Michelle Yeoh is back in action with the role of a lifetime — or perhaps several lifetimes, given the film's multiverse premise — as a mom in distress in Everything Everywhere All At Once. The sci-fi adventure storyline follows an exhausted laundromat owner (Yeoh) who can't seem to finish her taxes, only to be pulled by forces greater than her own across different lifetimes and versions of her existence in an effort to save the world from destruction. The film is a blast from start to finish, combining incredible fight choreography with hilarious jokes in a stunningly dynamic fashion, bringing to mind the master of the works of Stephen Chow and Jackie Chan.

Deadline just reported that Everything Everywhere All At Once has crossed the $20 million box office threshold after debuting March 25 in 10 theaters to $501,000 for a $50,000 per-theater average. These numbers ranked the film as the best limited debut and theater average to date in 2022, and the second-best theater average of the pandemic for a limited release after Licorice Pizza ($86,200). The film seems to be universally loved and currently holds a 97% critics' rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Apart from this impressive score, we're so bold as to say it's 2022's best film thus far, for a variety of other reasons. Here's a closer look.

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Appeals to a Wide Range of Viewers

The Quan family in Everything Everywhere All at Once.
A24

For those not familiar, Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert are collectively known as "Daniels." Their debut feature before this latest A24 outing was Swiss Army Man, which was also generally well received, but didn't exactly reach a wide audience. Not that films need to accomplish this — but if we're deeming Everything Everywhere All at Once the best of 2022, it's important to consider who exactly the content is reaching. Those have seen countless films in theaters over the years can attest to the sheer amount of noise the Daniels' movie generated from in-theater audiences — in a good way, of course.

Other recent hits like Spider-Man: No Way Home received their fair share of in-theater applause (like when Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire entered the latest Spidey flick), but EEAAO takes the cake in terms of continued cheers, laughter and gasps — sometimes all at once (no pun intended, given the film's title). And speaking of, Garfield and Maguire were just spotted seeing the film together, with Garfield later singing high praises for EEAAO.

Relatable Subject Matter, Despite Outrageous Plot

Yeoh Evelyn Wang Everything Everywhere All at Once 2022 A24
A24

There are countless themes across this gem of a film, but it never feels overwhelming. There are rites of passage galore — midlife crisis, children growing up, marriage/divorce — but the Daniels masterfully weave it all together, making infinite universes somehow feel like one neat, tidy package. Plus, our daily life struggles are echoed throughout story: indecision, abandonment, financial woes, regret and a whole lot more.

On top of all that, Everything Everywhere All at Once is a celebration of diversity and inclusion in Hollywood, which should be happening on the big screen more often these days. "I think the tide has turned, but we also need to be responsible, good storytellers and seize the opportunities that are presented now for women, for diversity," Yeoh recently told NPR. "But don't let it just be lip service, it has to mean something. So this movie in particular, it's about an Asian immigrant woman, an aging Asian immigrant woman. When was the last time you saw that, right?"

Related: Best Michelle Yeoh Movies, Ranked

Well-Crafted Film, In Addition to Laughs and Thrills

Ke Huy Quan in Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022)
A24

For those familiar with the Daniels' expansive filmography, including acclaimed music videos (see DJ Snake's "Turned Down For What") and Swiss Army Man, it's no surprise that Everything Everywhere All at Once is a visual treat and glorious "attack on the senses." The cinematography is certainly impressive for a smaller-budget effort, and don't get us started on the whirlwind editing that is surely sending film students across the globe buzzing. The fact that A-list talent rounds out EEAAO's cast is conclusive evidence enough that the film showed promise from the get-go. "Scream queen" Jamie Lee Curtis steals every scene she's in as a jaded tax auditor, and Ke Huy Quan — best known for playing Short Round in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Data Wang in The Goonies — returns after a years-long hiatus to kick some serious butt as multiple characters within the storyline. In showcasing Yeoh across countless storylines in a seemingly unlimited number of settings/sets/locations, the Daniels show off their ability to expand a simple idea into an epic masterpiece. “This movie is 100 percent a response to ‘The Matrix,’ obviously,” Daniel Kwan recently told IndieWire. “We wanted to make our version of it. It was wild to be like oh, ‘We took so long that the Wachowskis to beat us to it.’”