Thread by @jmariemorgan

Aight, beautiful people! Let’s talk about the movie #EverythingEverywhereAllAtOnce (share your thoughts too!) #Spoilers

First, I wanna make it clear that I think this is a deeply artistic and well-done illustration of the plight and beauty of the human experience.

A thread 🧵

.I believe Humans have only ever been meant for the here and now.

But the universal plight of being human is the way that the twistedness of the cosmos fractures us beyond where and when we’re supposed to be:

Pain/suffering
Anxiety
Jealousy
Regret
**Hope
2/20

.Even hope— that forward-oriented trust in a reliable source or person— is a secondary symptom of suffering, of the twistedness of the cosmos.

If everything was as it should be here and now,

there would be no need for hope.
#EverythingEverywhere
3/20

.And yet, there is the beauty of our humanity:

things about the human experience that draw us back to the here and now and they are all relational.

#EverythingEverywhereAllAtOnce
4/20

.Patience
Joy
Affection
Hospitality
Care
Love

These are all iterations of belonging, of connection.

They help us live out our humanness because they keep us here and now WITH each other.
5/20

.The beauty of the movie #EverythingEverywhere is the fact that it happens within the context of a family.

It is within our families that we tend to experience both the plight and the beauty of our humanity in very intense ways.
6/20

.For example, Evelyn's fracturedness began w/ her father, and the ease w/ which he “let her go.”

His willingness to be anywhere but present w/ and affirming of his daughter— even in her decision to move away w/ Waymond— intensified Evelyn’s regret to the point of obsession
7/20

.From the beginning of the movie, we see Evelyn could barely stay present with her family.

And we later find out it’s because she’s always living in the past— always trying to go back and earn her father’s affection.

#EverythingEverywhere
#EverythingEverywhereAllAtOnce
8/20

.Both Joy and Waymond felt the pain of loving someone who could never be here and now with them.

They ached and longed for Evelyn to be satisfied in the present moment with them,

#EverythingEverywhere
9/20

.but Evelyn was always elsewhere and some other time (either lusting after another future or regretting the past— hence, the title of the movie).

#EverythingEverywhereAllAtOnce

10/20

.There’s a deep poetry in Joy’s unwavering desire to be present with her mother— even as Jobu Tupaki.

Even having been fractured to the point of utter hopelessness, she just wanted someone else to feel what she felt and see what she saw.

#EverythingEverywhere

11/20

.Evelyn, her father, and her daughter all demonstrate that the very first question we ask as humans,

“Will you stay here with me?”

It is in our #FamilyOfOrigin that this question gets answered— however fractured that answer may be.

#EverythingEverywhere
12/20

.In #EverythingEverwhere, healing began with Waymond.

He was always Evelyn’s anchor to the present even though her responsiveness to him left much to be desired for much of the movie.

13/20

.Evelyn was convinced that she must fight her thirst for a different future and sorrow about the past with constant worry/striving and regret.

But Waymond was persistent:

Always here with kindness
…with patience
…with softness
…with joy

#EverythingEverywhere
14/20

.So Evelyn finally learned how to be here and now through Waymond, which meant she could finally step out of her obsession with trying to go back and earn her father’s affection

so that she could be here and now with her daughter— to affirm ALL of her (including Becky).

15/20

.#EverythingEverywhere ends with the implied question,

“Even after you’ve failed to be present with the people you love long enough for the consequences to drive you farther apart,

will you choose to pursue them?”

16/20

.For a moment, we— the audience— are tricked into thinking Evelyn’s willing to let Joy go just like her father did.

We’re even tricked into thinking this was in honor of consent and choice— that because Joy WANTED to be let go, Evelyn should.

#EverythingEverywhere

17/20

.But I think Evelyn chose correctly.

She pursued her daughter just unto the present:

No smothering her with constant striving,
or drowning her in her regrets.

Just choosing NOT to be anywhere else but here and now with Joy. #EverythingEverywhere

18/20

.And so I’m absolutely smitten by this movie because I think it demonstrates how

love is the constant refusal to be anywhere or anytime else but here and now with someone else…

utterly satisfied.
Utterly present.

#EverythingEverywhereAllAtOnce
19/20

. …and what gives our humanity beauty and meaning is the extent to which we sit in relationship to others:

patient WITH others
joyful BECAUSE OF others
Hospitable TO others
caring FOR others

Humanness is NOWness and WITHness. #EverythingEverywhere

20/20

Cc: @JonM_Garcia 🫡
(Sorry it's so long, but I had SO much to process 🤯