Everything Everywhere All At Once and the Immigrant Experience

The immigrant experience is one that is unique and often difficult to navigate. It is a journey that many individuals and families embark on with the hope of achieving a better life, but it comes with its own set of challenges. For those who have lived through it, the struggles of balancing two worlds can be overwhelming, and the effects can be seen across generations.

It was not until I watched Everything Everywhere All At Once that I realized how much my life mirrored the immigrant experience. In the upcoming screening, the weight of cultural trauma-heavy cinema touches many souls as we witness our family baggage being unpacked before our eyes. The profound impact of the screening arises from the unveiling of our collective emotional burdens, creating a profoundly moving experience for all. We also see novel children’s animations, such as Encanto and Turning Red, shedding light on topics, like generational trauma. Still, Everything Everywhere All At Once hit it out of the park with a new generation getting this hypermodern maximalist film presenting the bare reality of many immigrant families. 

Evelyn, the protagonist of the story, is in a constant state of conflict as she cannot balance her time for family and work. She struggles to be emotionally present for her family, constantly worrying about taxes and her failing laundromat business. Along with her is her caring husband, Waymond, trying to provide emotional support, but he ultimately does not get through to her due to the stress that this family harbors. Joy, their daughter, is only there to observe all of this as she tries to connect to her family with small acts but instead gets constantly reminded of various issues concerning herself. This state of being everywhere all at once is where immigrant children often see their parents. 

Everything Everywhere All At Once allows us to explore various universes of endless possibilities, the multiverse. However, unlike other movies that use the multiverse to further portrayal action and plot twists in their films, Everything Everywhere All At Once’s Multiverse is the immigrant experience. Rather than merely being a cool concept, the multiverse exploration portrays unaccomplished worlds, dreams, hopes, and lives that immigrant families cycle through on their journeys. The goal is not to thrive but to survive. 

The sacrifices of moving to a new country—in Waymond and Evelyn’s case to America—with the hope of achieving “the American dream” end up being useless even as they leave behind everything they once found comfort in. The effects of moving to a new country are different for all generations, evident in the contrast of how each character copes with the struggles of being Asian-American. On the one hand, we have Joy, the daughter of Evelyn and Waymond, having had dreams, aspirations, and goals but throwing them all away. At a young age, she already started being engulfed by hopelessness, lacking any real hopes or dreams to pursue. She is not living but rather only surviving. 

As an Asian person having lived in Europe, I saw my parents in Joy’s parents. Asian parents usually do not fully assimilate into the new culture of where they moved, choosing to cling to the comforting culture they grew up in. However, the same thing cannot be said about the younger generations, who immerse themselves into the new culture most often due to peer pressure and the racist undertones of the country they immigrated to. Thus, the cultural identities among family members of the same immigrant household can be quite different. However, an identity crisis is nothing new to immigrant families struggling to establish their understanding of “home” as we see the Wang family work through their differences in the movie by embracing their own sense of culture since that is the only way of living they know. Even with varying connections to culture, we can embrace the love for family and acceptance.

The story unfolds in a way that goes beyond my expectations, just like the magic we see in movies. Throughout the film, the family overcomes their differences by learning to understand and appreciate each other’s unique qualities, like Waymond’s positivity, Evelyn’s strong will, and Joy’s progressiveness. Their fighting unravels all of these characteristics, where they truly get to shine in action-heavy combat. In the movie's final moments, when Evelyn is trying to reconnect with Joy, she says to Waymond, “I am learning to fight like you.” This one quote describes the central theme of the movie, which is acceptance. All of the characters in the film fail to feel entirely accepted in their identities, but they all learn to overcome this for one another. This is the sacrifice immigrant families make to live together peacefully with one another. This film is a fantasy for any child of an immigrant family as it captures the reality of their struggles and triumphs. However, many immigrants have yet to see such a magical reality, and for now, we can only hope that such movies represent and inspire Asian immigrant families worldwide.