I hate movies. I have accepted this as true. I had a substitute teacher when I was in grad school who was stunned when I said this to her. I didn’t realize it was a controversial statement. She sputtered how it was like saying you didn’t like sandwiches. She said it as if that was ridiculous, but I thought, well of course some people would not like sandwiches. If you don’t like meat and veg between two pieces of bread slathered with condiments, then you’re not going to like sandwiches. I like them fine, but they are very much a take-it-or-leave it food item for me. Mostly because I have so many food restrictions. There are some decent gluten-free breads, but no really great ones. So I’m going to eat rice more often than not.
The last movie I saw was Knives Out. I hated it. I know I am in the minority with that opinion, but I really was shocked at how much I hated it. I went into it hopeful, but that hope was dashed to pieces in the first five minutes.
The only thing I liked about the movie was Jamie Lee Curtis chewing up the scenery. Gleefully by the handfuls. She was a woman done wrong by her husband (Don Johnson, who was also fantastic), and she was Not Having It. I loved how much she emoted all over the place. I also loved that she was a woman in her sixties and she looked it. I just adore her for so many reasons. And she stole the show in Knives Out.
Once I finished that movie, I was done with movies in general. I had tried so hard to like them, and I just didn’t. My brother said it was because movies could not be like real life nor get as deep into people’s psyches and usually have to take shortcuts.
I just Googled and it’s apparently common for some autistic people to not like movies. that’s one of my goals for the new year–finding out if I’m autistic.
After Knives Out, I just accepted I didn’t like movies, and I didn’t watch any.
Then along came Everything Everywhere All At Once, starring the absolutely luminous Michelle Yeoh. And the badass Jamie Lee Curtis. Looking frumpy and grumpy, and I loved her for it. Jamie Lee Curtis, I mean. I know I’m harping on this point, but she looks gloriously her age. In a world filled with Botox and facelifts, tummy tucks and Spanx, it’s an act of defiance to just…be.
Jamie Lee Curtis is willing to be the bad guy in this movie (in some universes) and to not be ‘pretty’. This is an act of defiance for an older woman in Hollywood.
I was hesitatant because the trailer (which I’ve included above) has hyper-cuts the way the trailer for Knives Out did. I really can’t handle that because it bothers my eyes and my brain.
But.
I love Michelle Yeoh. Like adore her to bits and pieces. I loved her back when she was Michelle Kwan and did shlocky Hong Kong martial arts movies. Wing Chun is a favorite of that genre. And I had seen the martial arts in this movie. The combat looked clean and good. I decided I would watch it at some point.
Ian saw it and said it was his favorite movie, possibly ever. He urged me to watch it, saying he thought I would like it. My nibling said it was their and their spouse’s favorite movie of all time as well. My brother liked it, too (I think it was him?). The praise was high. I trusted these people. I loved Michelle Yeoh and Jamie Lee Curtis. And by this point, they won a slew of Oscars for the movie, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, and Best Supporting Actress.
I decided to make it my Christmas movie. I told Ian that I would watch it by Christmas day. He laughed and said that I would watch it at some point. It was clear he thought I was equivocating, and why not? I had said it before that I would definitely watch it at some certain time and did not.
But for whatever reason, I wanted to hold firm to this deadline. So around eight at night on Christmas, I–oh. Another reason I waited so long o watch it is because Amazon Prime had a really weird set-up for ‘renting’ it. As they always did. Which is another reason I don’t watch movies. Amazon Prime ‘thousands of free movies’ is a lie. It’s never a movie I want to watch, and if it is, I have to sign up for another sub, in this case, maybe Showtime? Something like that. Or I could have watched it through Amazon Prime, but only the non-HD version or somethnig weird like that. It was only when I checked last week that I noticed I could straight up watch it on Prime FOR FREE the way it should have been in the first place.
I have to say, going in, I knew that the movie was about jumping universes and that Evelyn was in every one. That was all I knew and whatever I saw in the trailer.
I was crying ten minutes in. When mother (Evelyn/Michelle) and daughter (Joy/Stephanie) had their first interaction. Joy is gay and comes in with her girlfriend. They’re kissing and giggling, which stops as soon as Evelyn comes in. It’s very clear that there is tension between mother and daughter, and as Joy is about to leave with her girlfriend, it’s painfully clear why.
The premise is that Evelyn is having a party for her father’s birthday (I think?), and he is a very old-fashioned and traditional man. He does not know that Joy is dating a woman (Evelyn introduces Becky, the girlfriend, as ‘hao pengyou’, which means a good friend), and the first thing he says to her is how awful her Mandarin is getting.
It’s clear from the look on Joy’s face that she is depressed and unhappy with her family life. She and Evelyn argue and then Joy storms out with Becky scurrying behind her. Evelyn runs after them, emotions warring on her face. When she opens her mouth, though, what comes out is, “You have to eat better. You’re getting fat.” Joy’s face falls, and she drives off in tears.
That’s when I absolutely lost it. My mother put me on my first diet when I was seven, declaring that I would be so pretty if I weren’t so fat. I have the feeling that The Daniels (the directors) wanted to use this as a shorthand for an old school Chinese mother struggling to express her love for her daughhter, but they don’t get that because of the sexism in Chinese (in my case Taiwanese) culture, this was not showing love from a mother to a daughter. Mothers are often the worst at propogating the sexist ideals of society upon their daughters, and it’s mostly to force their daughters to fit into society.
I must say that I was not expecting the intergenerational and cultural pain that was the basis for this movie. I was expecting an action adventure movie, which this movie is as well.
But to me, the heart of this movie is the family trauma that is front and present throughout the multiverses. It really spoke to me, and I have rarely felt as seen as I have with the character of Joy.
She is me at twenty. Called fat by her mother, queer, depressed, and tatted up. All of this at the disapproval of her mother, which I relate to as well (pun semi-intended).
I love that Jamie Lee Curtis won the Best Supporting Actress for her role, but I think Stephanie Hsu (also nominated) deserved it more. She was…well, I’ll get to that in the next post because this is running long as usual. But I was so impressed with every one of her Joys. And I felt so much for the Joy of the current world.
I’m going to stop now, but I’ll pick it up again. It wasn’t a perfect movie, and I would like to talk about all the things I did not like in the next post.