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CALIFORNIA SOCIOLOGY FORUM VOL. 5 

Film Review: Everything Everywhere All At Once by Daniel 

Kwan and Daniel Scheinert 

Taryn Bates and Darron Cunanan 

Department of Sociology 

California State University, Los Angeles 

 

Everything Everywhere All At Once (EEAAO) is the 

second feature film by directors known as the “Daniels,” and it 

has broken numerous records since releasing in March 2022. 

Under distribution through indie house A24, the film was 

originally only given a limited run but quickly increased to a 

nationwide release due to popular demand – even while the movie 

theater business struggled to bounce back from pandemic 

conditions. EEAAO was recognized during awards seasons since 

its release, setting a high bar with upward of 300 nominations and 

becoming the first film to sweep the Oscars in all the “above-the-

line” categories for which it was nominated: Best Picture, Best 

Original Screenplay, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Supporting 

Actor, and Best Supporting Actress. Clearly this film has had an 

impact. 

The “Daniels” writer/director team is made up of Daniel 

Kwan and Daniel Scheinert. They met while majoring in film at 

Emerson College, located in Boston. For Kwan, Emerson College 

was just 40 minutes from where he had been born and raised by 

parents who are immigrants from Taiwan and Hong Kong. On the 

other hand, Scheinert was born and raised in Alabama before 

moving to Massachusetts. Since 2010, the duo’s initial rise to fame 

came from directing (as well as often appearing in) odd yet eye-

catching surrealist music videos for popular musicians, such as 

“Turn Down For What” by DJ Snake and Lil Jon. 

This film perfectly portrays a person struggling to fulfill 

competing demands, a concept sociologists refer to as role 

conflict. Evelyn Wong is constantly being pulled in different 

directions because of her roles and she cannot meet their demands. 

She is torn between her positions as a homemaker, business owner, 

person with their own aspirations, and as an interdimensional 

heroine. We see in the opening scene Evelyn prepares a meal for 

the family while the dinner table is scattered with paperwork 

related to her laundromat business. As a homemaker, she is 



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CALIFORNIA SOCIOLOGY FORUM VOL. 5 

expected to tend to the needs of her husband, daughter, and father 

but her responsibilities as a business owner are making it difficult 

for her to fulfill those responsibilities. The consequence of this 

conflict is husband Waymond serving divorce paperwork to 

Evelyn. She is presented with a new role of an interdimensional 

heroine by an alternate universe version of Waymond. Her 

newfound role eventually comes into conflict with her role as a 

business owner and homemaker as she struggles to save her 

business at an IRS office while fighting an interdimensional 

villain at the same time. Despite the science fiction premise, 

Evelyn Wong’s situation beautifully reflects the lives of women 

juggling their roles in daily life. 

EEAAO is a multiverse-hopping, genre bending movie 

about realizing one’s potential and choosing the life that is most 

authentic to oneself. While Evelyn is trying to sort out her taxes, 

counterparts from “the Alphaverse” start showing up in the bodies 

of her family and acquaintances. Alpha Waymond explains that 

their Evelyn discovered how to cross between parallel universes 

through “verse-jumping” into the bodies of counterparts by 

engaging in strange actions that the individual normally would 

never do. Unfortunately, Alpha Evelyn’s zeal for pushing her 

daughter Joy to her fullest potential accidentally broke Joy’s mind 

and created an irreverent entity going by Jobu Tupaki. Jobu in turn 

killed Alpha Evelyn. Ever since, the Alphaverse has been looking 

for an Evelyn that can stop Jobu from obliterating everything. 

Alpha Waymond has a realization that this Evelyn is the greatest 

failure out of every Evelyn in the multiverse, which means she 

actually has the most pathway connections to verse-jump into 

other versions of herself who succeeded in specific talents. She 

eventually realizes that the only way to defeat Jobu is to become 

like her. At first, Evelyn also falls prey to nihilism, but then 

Waymond’s reminders to be kind breaks through the noise and 

allows Evelyn to engage in empathy. This empathy then allows 

Jobu to also turn away from nihilism and embrace community 

support.  

