Film review: Everything Everywhere All at Once
The multiverse is back in this divisive cult hit
“If you are the sort of filmgoer who only ventures into arthouse territory a couple of times a year”, make this Irish “gem” one of the films you see, said Matthew Bond in The Mail on Sunday. Based on a novella by Claire Keegan, the film follows Cáit (Catherine Clinch), a girl growing up on an impoverished smallholding in rural Ireland in the 1980s. Barely ten, with a careworn mother and a perpetually hungover father, Cáit is bullied and miserable, until she’s sent to live with her mother’s cousin (Carrie Crowley) and her husband (Andrew Bennett). Under their care, her life is “transformed” – but it’s unclear how long she will be able to stay with her new family. Clinch is brilliant, as is Crowley as her surrogate mother, who soon becomes closer to her than her own mother has ever been. In all, it’s a “deeply moving” film about “innocence and loneliness”, which has a power that lingers long after the credits have rolled.
It seems initially to be a modest little story, said Wendy Ide in The Observer, but it “plays on the heartstrings like a harp”. First-time feature director Colm Bairéad has a knack for “telling us everything we need to know without words”: a stand-off over some sticks of rhubarb, for example, “is more eloquent than pages of dialogue could ever be”.
The film arrives in cinemas “on unprecedented waves” of acclaim, said Donald Clarke in The Irish Times, but there’s no danger that the “weight of expectation will crush this delicately beautiful gossamer construction”: it deserves the hype. Although there is “a pervasive sense of unspoken menace lurking just outside the frame”, the film is also a “celebration of uncomplicated human kindness”. The result is an “unqualified success”.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
'The Hum': the real-life noise behind The Listeners
In The Spotlight Can some of us also hear the disturbing sound that plagues characters in the hit TV show – and where is it coming from?
By Chas Newkey-Burden, The Week UK Published
-
The Week Unwrapped: Are we any closer to identifying UFOs?
Podcast Plus, will deals with Tunisia and Kurdistan help Labour? And what next for the Wagner Group?
By The Week Staff Published
-
Quiz of The Week: 16 - 22 November
Have you been paying attention to The Week's news?
By The Week Staff Published
-
Damian Barr shares his favourite books
The Week Recommends The writer and broadcaster picks works by Alice Walker, Elif Shafak and others
By The Week UK Published
-
The Great Mughals: a 'treasure trove' of an exhibition
The Week Recommends The V&A's new show is 'spell-binding'
By The Week UK Published
-
Aston Martin Vanquish: 'the best Aston Martin full stop'?
The Week Recommends The third-generation Vanquish 'offers spectacular performance'
By The Week UK Published
-
Her Lotus Year: Paul French's new biography sets lurid rumours straight
The Week Recommends Wallis Simpson's year in China is less scandalous, but 'more interesting' than previously thought
By The Week UK Published
-
Say Nothing: 'sensational' dramatisation of Patrick Radden Keefe's bestselling book
The Week Recommends The series is a 'powerful reminder' of the Troubles
By The Week UK Published
-
Joy: fertility film starring Bill Nighy offers 'dose of seasonal cheer'
The Week Recommends The film about the invention of the fertility treatment is 'unassuming' but may 'sneak up on you'
By The Week UK Published
-
Ed Park's 6 favorite works about self reflection and human connection
Feature The Pulitzer Prize finalist recommends works by Jason Rekulak, Gillian Linden, and more
By The Week US Published
-
6 fantastic homes in Columbus, Ohio
Feature Featuring a 1915 redbrick Victorian in German Village and a modern farmhouse in Woodland Park
By The Week Staff Published