Everything Everywhere All at Once is the greatest movie of all time

Everything Everywhere All at Once. Insane. I loved this crazy adventure flick. In fact, it was one of the funnest movies I’ve seen in a long time. Can’t get enough of an absurdist action-dramedy. Hilarious, great fight sequences, completely original. Kung fu. What more do you fucking want?

Movie is about a Chinese-American woman being audited by the Internal Revenue Service. Her home life is also going to shit. Whilst meeting with the IRS, she discovers that she must connect with parallel universe versions of herself and prevent an all-powerful being from causing the destruction of the multiverse. Obviously shares a lot of DNA with The Matrix and Rick and Morty. Homages to various kung fu flicks throughout. Stuff like Master of the Flying Guillotine. Except instead of the flying guillotine, they use a dog and fanny pack. However, it is definitely its own thing. Boy is it ever. No explanation does this movie justice. It has everything. Googly eyes. A version of Earth with no life. A version where people evolved to have hotdog fingers. It is a true experience that includes a black everything with literally everything.

An A24 film (this production company is fucking bringing it) directed by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (collectively known as "Daniels"). They also made the highly original Swiss Army Man, another great one. Stars Michelle Yeoh, an incredible talent who you’ll know from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Memoirs of a Geisha, Reign of Assassins, and as the character Ying Nan in the Marvel Cinematic Universe film Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.

Ke Huy Quan. My man was Short Round in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Data in The Goonies. Some iconic shit right there. Also Jamie Lee Curtis, Stephanie Hsu (she was also in Legend of the Ten Rings and has a recurring role in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel), and James Hong (Blade Runner, Big Trouble in Little China, a very memorable role in Seinfeld). Jenny Slate (whom I really like) shows up throughout the flick as well.

The Daniels are the MVPs here. Creating something this special. My god. Yeoh is incredible as well. Internet research says that the lead role was originally written for Jackie Chan. I love Police Story and a lot of his work, sure, but thank fuck he’s not in the movie. His whole support of the Chinese government is kind of a dealbreaker for me. Ke Huy Quan. Holy shit. What a fucking return to the screen. He was phenomenal. Everything I’ve seen him in is a goddamned classic. This movie was perfect.

X is the greatest movie of all time

X. I thought it was amazing up until a somewhat stupid thing thrown in at the end that sort of changes how you can interpret the movie but doesn't really change anything. Without giving anything away, it is one of those, "oh, um, okay, whatever," things that are sort of irritating. However, movie redeems itself with an incredible last line. Fantastic. Glad Ti West is making horror again. 

Set in 1979, a group of young people set out to make an adult movie in a rural Texas farmhouse. The elderly couple, it turns out, has some creepy shit going on and shit hits the fan when the wife gets all riled up. It's what you'd call a psycho-biddy movie. 

All the men in the movie, in true final girl genre fashion, are extremely incompetent. They are the first to die, are sexually worthless (except for Cudi's character), and don't recognize when they are in extreme danger. Typical dudes in slasher shit, except they each display a little complexity. Not as much as the women, who are extremely well done, but come off as real people instead of just existing to die. I'm currently reading The Final Girl Support Group so this is all fresh in my mind. 

Some real talent on display here in this A24 picture. Not only is it West's return to horror, it stars Mia Goth from the Suspiria remake, Jenna Ortega (who is having a real moment), this Martin Henderson guy I only know from Smokin' Aces, and Kid Cudi (the rapper guy). Rounding out the cast are ones Brittany Snow, Owen Campbell, and Stephen Ure, none of whom I know. 

This Jenna Ortega chick is on fire right now. She was dope in Scream and is in two other movies at the top of my watch list -- American Carnage and Studio 666. She's great in this flick, too. But the real star and MVP of the movie is Goth. She plays both the final girl porn actress and the old psycho lady. They are two sides of the same coin, sympathetic victims, both of them, one getting opportunities because of her looks and drive, the other who is old and has lost much of her self-worth. She is incredible in both parts. 

See it as something of a love letter to the movies West grew up on, like Tarantino for horror, especially Tobe Hooper's 1974 masterpiece The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. The layout of the murder house even appears to be the same as the one the family occupies in Chain Saw. There is a lot to love here. First off, I am a sucker for a meta treatment, the whole film-within-the-film with an adult twist with The Farmer's Daughter. This is the way to go with a contemporary slasher if you want it to be any good. 

Other obvious influences include Psycho (1960), Hardcore (1979), Alligator (1980), and Boogie Nights (1997). Also 1970s pornography--I hear, though I am not familiar. 

Lastly, West secretly made a prequel, Pearl, which was shot back-to-back with X. It's part of a trilogy, apparently, which I am stoked about.