MUSCAT : It is rarely the case that an experimental film is received just as well by critics as it is by fans. But ‘Everything Everywhere All At Once’, a movie about a Chinese-American family and the possibilities of an endless multiverse, managed not only critical acclaim or went down as a cult classic, but was instead a blockbuster hit and managed to sweep the Oscars with 10 nominations and seven wins– best picture, director, original screenplay, lead actress, supporting actress, supporting actor, and editing!

It can be assumed that the reason behind the incandescent success of Everything Everywhere All At Once is the layers of the plot and how seamlessly and how well these layers communicate with each other. At the heart of it, EEAAO is a family drama, dealing with the struggles faced by a middle-class Chinese-American family against the American bureaucracy, the economy, the colourful ideas of a broader world, and themselves. Upon that is the unexpected layer of the existence of the multiverse and the villain of the film who is at the centre of it, which also puts forward the duality of rebellion and presents nihilism in a brand new cover. But at the very centre of the film is the relationship between two women: a mother and her daughter, and how they affect the ones beside them. But rest assured, this brief paragraph does not even begin to describe the film or do it justice. On the other hand, writing about the film while trying to do it justice will give a lot of interesting twists and revelations away.

A film that broaches the realms of sci-fi, drama, and existentialism, and just narrates the story of a mother’s undying love for her daughter, no matter how far they are drifted apart, is undoubtedly a difficult challenge to undertake without making it a visual mess. However, directors Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert took this layered storyline and arguably gifted a better multiverse film than the much-anticipated Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness.