“When I choose to see the good side of things, I’m not being naive. It is strategic and necessary. It’s how I’ve learned to survive through everything. I know you see yourself as a fighter. Well, I see myself as one too. This is how I fight.”
If I see a better film released in 2022, I will be genuinely shocked. Hell, I’d be surprised if there’s a better film released later this decade.
On the one hand, I really want to watch all of the making-of featurettes for this film to learn how they pulled it off with just an 8th of the budget for the newest Doctor Strange movie. On the other hand, I never want to see those featurettes because I want to preserve the mysterious magic of what I witnessed. Learning that only 5 (FIVE) people total worked on the VFX is both mind-blowing and intimidating from a filmmaking perspective.
What surprised me the most was the huge emotional range that Daniels (directing duo Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert) tapped into. I thought it was just going to be an absurdist comedy but by the second act, it morphed into something much deeper and more resonant than I ever imagined. The film deals with things like nihilism, depression, existentialism, and generational trauma. It’s not afraid to go full bore into the abyss (Or in this case, the multiverse) to tackle these issues, but never forgets to be compassionate and empathetic. It might honestly be the perfect movie for Millennials and Gen Z kids.
A huge reason for that here is newcomer Stephanie Hsu, who carries her role like a huge weight with a delicate balance. In hindsight, it can’t be an accident that her character’s name is Joy. She is desperate to find meaning and belonging in a scenario where every possibility just becomes a statistical inevitability. And because of this, she ultimately becomes a threat to the multiverse itself, meaning she has to pull double duty both as the antagonist of the picture and the key to its emotional core. She comes away, in my eyes as the film’s true MVP.
That’s, of course, not to discredit her amazing co-stars. Michelle Yeoh gives her career-best performance in an extremely diverse and complex role that demands so much from her. She’s in nearly every scene of the film, often as completely different versions of herself. But she is more than up to the challenge by tapping into both her incredible capability as a stunt performer and her much more rarely seen abilities as a dramatic actor. In some ways, this is a meta-performance for her, bringing together nearly every role she’s ever played into one complex, deeply satisfying package.
And then there’s Ke Huy Quan, in his first major film role in decades. He easily shows why he deserves as much recognition as other stars with not just his physicality but also his emotional complexity. At first, you dismiss him as being sort of weak and passive compared to everyone else around him. But at a certain point, it becomes clear that not only is his patience and kindness a weapon, but that he is in fact the strongest and most resilient character of the whole film. He becomes a reminder of how we can view the universe at large when given the right tools. It actually made me angry watching this knowing that we missed out on nearly 20 years of Quan in movies, but I’m glad that he has returned in such full force with this film.
Everything Everywhere All At Once is a wholly original kaleidoscope of ideas, emotions, and characters. The fact that it’s doing so well in theaters from word-of-mouth alone gives me hope both for the future of the theatrical experience and the prospect of original films. I cannot wait to see what Daniels cooks up next and look forward to whatever Stephanie Hsu has planned down the line.
I laughed, I cried, I gasped, I dropped my jaw. You name an emotional reaction, this movie brought it out of me. I really can’t think of a single thing that disliked here. I’ve seen a lot of great movies recently, but this is the first one in a long while where I feel absolutely confident to say this: Everything Everywhere All At Once is one of the greatest films I have ever seen in my entire life.
After Cha Cha Real Smooth screened at the SXSW film festival this past March I was one of the first people at the Q&A. I asked writer/director/star Cooper Raiff if the character of Lola, played by newcomer Vanessa Burghardt, was written exactly as she was in the final film or if he made any changes for her. As it turns out, he essentially threw out the original screenplay and rewrote it to accommodate Vanessa and what she was comfortable with doing.
As an autistic person myself that is practically unheard of for me. Most of the time, when autistic characters are written and cast in movies or TV shows, the production team almost never works with the actor or the community to make sure it is authentic. And that’s even if they bother casting an autistic actor to begin with, because much of the film industry is, for some reason, under the impression that autism is something that can easily be mimicked. But here, not only did Raiff do the bare minimum with genuine casting, but he went the extra mile to make sure the actress in question was okay with what she was saying and doing.
There are a few moments where this truly shows. The first is when we first meet Lola and her mother Domino, played marvelously by Dakota Johnson. Raiff’s protagonist Andrew asks if raising her autistic daughter is hard and Domino responds casually, “Sometimes, but not because of her.” Even though Lola is not the main character of the story, the film still respects her enough to not make her a burden to the parent, as is so often a stereotype.
