Everything Everywhere All at Once: why the Critics’ Choice Award-winning film is so popular

The race to the Oscars includes many awards that make the films better position among the Academy. The most prestigious of them all are the Golden Globes, which this year have left figures like Steven Spielberg and Cate Blanchett as flagrant winners. But there are other awards in this career that better fit the spirit of criticism, and those are the Critics’ Choice Awards.

These awards are given by the Broadcast Film Critics Association, the largest organization of film critics in the United States and Canada, and many of those who vote are also academics. For this reason, its results are usually more influential than those of the Golden Globes when it comes to knowing who can win the statuettes. And if there is a movie that has all the ballots this year, that is Everything Everywhere All at Once.

The film directed by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert has won five statuettes, including Best Picture, Best Directors, Best Original Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor and Best Editing. Other big crowned stars of the night have been Brendan Fraser (who did not win the Golden Globe for obvious reasons) and Cate Blanchett, who wins a new statuette for Tár.

In general, the rest of the awards have been fairly distributed among films like The Fabelmans or Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. However, the undisputed winner has been the film produced by A24, who is also behind Beau is Afraid, the new film from Ari Aster and Joaquin Phoenix. But why do you like Everything Everywhere All at Once so much?

The Multiverse made into a movie

At a time when the Multiverse is more fashionable than ever, with Marvel creating its new phases around the villain Kang, the Kwan and Scheinert film has turned the concept upside down in a very original and fun way. It is a comedy full of script twists, in the purest Tenet style but with a much more entertaining tone and for all audiences.

The story follows Evelyn (Michelle Yeoh), a Chinese immigrant living in the United States who finds herself thrown into a wild adventure when an interdimensional rift alters reality. She is the only one who can save the world, but she is not ready for it nor does she want to be. Together with her alternate versions of the multiverse, Evelyn must channel her powers to fight hundreds of strange dangers while the fate of all hangs in the balance.

Now that we are all familiar with this intricate concept thanks to movies like Spider-Man: No Way Home, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness or the future, The Flash, it seemed like the right time for a movie of this style. And the protagonist may not have superpowers, but it is precisely this that makes it such an attractive film.

The film has 95% positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, compared to 89% of the public that is not bad either. This makes it one of the most beloved films of the year, and also one that, despite its genre (science fiction comedy), can make a splash at the next Oscars.