Cast of Everything Everywhere All at Once

Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert's anarchic ballet of everything bagels, googly-eyed rocks and one messy tax audit emerged as an improbable Academy Awards ...

Last year, Apple TV’s “CODA” became the first streaming movie to win best picture. Ratings usually go up when the nominees are more popular, which certainly goes for “Top Gun: Maverick” and “Avatar: The Way of Water.” “Thank you to the Academy for recognizing the superhero that is a Black woman,” said Carter. Tony Curtis was nominated for “The Defiant Ones” in 1959 and Janet Leigh was nominated in 1961 for “Psycho.” Curtis thanked “hundreds” of people who put her in that position. The “Top Gun” sequel ($1.49 billion), took best sound. ABC’s telecast opened traditionally: with a montage of the year’s films (with Kimmel edited into a cockpit in “Top Gun: Maverick”) and a lengthy monologue. Daniel Roher’s “Navalny,” about the imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, took best documentary. Sarah Polley, though, won best adapted screenplay for the metaphor-rich Mennonite drama “Women Talking.” Scheinert dedicated the award “to the moms of the world.” “My imposter syndrome is at an all-time high,” said Kwan. Angela Bassett (“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”) would have been the first performer to win an Oscar for a Marvel movie. Jimmy Kimmel, hosting for the third time, pledged a ceremony with “no nonsense.” He said anyone who wanted to “get jiggy with it” this year would have to come through a fearsome battalion of bodyguards, including Michael B. It’s the first best actress win for a non-white actress in 20 years.

Michelle Yeoh, Jamie Lee Curtis, Ke Huy Quan teamed with The Daniels on a comedy that beat major nominees from Steven Spielberg and Tom Cruise at the ...

[Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse](https://www.polygon.com/2018/11/28/18105326/spider-man-into-the-spider-verse-review)’s visual experiments and boundary-pushing animation. Recognizing it and rewarding it is a good look for the notoriously stodgy awards body. As the conversation around the movie got bigger and bigger, it started to take on scrappy-underdog overtones, especially by the time it became [the first $100 million box-office hit](https://variety.com/2022/film/box-office/everything-everywhere-all-at-once-box-office-milestone-1235325126/) for small arthouse distributor A24. A story full of [Easter eggs and in-jokes](https://www.polygon.com/23015417/everything-everywhere-all-at-once-easter-egg-ape-suit-daniels) aimed directly at cinephiles. And it’s designed above all to make the world a better place, to push viewers to come away wanting to be better, kinder people. It represents the kind of innovation and excellence that the Academy should be looking for every year. But a year ago, no one could have watched Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert’s [multiverse masterpiece](https://www.polygon.com/reviews/23006000/everything-everywhere-all-at-once-review) and anticipated this kind of response or recognition — not from the notoriously stodgy Academy. Just getting Academy attention in the first place makes the Daniels’ film a triumph. [Ke Huy Quan’s triumphant return to film](https://www.polygon.com/23636834/oscars-2023-ke-huy-quan-best-supporting-actor-speech-everything-everywhere-all-at-once); [Michelle Yeoh](https://www.polygon.com/23020865/michelle-yeoh-interview-everything-everywhere-all-at-once) landing a leading role worthy of her acting skills, as well as her martial-arts skills. It played like a bigger and brighter version of the Daniels’ first movie, Even in the era of the expanded Best Picture category, designed to lure in viewers by recognizing a few populist blockbusters per year, the Academy still focuses the actual awards on historical dramas and prestige films. There were so many reasons to see the film as a collective feel-good experience for cinema fans:

Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert's anarchic ballet of everything bagels, googly-eyed rocks, and one messy tax audit emerged as an improbable Academy Awards ...

Her win, in one of the most competitive categories this year, denied a victory for comic-book fans. Angela Bassett would have been the first performer to win an Oscar for a Marvel movie. Quan, beloved for his roles as Short Round in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Data in Goonies, had all but given up acting before being cast in Everything Everywhere All at Once. She’s the first best actress to win for a non-white actress in 20 years. In winning best director, the Daniels — both 35 years old — won for just their second and decidedly un-Oscar bait feature. The audience — including his Temple of Doom director, Steven Spielberg — gave Quan a standing ovation as he fought back tears.

The queer-themed multiverse romp received seven Academy Awards, including best picture.