The second moment comes later, when Lola is lying on her bed alone after spending an evening hanging out with Andrew, to whom she explained how draining social interactions can be. While lying on the bed, she flaps her hands, a common stim among autistic people to regulate their bodies and emotions. The fact that such a small detail was included in the script from Burghardt’s input is a testament to Raiff’s empathy as a person and a filmmaker. This might honestly be the first time I’ve ever seen an autistic character flap their hands on-screen.
That’s why, even though Cooper Raiff and Dakota Johnson are absolutely wonderful in the lead roles, Vanessa Burghardt is the true breakout performance here. It’s easy to see how much of herself she brings to the character of Lola. She’s very straightforward about what she likes and doesn’t like and even though she cares about other people, it’s expressed differently. Never once is she used as the punchline or as a plot tool to prop up the main character’s own arc. I sincerely hope this isn’t the last we see of her.
I haven’t seen Raiff’s debut feature Shithouse just yet, but it’s clear from this movie that Cooper Raiff has a very distinctive voice as a filmmaker. It’s so well-shot and well-lit, particularly during the bar/bat mitzvah party scenes when the characters are just enjoying the moment. And the editing by Henry Hayes is not only perfectly paced for its relatively short runtime, but it also boosts the comedic timing. Some of the funniest jokes or lines are bolstered by sudden cuts to the next scene. Learning that Raiff is only 24 years old and is already this well-defined as a filmmaker is exciting because he still has his whole career ahead of him.
This film reminds me of a famous quote by Roger Ebert: “For me, the movies are like a machine that generates empathy.” The greatest compliment I can give this film is that it creates and asks for so much empathy for its characters without being judgmental. I really wish I could express to people reading this how it felt to see a movie with an autistic character played by an actually autistic actress in a big theater with a crowd when it premiered. Even watching it again at home on Apple TV+, it hasn’t lost its power.
Cha Cha Real Smooth is an incredibly funny and heartfelt tale of adults growing up. Avoiding the worst tropes of most so- called “Sundance indies”, Cooper Raiff is able bring a fresh perspective on the coming-of-age genre. He has an enthralling career ahead of him, just as Vanessa Burghardt is destined to become a star in her own right.
Even if you don’t have Apple TV+, try and see this one through whatever resources are available to you. This is, for me, as an autistic person, an absolute landmark depiction of autism in film and TV. Thank you for the character of Lola and thank you for this gift of a film.
“I know one thing. Wherever we go… this family is our fortress.”
When James Cameron’s Avatar first came out in theaters in 2009, I was 10 years old. I saw it in IMAX with my whole family. I don’t remember the screening itself very well. What I do remember is 10-year-old me getting absolutely sucked into that fictional world known as Pandora. It was one of the first times in my memory that a film completely immersed me in its storytelling and worldbuilding and made me forget about my problems. And as the years went on by and there was the inevitable snobbery of people on the Internet, I continued to defend it. Yes, the story is not particularly original, and some of its themes haven’t held up greatly, but much like the moon of Pandora, its gravitational pull was hard to grasp.
There was a part of me that always doubted we would actually get a sequel, let alone four of them. Cameron had talked about it for years and years and years, but it just never seemed like it was going to happen, whether it was the constant delays or shifts in production priorities. Even as I was riding to my screening today, deep down I couldn’t believe it was real. Could it be? Has something that seemed like a fantasy finally come to fruition? And after 3 hours and 12 minutes back in Pandora, I can confidently say that Avatar: The Way of Water is superior to the first film in almost every category imaginable.
Picking up over a decade after the original wrapped up, Sam Worthington returns as Jake Sully, a former paraplegic soldier who has permanently joined the Na’vi of Pandora. Along with his mate Neytiri, played by Zoe Saldana, they have raised 3 of their own children (Neyteyam, Lo’ak, and Tuk) as well as adopted a human boy named Spider and Kiri, the Na’vi daughter of Dr. Grace Augustine. Their happiness is broken when the humans of RDA return in force, devastating the forest and forcing the family into a guerilla war of sorts. With a new General and a resurrected Colonel Miles Quaritch, played by Edie Falco and Stehpen Lang, respectively, on their tail, Jake and Sully must come to terms with what they’re willing to sacrifice in order to keep their people and their family safe.
Much like the original, the story here isn’t particularly complicated. Nor are the characters and their arcs. The story itself here is actually less derivative than the first one, as the stakes have changed slightly, and the setting has been shifted. However, the key for the film isn’t in how complex the narrative is, but rather how economic it is with pacing and execution. James Cameron has such a keen understanding of the Hero’s Journey inside and out and makes every step of it fit his world perfectly. We spend so much of the second act in the new reef clan Metkayina, but it never felt boring to me. Once again, the film excels at making the audience feel immersed in this unique and beautiful world. What’s more, there are genuine consequences for the characters and their actions, making their arcs more engrossing and interesting than you might think.
