Am I strange for not loving Everything Everywhere All At Once?

Just got around to watching it for the first time tonight. We had so many people tell us we’d love it and need to watch it, so it was high on our list. Great cast, and it won so many awards.

I didn’t hate it, but I was left scratching my head over all the hype. I like odd movies and books, so it’s not that I couldn’t handle the weirdness. It seemed like in the same vein as Scott Pilgrim, and if you told me it wasn’t a bit box office but got a cult following, I’d totally believe that.

My wife felt exactly the same way. Maybe it’s just one of those cases where there was too much hype for us, but I felt kind of let down.

skybreaker,
@skybreaker@lemmy.world avatar

What movie from last year did you think deserved to be “best picture”?

xyzzy,

Here’s the thing. There are a lot of people who are unhappy with the way their lives turned out. Or they have relationships that they wish were different. Regret is a universal theme. And this movie explores what might have been for characters in those circumstances with the possibility of changing those things in their past that they regret, while at the same the movie maintains a surreality and sense of humor that’s memorable and endearing.

I think it might resonate more with people who have lived long enough to experience that feeling of “is this all there is?”—and I don’t mean younger people whose lives are still mostly ahead of them. I mean those people who are divorced or contemplating divorce, parents with disappointing relationships with their adult children, those caring for an older family member who feel trapped. There’s a reason most actors in the film are in their 50s and 60s, as well as 40s.

If you didn’t like it, maybe that’s why. I finally reread The Great Gatsby when I was approaching middle age and it resonated with me in a way that it didn’t when I was in high school, to the point where it became one of my favorite novels. You are literally and figuratively a different person when you experience something at a later age.

I’m not suggesting everyone of a certain age or experience should like this movie. I’m just saying it might be why some didn’t connect with it.

AFKBRBChocolate,

I’m in my 60s, and I don’t lack for regrets. I completely understood and resonated with that aspect of the movie. It just didn’t seem that deep to me. And, as I’ve said repeatedly, I didn’t dislike it, I just felt like it was over-hyped.

xyzzy,

Got it. For what it’s worth, I also think it was overhyped, although I don’t really blame the movie for that. That said, I don’t think any Oscar winners that come to mind have necessarily been particularly deep.

In terms of recent winners, quality-wise I think this was about on-par with Birdman, which I also enjoyed. I think Parasite was superior, but I have loved Bong Joon-ho since I saw Memories of Murder, which I also think is superior, so I’m biased.

AgentOrangesicle,
@AgentOrangesicle@lemmy.world avatar

The Daniels also made a 10-minute short called, “Interesting Ball”. It felt like their entire goal was to say nothing at all and still make it feel profound.

Everything Everywhere wasn’t that, because it really explored regret, acceptance, and the importance of pursuing empathy in relationships. That being said, they definitely did their director magic and hyperbolized everything they could.

Is it still my favorite movie? Yes.

Yes it is.

TheControlled,

My BFF didn’t either and it baffles me.

Damaskox,
@Damaskox@lemmy.world avatar

https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/b9774dd9-e6d6-4373-9bf4-483b05d35297.png

💓

Greenknight777,

Depends on your tastes. I personally really liked it because it represented philosophical absurdism and various existential concepts in an interesting/comedic way. I laughed really hard at things like the “everything” donut and Michelle Yeoh’s big fight scene where she used “compassion” to solve all the henchpeople’s life problems and “defeat” them.

Despite it’s fun/weird/comedic exterior it was very clearly written with these philosophical concepts in mind. If you like thinky/philosophical stuff you probably like this movie too, that said if you don’t like that kind of vibe you probably just viewed the randomness/oddness of some of the scenes as strange.

delitomatoes,

Imagine the people it might appeal to

  • If you’re Asian
  • If you’re Asian American
  • if you were an American immigrant
  • if you like comedies
  • if you like action movies
  • if you like choreographed fights
  • if you like absurdist humour
  • if you had a bad relationship with your parents
  • if you’re LGBT
  • if you like multiverse sci fi
  • if you like cool costumes
  • if you like set pieces
  • if you like family drama
  • if you like pop culture references. -if you like creative cinematography
  • if you like Michelle Yeoh
  • if you like Jamie Lee Curtis
  • If you like Ke huy quans comeback

This movie is maximalist, so it hits a lot of things at the same time, so naturally people may tack on to whatever they are attracted to. If none of the above fits you, then so be it

nlm,

I think that was part of why I didn’t care for it all that much. At least no more than it felt like an OK movie.