The film has great strengths in showcasing how to be true 

to oneself, even amid chaos, while also highlighting how different 

personalities can create a truly supportive community. Though 

Evelyn is the main character, the film shows the struggles of 



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CALIFORNIA SOCIOLOGY FORUM VOL. 5 

assimilation and intergenerational trauma through the presence of 

her father Gong Gong and her daughter Joy. Evelyn fears that 

Gong Gong will see Joy’s identity as a lesbian, who is also dating 

a non-Asian woman, as a personal failure of Evelyn’s parenting. 

Joy was born and raised in America, so is the most assimilated into 

American culture. Gong Gong is visiting but does not speak 

English and upholds a lot of traditional Chinese perspectives. 

Evelyn is in the middle, feeling pulled in multiple directions on 

what she should be embodying.  

The trauma of assimilation bleeding into intergenerational 

issues is evident between Evelyn and Joy each fearing 

disappointing the generation that raised them. Evelyn takes refuge 

in universes where she did not marry Waymond, causing Joy to 

not exist. While at first Evelyn sees these as signs that her life 

would have been better if she had rejected Waymond, it turns out 

that what she really needed was time and space to find her true 

self. She realizes she loves Waymond and that he has always done 

what he can to support her and Joy. Once Evelyn embraces her 

own identity, she is able to give space and support for Joy/Jobu to 

make the choices that are best for her own self as well.  

The movie addresses topics of roles, mental health, 

support systems, assimilation, but the positive messages may get 

lost in the absurdist aspects of the plot. I (Darron) imagine that 

children of immigrant parents want to share this film with their 

parents to show them an example of how families support the very 

different lives of their assimilated children. However, between 

scenes of characters trying to sit on a trophy to induce verse-

jumping and an odd hotdog finger world, children of immigrants 

may be hesitant to share with a generation that may find these gags 

inappropriate. Despite those scenes, families should give the 

movie a chance! 

While not explicitly stated in the film, the “Daniels” have 

explained that Evelyn has undiagnosed ADHD. When looking 

into real-life examples of a person who is constantly being 

distracted and/or dissociating, they came across the explanation



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CALIFORNIA SOCIOLOGY FORUM VOL. 5 

for undiagnosed ADHD in adults. This sparked a revelation that 

Kwan openly explains:  

I started taking some ADHD tests. I started 

realizing . . . as tears were falling down my face . 

. . ‘Oh, no, maybe this is who I am. Maybe this is 

why I had such a hard time in school and still have 

such a hard time in my day-to-day life.’ Even 

without trying to put in ADHD, this movie was 

going to be infused with it from the very 

beginning. The DNA of it was all going to be 

there. (Kwong, Lu, and Grayson 2023) 

Individuals diagnosed with ADHD as an adult may resonate with 

Evelyn’s journey trying to manage distractions and waves of 

hyperfocus while also feeling pressure from societal expectations 

of what an adult “should” be doing to support everyone. Overall, 

this movie does a wonderful job of showing how everyone 

embracing their own personality truly builds the strongest support 

network. 

 

REFERENCES 

Kwan, Daniel and Daniel Scheinert. 2022. Everything Everywhere 

All At Once. New York, NY: IAC Films. Los Angeles, CA: 

Gozie AGBO; Year of the Rat; Ley Line Entertainment. 

Kwong, Emily, Thomas Lu, and Gisele Grayson. 2023. “Meet the 

mathematical minds behind Oscar-nominated 

‘Everything Everywhere All At Once.’” Short Wave from 

National Public Radio. Retrieved April 11, 2023 

https://www.npr.org/2023/01/24/1150938152/meet-the-

mathematical-minds-behind-oscar-nominated-

everything-everywhere-all-at-. 