But Everything Everywhere also netted [11 total nominations](https://www.them.us/story/oscars-2023-tar-the-whale-everything-everywhere-all-at-once-lgbt-nominations) across the board, the most of any film this year, including four separate acting nods for stars Michelle Yeoh, Jamie Lee Curtis, Ke Huy Quan, and Stephanie Hsu. In fact, Everything Everywhere [broke a SAG Awards record](https://www.them.us/story/everything-everywhere-all-at-once-sag-awards), taking home four trophies, the most any single movie has earned since the inception of the ceremony. It now has the most above-the-line Oscars of any single film since the inception of the Motion Picture Academy, referring to awards for writing, producing, acting, and directing.

The film was nominated for 11 Oscars and took home seven awards. Advertisement. Taking home the top prize at the Oscars caps a night of nominations and wins ...

The movie also broke new ground for Asian representation in Hollywood.

It was [reported](https://variety.com/2021/film/news/inside-a24-billion-dollar-sale-1235018988/)that the studio was exploring a sale for up to $3 billion. - "Coda" became the first film with a predominantly deaf cast to win best picture in 2022. - "Parasite" became the first foreign-language film to win best picture in 2020. - "Moonlight" became the first film to win best picture with an all-black cast in 2017. Between the lines: In addition to winning the award for best picture, "Everything Everywhere All at Once," also won prizes for best actress, best supporting actor, editing, best supporting actress, directing and best original screenplay, [Michelle Yeoh](https://www.axios.com/2023/03/13/oscars-2023-michelle-yeoh-best-actress-asian-history) becoming the first self-identified actress of Asian descent to win the award for best actress and Ke Huy Quan becoming the second Asian ever to win the award for best supporting actor.

Every time anyone involved with this genre-defying film wins an award, they are overcome with emotion. But as Beverley Wang explains, these are healing ...

"The way I see it, these are healing tears we're seeing in the acceptance speeches of the cast of Everything Everywhere All at Once. There is a family story at the core of it, but there's so much other stuff happening going on; there is multiverse-jumping, extraordinary fight scenes. "[They're thinking:] This is going to be an immigrant story about our cultures clashing, which at this point, we've seen so many of those. His Golden Globe speech was one for the ages: "For so many years, I was afraid I had nothing more to offer. Wang adds: "It's so extraordinary that he [Hong] even exists in Hollywood, the persistence that would have taken. And you're not supposed to be here," says Wang. But she first came to Hollywood's attention as a Bond girl in Tomorrow Never Dies in 1997, and then had an incredible turn in Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000).Loading [he] is [finally] being recognised as a good actor with range." Whichever way you dice it, there's nothing else quite like it in mainstream American cinema at the multiplex." It becomes quickly clear that there's a lot more at stake than her struggling business and personal life (and for those living under a rock, incredible fight to be here today, but I think it's worth it." Maisel) plays the couple's increasingly distant daughter Joy, and Jamie Lee Curtis (

For all its representational achievements, the sentimental, self-important 'Everything Everywhere All At Once' is not as bold a choice as it appears.

Against the unceasing din of the multiverse, what chance was there for the subtler glories of the best picture race — the haunting ambiguities of “Tár,” the lyrical epiphanies of “The Fabelmans,” the intensely pointed debates of “Women Talking” or, hell, even the exploding mortar shells of “All Quiet on the Western Front,” which are indeed quiet by comparison? Could that be why “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” which spends a lot of time laying out its delightfully screw-loose multiverse logic, seems to overexplain its big emotional beats and cultural specificities? The victory of “Everything Everywhere” ushers in a few best picture precedents of its own, with its “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Butt Plug” action sequences and those overworked hot-dog fingers (proudly worn by David Byrne during a midtelecast performance of the Oscar-nominated song “This Is a Life”). [like the brilliant South Korean thriller “Parasite,”](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2020-02-09/oscars-parasite-best-picture-glass-ceiling) a movie to which “Everything Everywhere All at Once” otherwise bears little resemblance. But even allowing for the movie’s comically (and cosmically) exaggerated register, these moments come across as strained, overworked approximations of Asian immigrant family banter — the work of filmmakers who seem eager to strike a chord with one half of the audience yet desperate to make sure they don’t lose the other half. There’s great purpose and meaning in the cultural redress that “Everything Everywhere” attempts, though I do wish its execution were surer, its aim truer. How to reckon, then, with the fact that “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” with its phenomenal box office success and seven Oscar wins Sunday night, now stands as the most culturally and commercially significant Asian American movie ever made? [best picture of the year](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/awards/story/2023-03-12/oscars-2023-winners-list) was a far cry [from my own](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2022-12-19/the-best-movies-of-2022-and-where-to-find-them). The academy is a more diverse, more international organization than it was several years ago, and its tastes are not easy to pin down. I’ve thought about the intense loyalty that the A24 brand commands among younger audiences in particular (they’re like Disney/Marvel fans with edgier taste), some of whom have taken to championing “Everything Everywhere” and attacking its detractors with such cultish devotion that Kwan himself has But I’ve also reflected on the folly of such generalizations, which are nearly as reductive as the notion that every Asian American everywhere — myself included — must love the year’s most acclaimed and popular Asian American movie. I’ve reflected on the short time I spent on a film jury years ago with Kwan, who was as lovely, thoughtful and brilliant then as he’s been in his many acceptance speeches — the kind of guy whose movies you want to embrace wholeheartedly, rather than puzzle over from a somewhat vexed distance.](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2022-03-07/turning-red-review-disney-pixar)

