17.Deep Water (Adrian Lynne); grade: F
18.Master (Mariama Diallo); grade: F
19.7 Days (Roshan Sethi); grade: D
21.Better Nate Than Ever (Tim Federle); grade: D
23.Everything Everywhere All at Once (Daniels); grade F
Like the careerist, sentimental (ok, I cried, I’m easy) Better Nate Than Ever, Everything Everywhere All at Once—the most highly acclaimed movie of 2022—exploits familial responses to queer kids. But the conspiracy spanning infinite universes in EEAAO connects queer identity and hetero-tolerance to a metaphysic of moral relativism (and existentialism to mere career choices). It links the mother’s acceptance to its rejection of Creation-as-an-articulation-of-infinite-Love (in one one alternate universe, humans evolve with hot dogs for fingers). Similarly, 7 Days conflates COVID isolation with courtship and flubs its rom-com climax—an indie film aesthetic that the A24-distributed EEAAO shares (both films are visually and dramatically drab). EEAAO’s Kung Fu choreography lacks the impact and clarity of even hokey Hong Kong cinema much less compared to masters Zhang, Chen, Chow—so its immigration story comes off as appropriation. Incoherent genre filmmaking like Deep Water or Master reveals that the fun of movies gets replaced today by the satisfaction of bias confirmation whether it’s nihilistic trash of the former or the paranoid mash-up of grievance and horror tropes of the latter. If EEAAO establishes one’s truest responses as merely arbitrary, then the only acceptable response is to conform to authority. It reduces the complexity of mother-daughter love to a struggle session.
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"They love each other so much, they think they hate each other."
Imagine paying $1000 to hear "Don't Dream It's Over" instead of "Go Your Own Way"
Fleetwood Mac helped me through a time of heartbreak. 12 years later, they broke my heart.
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