Everything, Everywhere All At Once, 2022

The multiverse has become such a bastardized science fiction concept thanks to cameo-filled franchise films that it’s easy to forget it’s an incredibly effective storytelling tool. Everything Everywhere All At Once follows the multiverse-spanning story of mother and daughter Evelyn and Joy. What starts as a mundane drama about generational divides through the lens of the Asian-American identity quickly escalates into an absurdist tale examining all that mundanity through an extremely distorted lens.

Everything Everywhere All At Once unravels its two leads into every conceivable version of themselves across every timeline. Then all that’s left are two women who see every possibility they missed out on and choose to forsake all those other timelines to love each other in this one. Even with its exaggerated science fiction framing, Everything Everywhere All At Once captures the core truth that our relationships with each other give us reason to hope, to care, and to believe that this life is worth living, no matter how dull it may seem. The Daniels’ spin on the multiverse gazes into so many possibilities, but in every timeline, it finds that same deceptively simple truth. — Kenneth Shepard