The metaphysical multiverse comedy “Everything Everywhere All at Once” wrapped its hot dog fingers around Hollywood's top prize Sunday.

](https://apnews.com/article/film-reviews-entertainment-sports-movies-martial-arts-a0c2c7bfb0a06c2f2f8156c835a84b93) [Telugu action-film sensation "RRR,"](https://apnews.com/article/entertainment-india-4d04b6d032cabfc91b6d0beb6642c1ef) an intimate, impassioned performance by Lady Gaga of "Hold My Hand" from "Top Gun: Maverick," and an Super Bowl follow-up by Rihanna. [best supporting actress](https://apnews.com/article/oscars-2023-best-supporting-actress-18481e06d1e3c03d337d100f10b9e382). “The Way of Water” won for visual effects; “Maverick” took best sound. “Thank you to the Academy for recognizing the superhero that is a Black woman,” said Carter. Carter won for the costume design of "Wakanda Forever," four years after becoming the first Black designer to win an Oscar, for "Black Panther." [former action star's return](https://apnews.com/article/brendan-fraser-the-whale-darren-aronofsky-1b3e71f1022f11b26b764f238b421363) to center stage for his physical transformation as a 600-lb. [an improbable Academy Awards heavyweight.](https://apnews.com/article/oscars-2023-best-picture-everything-everywhere-all-at-once-c6db5dc1477c28e2b9e41270a036ac12) The indie hit, A24's second best picture winner following "Moonlight," won seven Oscars in all. Quan, beloved for his roles as Short Round in "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" and Data in "Goonies," had all but given up acting before being cast in ["Everything Everywhere All at Once." Scheinert dedicated the award "to the moms of the world." [back in March 2022](https://apnews.com/article/film-reviews-entertainment-sports-movies-martial-arts-a0c2c7bfb0a06c2f2f8156c835a84b93), helped revive arthouse cinemas after two years of pandemic, racking up more than $100 million in ticket sales with scant initial expectations of Oscar glory. It's the first best actress win for a non-white actress in 20 years.

The movie dominated the 2023 Academy Awards, winning seven of the 11 awards it was nominated for. The result meant that movies like The Banshees of Inisherin, ...

They're not the first duo to win the prize, as Joel and Ethan Coen won for No Country for Old Men in 2007. After Halle Berry, she is also only the second ever woman of color to win the Best Actress award. The result meant that movies like The Banshees of Inisherin, Elvis and The Fabelmans went home empty handed.

The Oscars 2023 was a less scandalous affair than last year, and was defined by huge wins by crowd-favourite films.

In much of the commentary around the film, moral and aesthetic categories are being confused. The genuine emotion offered and elicited across all four categories were a refreshing rebuttal for an Oscars cynic, that the symbolic power of these awards can be put in service of expanding notions of prestige acting and celebrity. Was it actually the best picture of 2022? And this will excite the kinds of mega-corporations that produce indie cinema these days – they can simply recycle and combine material from their VHS collection. Despite its historical winnings at the Academy Awards, it is hard to say that Everything Everywhere All At Once has successfully managed to make new representations of Asian in the big screen. That said, I liked the simplicity of the setting for the song, the strong backlighting isolating her and her band in the space and making the large stage seem more intimate. Cast mainly by Asian actors and actresses, this strangely (sometimes even disturbingly) funny but also moving comedy won most of the major awards, including Best Leading Actress and Best Director. With his Oscar win for Best Actor for The Whale, Brendan Fraser simply proves something most of us have known all along – he’s a great performer. This is one of the first songs from song-rich Indian cinema to break through to the Oscars, but we can hope that it will pave the way for more. In fact it was a relatively wholesome ceremony, defined by great sweeps for films All Quiet On The Western Front and Everything Everywhere All At Once. I miss the days of the orchestra pit. Red (note the carpet was renamed champagne) got a solid look in with Melissa McCarthy, Anni Strenisko, and Cara Delavinge, who stunned in Elie Saab.