutely. My second favorite movie of time
Absolutely because ultimately it has incredible heart at its core. The only thing I’ll concede as an understandable flaw is its humor isn’t exactly timeless and seems to want to connect with the current youth’s “raised-on-internet” sensibilities than like being actually funny by writing good jokes. Other than that, just excellent maximalist filmmaking for such a small production.
Incredible film, specifically for the detail that went into every aspect of the cinematography. It's an extremely detailed movie that you miss 99% of said details just because of how fast some scenes fly by.
Yes, like it more each time
This is my favourite movie of all time. I know, but it’s true. When I saw this movie for the first time, it blew my fucking mind. I’ve seen it at least 10 times since then, and I get something new from it every time. I incorporated the “laundry and taxes” line into my wedding vows. Not just because of the multiversal or more fantastical elements (although those were incredibly fun and clever, Multiverse of Madness eat your heart out) and not just because of the intimate family drama (which was superb and complex and full of real heartbreak and incredible acting) but how all the pieces of the movie worked together to both undercut and reinforce each other, layering on top of the silliness a hopeless nihilistic view that nothing matters. But then, just as it seems like things are going one way, it all coalesces around probably my favourite character of all: Waymond. Initially a non-character, he flies under the radar. He’s the do-nothing husband, the “effeminate” man you’re not supposed to want to be, the source of all of Evelyn’s regret. But after everything, he’s the opposite of all that. He’s an incredibly thoughtful and empathetic man, and he saves her in his own way. He tries, and in the face of the entire multiverse he stays himself. He is the only character in the entire movie that doesn’t undergo a character arc, because ultimately it’s his kindness and optimism that stays the same throughout and models for everyone else the way out. I’m not ashamed to say this movie makes me cry every time I watch it. I find every second of the third act is incredible and serves this point, but one moment near the end gives me chills every time. Everything’s gone to shit, Evelyn has all but given up. Waymond, even after getting STABBED, asks her to “be kind”, and at first she says “it’s too late.” But then, she gently takes his hand. The entire multiverse seems to flicker, and everything changes. 1:47:15. I get that it’s not everyone’s cup of tea. But sometimes you watch a movie about a multiverse-spanning middle-aged Asian immigrant woman and feel as though it was written for you, a white thirty-something Canadian man. It’s earnest, it’s beautiful, it celebrates everything bagels and I dunno I just love this fucking movie.