It felt like it was trying too hard to be too many things and not really excelling at any of them.

RupeThereItIs,

I loved it.

As someone with ADHD I felt a strong kinship to Evelyn. Though I think personality wise I’m more a Wayman and my wife Evelyn.

The line about her being the best to defeat jobu chubaka because she was the worst version of herself hit home.

doom_and_gloom,
@doom_and_gloom@lemmy.ml avatar

I watched it without knowing much about it. It’s absurdist and it does that fairly well for most of the movie. It’s also shot and performed pretty well. There was some good action choreography, and thoughtful design. It pulled on the heart strings and had some powerful messages in it. The style was also striking.

On the downside it felt like it was trying to be a fusion superhero movie. For a movie it had appreciable depth as a piece of existential absurdist work. However, I felt that depth in the end was still relatively shallow - it’s just that there aren’t many competitors in the movie space. Much of the action didn’t feel like it built or had meaningful stakes, it felt more like it was trying to meet a screentime quota from the producers.

I think pretty much everyone involved did quite well and put together a nice piece of art. However, I don’t think it has the attributes of a classic. I can see it as a cult classic, especially with a segment of audience it really resonates. However I think it might be a little too Netflix-y to have that kind of staying power. On the other hand it seems was marketed or else spread organically very well, so that could help it.

Still, I think I and a lot of others saw the credits roll and felt that it was missing substance at its very core. I believe the story itself, and the unfolding of it perhaps, is one of the weaker elements. It retains a great tension through it nonetheless, but this tension snaps as soon as the movie is over.

I think it is appropriate that it is considered a good movie, but I don’t think you are weird for not loving it.

AFKBRBChocolate,

I’d upvote you twice if I could, this well articulates a lot of how I felt

doom_and_gloom,
@doom_and_gloom@lemmy.ml avatar

Good to know I’m not alone!

TokyoCalling,

You are strange for not loving the film. It is generally loved so, yeah, not loving it makes you strange.

There’s nothing wrong with that. Some folks don’t love chocolate. Or puppies. Or sunsets. Or whatever seems to be loved by most folks.

AFKBRBChocolate,

Read through this thread - I don’t feel like I’m in a small minority.

Turun,

A 1% minority encompasses about 80 million people. When people say small minority they refer to the percentage part, not the absolute number (which is indeed quite big)

TokyoCalling,

I’ve been reading it. The folks here are most definitely in the minority.

And that’s fine. I don’t know why it would bother anybody.

Z4rK,

It’s wild to me that you get downvoted so much throughout this thread as the OP with replies that are polite enough and just reiterate your opening opinion about the movie.

I think I’ll go and turn off showing downvotes again, I feel I left the need for that behind at the old place.

AFKBRBChocolate,

Yeah, it’s pretty bizarre in a discussion community about movies to have people downvoting a subjective opinion. People use it as a “disagree” button. Oh well, I honestly don’t care about the points, it just seems weird.

maegul,
@maegul@lemmy.ml avatar

Well yea downvotes are, IMO, objectively shite. Too many confuse them with “do not agree” and an excuse to not contribute to the conversation. Except, instead of contributing they cancel out someone else’s upvote.

The nail in the coffin for me about downvotes is that they’re too vague to be a useful piece of information. An upvote generally means “good”. A downvote can mean anything from “this is vile in need of moderation” to “I disagree” to “I don’t like your tone or general position” to, perhaps here with decentralisation, “I don’t like your instance”. All without any compulsion to contribute or converse. Pretty much guaranteed to foster some base level of toxicity.

There’s apparently a “controversial” sorting coming, which might help. Otherwise I’d be interested in an alternative way of flagging something as “bad” but not enough for moderation. Perhaps a requirement to actually post your reasoning for the “downvote” so that others can then upvote that if they like in a sort of meta commentary layer or something.

