Le Tout Surtout En Même Temps

一切到處同時地

I watched the 95th Academy Awards last night and when Michelle Yeoh won for Best Actress, I knew that Everything Everywhere All at Once (Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, 2022) would win Best Picture.  Before the Best Actress category was presented, but after the directors won for Best Directing, it was still possible that the most coveted award would go to another film.  It didn’t, though.  EEAAO won seven out of eleven Academy Awards for which it was nominated.

Prior to the award ceremony, the only Best Picture nominated film I’d seen was Tar (Todd Field, 2022), which I liked a lot.  Honestly, none of the various trailers for EEAO roused my desire to see it, because it was sensory overload, and the premise didn’t interest me.  By the time the film won the Oscar for Best Editing, though, I became more curious about it.  I procured the DVD today, and while I see why it won all the Oscars it did (deservingly so), I haven’t decided yet if I liked it.  I don’t dislike it, I just … ne sais pas.

I loved James Hong, Ke Huy Quan was great, and I did very much enjoy all the Mandarin spoken.  The film itself did not overwhelm visually other than in a couple of places of very fast cutting of words and Michelle Yeoh’s face.

I plan to watch The Whale (Darren Aronofsky, 2022) soon; if it inspires musings, there will be a post.

Pic creds: IMDB