A good chunk of the original cast returns for the sequel. Worthington and Saldana are still amazing as Jake and Neytiri, both on their own and together as a couple. The film continues their love story from the first film in a really affecting way by bringing children into the picture. The fact that they have become parents hasn’t dampened any of their passion. On the contrary, it has fueled them to become more dedicated to each other and the film is wise enough to let them make mistakes but also make amends.
My favorite additions to the cast, however, were all of the children. James Flatters, Brittain Dalton, Trinity Jo-Li Bliss, and Jack Champion all play members of Jake and Neytiri’s family. Even Sigourney Weaver comes back as the adoptive teen Na’vi daughter of her character from the first film, Dr. Grace Augustine. All of these performers are excellent in their own right and while some have more of an arc than others, their collective dynamic together is so watchable and relatable, even to those without kids or siblings of their own. The film made the right choice of giving an enormous amount of screentime to develop them and I’m interested to see where their stories go in the future.
Champion and Weaver were my favorites of them all. Champion plays Spider, a young man who carries the struggle of being born a human but only ever at home with the natural world of Pandora. There’s an element of tragedy to his character because while he feels comfortable with the others, he will never truly be one species or the other. Weaver, meanwhile, does stunning work as Kiri, a young Na’vi with no real sense of belonging. There’s one scene in particular where she plays both Kiri and Grace, which is particularly impressive and left me wondering how it was done.
Stephen Lang is also back as Colonel Miles Quaritch, this time reincarnated as an avatar with all the characters memories and personality. His new appearance actually added more dimensions to the character and made him more than just a military grunt for the RDA. Fueled by vengeance and a longing resentment for Jake and the rest of the Na’vi, when Quaritch comes face to face with another connection from the past, he starts to reveal himself more. You can actually see him wavering in his mission as someone he refuses to admit he cares about joins the other side of the conflict. All of this makes him a much more interesting villain than before, one who may be softening to the world he’s been hired to conquer.
Speaking of world, this sequel makes Pandora feel more alive and more fully realized than ever before. This is the part where Cameron’s direction and the magical work of Weta Digital is beautifully married to one another. Moving the story from the forest to the ocean was a brilliant choice not just from a thematic standpoint but a visual one too. The art direction is absolute perfection. From the flora and fauna to the Hallelujah Mountains to the islands and the creatures that inhabit them, this world looks and feels so amazing. I rewatched Avatar last night in preparation for this one, and the difference between the two is almost like night and day.
Motion capture performance in big-budget epics is practically expected by this point. What makes these films so unique among them is the same thing as The Lord of the Rings trilogy. It is done completely in service to the story and could not be told otherwise. Weta invented brand new technology for these films just so the actors could perform motion capture underwater. The second the characters jumped into the water and submerged themselves, my jaw dropped. The level of detail is astonishing, whether it’s little droplets on their faces or tiny muscles on their hands or small movements of their hair. This might be one of the most seamless combinations of live-action and CGI work I’ve ever seen.
It truly is a shame that composer James Horner passed away in 2015 because we never got to hear what his work on the sequel would have been. Replacing him for a project of this size was always going to be a daunting task, but thankfully, record producer Simon Franglen is more than willing to take it up. The score continues the tone of the original with a wide-ranging yet cohesive tone brought to life by a variety of instruments. Merging bombastic percussion with vocals and defiant strings and horns, the tracks can match any emotion the scene calls for. Ethereal wonder, emotional, intense action. Every note feels sincere and never once manipulative.
Also like the original Avatar, we are gifted with an original song in the end credits. This time around, it comes from Abel Tesfaye, AKA The Weeknd, performing the track “Nothing is Lost (You Give Me Strength)”. Less of a ballad and more of an anthem, the lyrics of the song perfectly fit the overall theme of the bond of family. And the instrumentation is excellent as well, somehow managing to blend the musical sound of this film with The Weeknd’s own style. It really is a great song to cap off this film.
Finally delivering on 13 years of hype and promises, Avatar: The Way of Water is a satisfying and mesmerizing continuation, and everything that a true blockbuster should be. James Cameron has delivered a truly spectacular film here and proves once again why betting against him is a fool’s errand. It’s a testament to the film and Cameron himself that despite its enormous runtime, I never felt it drag nor felt the urge to go to the restroom even once. And now, I’m chomping at the bit to see the next installment of this franchise in two years’ time.
Improving on the first film in nearly every regard, The Way of Water is one of the definitive theatrical experiences of my lifetime. The wait was long, but every single delay that this film suffered was worth it in the end.
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