Or maybe something like hacker news where only relative long time users and contributors can downvote.

maegul,
@maegul@lemmy.ml avatar

Maybe not a small minority but the voting seems to indicate the majority view beyond the comments, not that there’s anything wrong with being in the minority on a film! If anything I’d say it’s good to hear from the minority opinion in films … it can broaden your perspective.

DAMunzy,

I saw it before all the hype and loved it. Maybe the hype hurts the experience?

AFKBRBChocolate,

It often does. Question though: when the curtains came down, did you find yourself thinking “This should be a best picture nominee/winner?”

driving_crooner,
@driving_crooner@lemmy.eco.br avatar

I was. When I finished I thought that it was a shame it was released in February and now have no chance of winning best movie because this movie if fucking great. It was the best movies released in that year, not as good as Parasite, but way better that other Oscar’s best picture.

0ops,

I thought the movie was alright, but yeah I was also let down by the hype. The one trailer I watched was giving me philosophical sci-fi action vibes, so I thought that I was about to watch this generation’s “The Matrix”. Not sure why I thought that in hindsight. Turns out it was a family drama/comedy albiet with a unique aesthetic and execution. Don’t get me wrong, it’s great at what it is, it just wasn’t for me. It didn’t help that the movie took too long to end imo.

AFKBRBChocolate,

There was a point in it - I’m guessing a little more than halfway through - where it was very obvious how it had to end. The movie didn’t treat us like we’d figured that out though, and it treated that ending like it was a big surprise. That was my biggest problem with the pacing, and probably why you felt like the end took too long in coming.

I had slight hopes at a couple points that they were going to take an unexpected curve, but it didn’t happen.

SFDope,

Not strange at all. I feel like we are always getting pushed to liking things that are overhyped. The movie did trigger my emotions so for me it was amazing; that’s the beauty of films what you might like I won’t and it’s ok.

MisterSteve,

I am in agreement with those who thought it was disappointing. Reminded me of a Disney World where all the “rides” looked intriguing until you got inside and found there were no rides. A bunch of brightly colored, sparkly doors leading nowhere to nothing. (And I am a Jamie Curtis slave, so…it was a hard let-down.)

AFKBRBChocolate,

JLC was really good. A lot of the performances were good. But yeah, it did seem like there wasn’t much substance.

thirteene,

I’ve actually gotten a lot of flack from friends for disliking this movie. The plot is heavy handed, the symbolism is shoved down your throat “everything bagel is everything”, changing languages mid sentence makes conversations hard to follow, and I personally did not identify with the cultural background.

Infinite universe removes stakes and motivation, there was no explanation for how or why we had these experiences. To drive the story, we had characters talking drastic action that made no sense, and had skills they couldn’t possibly develop. The writers waived the ability to “show instead of tell” by using subversion of reality to keep the boring story engaging. Without rules and boundaries the subjection of reality served no purpose.

I eventually looked up what some of the characters represented because it won 7 Oscars, but it turns out that there was no deeper message than the delivered one and overstated political agedas that were forced in as well. Overall EEAAO was visually stunning but presented nothing of value.

AFKBRBChocolate,

I actually did like the mixed language conversations. I had a Chinese-American girlfriend for a number of years whose parents were from mainland China, and their conversations were always like that: they’d go between English and Chinese for sentences, or even individual words sometimes. Oh made it feel more authentic to me.

But a lot of the other stuff I agree with. Channeling a tepan chef in a fight was just an excuse for silliness (which is fine), especially since she seemed to be able to channel the martial arts master repeatedly, which likely would have been more effective in pretty much every case. It made no sense that the cuffs fell off when she challenged hotdog hands, being that her anatomy in this universe didn’t appear to change, her hands just went limp.

Again, I’m okay with silly nonsense. I enjoyed it. I was just surprised by how highly rated it was.

thirteene,

Silliness is fine as a nod or one off, but EEAAO made it as massive of a plot point as Julia Roberts in Oceans 12. In writing your goal is clarify, mixed language conversations are a part of life but not story telling. I thoroughly enjoyed hot dog fingers, but it was overused.

OneCardboardBox,

I really liked it, but a big part of that is because I found the family dynamics to be very relatable to those of someone I care about. Tbh, that gave the ending even more impact for me, when the mother pulled everyone together, instead of letting her pride push her child away :(

The action and inventive effects certainly didn’t hurt.

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