The Monthly Bugle

Everything Everywhere All At Once and the Power of Letting Go

by Marc Griffin

 

Usually, I provide some form of commentary on a comic-related property during my Monthly Bugle column, but I wanted to try something different for May.  

 

I recently saw A24's Everything Everywhere All At Once. In short, it was terrific. Not only because of the performance from Michelle Yeoh but also the stellar writing. The movie does a great job of discussing the importance of letting go and how it plays into our life decisions through every turn we take. 

While the Marvel Cinematic Universe uses the multiverse trope to rope in their pre-existing universes from Fox and Sony while simultaneously telling a story of broader scope, EEAAO seems to be using the multiverse as an intricate metaphor for acceptance of one's life. 

 

With every decision that people make in their lives, there is always a "what if?" What if I hadn't dropped out of my Master's program? What if I had decided to stay in that relationship? We naturally create hypothetical scenarios in our minds through the decision to make a decision, weaving us towards an abyss of endless possibilities that may or may not have come true. 

 

For me, EEAAO represents that human experience through the lens of the multiverse. And it's in Evelyn, that the audience can witness all these all-too-familiar hypotheticals play out all at once, of course. 

 

In various universes, Evelyn's life is different based on a series of decisions that she made. By the end of the movie, though, we find out that she can only save the day by making peace with how her life turned out and her decisions along the way - aka, the power of letting go. 

 

Everything Everywhere All At Once shines in moments of retrospective meditation, asking its characters and, by extension, the audience, "how can you learn to live with that decision?" While existentialist, the film doesn't bog us down with the specifics of said philosophy but rather how we can begin to navigate through it. 

 

After watching the movie, I began to look inward. Stepping back from the mirror to examine the self that lies within, I looked to see how I came to terms with all the decisions I had made in my 28 years on this planet. And whether or not something greater/lesser could've happened had I not done a particular action at a particular point in my journey. I used to dwell on the "what if scenarios," unhappy with the way current situations had played out. But, in doing that, I couldn't appreciate the beauty of life in its present form - the gorgeousness of being grounded. 

 

And that is what EEAAO is all about, or at the very least what I got from the movie. See, it's a story of self-forgiveness through the power of letting go and embracing the journey instead of fighting against it. So instead of cowering in the face of a very random life, why not face the everything-bagel head-on, grateful for whatever outcome comes your way. 

 

While EEAAO didn't teach me how to let go and let live, the movie further drove home the fact that we should be pushing forward while trying not to let regrets hold us back. We only get one life on this earth; why not live it unapologetically and full of love?