Sneha Jaiswal's Blog, page 215
July 2, 2022
Get A Copy of ‘Bad Town Kids’
Amazon Bestseller and contemporary fiction novel ‘Bad Town Kids’ is available on discount across all kindle stores, so grab a copy and leave a small review if you end up reading it. And just in case you were wondering – it is available on Kindle Unlimited too.
The novel was first published on December 26, 2020 & has been in the Top 10 Amazon Bestsellers list under ‘Literature & Fiction’. It’s about four friends growing up in a small Indian town, one is an atheist, another in the closet, the 3rd one doesn’t want to ‘settle down’ & the 4th one is about to turn their world upside down.
Here’s an excerpt from a reader’s review of the book –
Where do I start?
Wow
*whew*
I don’t read a lot of non-fantasy-genre books. I like my books to be neatly packaged with a couple of quests, the good and bad guys clearly identified, witty repartee galore and rounded off with all the nice folks getting their happy endings.
Bad Town Kids was NONE.OF.THAT.
Anita, Saira, Maadesh and Mokshit’s coming-of-age journey starts off soft — like ambling along a lazy, idyllic river — an innocent childhood, childish pranks, tall stories and scary-but-exciting discoveries. The author does not romanticize the Indian small-town setting with some Enid Blyton-esque picturization — Jaiswal firmly disabuses the reader of any such notions from the first sentence itself.
Then, my dear reader, the idyllic river of childhood crashes down as a wild and uncontrollable waterfall. The pace builds rapidly — scattered incidents that interlock in the end. The reality of Indian society — its patriarchy, toxicity, abuse — is conveyed in blunt, honest prose.
AMAZON REVIEWER
If ‘Bad Town Kids’ sounds like something you would like to read a copy. Here are a few country-wise links –
Happy reading!
Get A Copy of ‘Bad Town Kids’ For Free
Amazon Bestseller and contemporary fiction novel ‘Bad Town Kids’ is FREE for 24 hours across all kindle stores, so grab a copy and leave a small review if you end up reading it. And just in case you were wondering – it is available for free for everybody and not just Kindle Unlimited subscribers.
The novel was first published on December 26, 2020 & has been in the Top 10 Amazon Bestsellers list under ‘Literature & Fiction’. It’s about four friends growing up in a small Indian town, one is an atheist, another in the closet, the 3rd one doesn’t want to ‘settle down’ & the 4th one is about to turn their world upside down.
Here’s an excerpt from a reader’s review of the book –
Where do I start?
Wow
*whew*
I don’t read a lot of non-fantasy-genre books. I like my books to be neatly packaged with a couple of quests, the good and bad guys clearly identified, witty repartee galore and rounded off with all the nice folks getting their happy endings.
Bad Town Kids was NONE.OF.THAT.
Anita, Saira, Maadesh and Mokshit’s coming-of-age journey starts off soft — like ambling along a lazy, idyllic river — an innocent childhood, childish pranks, tall stories and scary-but-exciting discoveries. The author does not romanticize the Indian small-town setting with some Enid Blyton-esque picturization — Jaiswal firmly disabuses the reader of any such notions from the first sentence itself.
Then, my dear reader, the idyllic river of childhood crashes down as a wild and uncontrollable waterfall. The pace builds rapidly — scattered incidents that interlock in the end. The reality of Indian society — its patriarchy, toxicity, abuse — is conveyed in blunt, honest prose.
AMAZON REVIEWER
If ‘Bad Town Kids’ sounds like something you would like to read get the free copy now. Kindle also allows you to email the ebook as a gift to your friends (they don’t have to know it’s free). Here are a few country-wise links –
Happy reading!
Stranger Things 4 Vol 2 Was Just So ‘Eh?’
How can the Duffer Brothers do this to us? After all the crazy build-up, we get two massive episodes, that are longer than necessary and so underwhelming!! I expected something bigger, better, faster, sinister and if not all of that… at least funnier? Like that ridiculous ‘our story’ song break at the end of season 3, where Suzie-Poo and Dusty-Bun serenade each other, while everybody else is on the verge of their deaths. Some of us hated it, some of us loved it, there was no in between. But Stranger Things Season 4 volume 2 was so in between. It was just MEH. Mediocre. Average. Okay-ish. Not bad. But not great either.
Also Read: Stranger Things 4 Vol 1 Review – Bigger Not Stranger, But Hellah Fun
Vecna/One/Henry Creel is made out to be a gullible villain, who talks too much. Why does he talk so much? The characters may as well have some tea and cake with him over a table and discuss childhood trauma. So, despite Vecna’s devious back-story and Jamie Cambell Bower’s powerhouse performance in the earlier episodes, his otherworldly demonic side turns out to be the weakest monster yet. There’s practically zero horror elements in the loooong episodes. Nothing chilling, nothing scary, nothing too tragic even. Moving on….
Why did they queer-bait viewers with a pointless ‘Will is probably in love with Mike’ sub-plot? Their screen-space is so minuscule, they could’ve just skipped that bit and kept things within the perimeter of friendship… unless they plan to carry that thread forward in a season 5. Maya Hawke’s Robin Buckley already stood for some wholesome queer representation. Why make Will cry a river? Poor thing. Oh there’s so much more crying this time around, the fun bits are barely there, even the otherwise sassy Erica doesn’t get any witty punchlines.
What about action? Even that is minimal. Joyce and Jim’s Russian storyline had such explosive potential, they could’ve turned the gore on, given us a bloodbath, a massacre, anything… instead we get a medieval sword-fight between Jim and an already half-burnt creature. Boo.
The trademark 80s synth-pop music was one of the few interesting things about volume two, everything else was just… eh.
The Umbrella Academy Season 3 Review
One could give ‘Umbrella Academy Season 3′ full points just for the groovy dance face-off episode one starts with! It’s Umbrella Academy versus Sparrow Academy, both teams jiving to Kenny Loggins’ Footloose in near-perfect synchronization. There’s Luther with his huge big simian body at the front dancing like he is weightless, Vanya is like an older Wednesday Addams doing the routine with a deadpan face, a blood-splattered Five keeps up with his footwork at the back with Allison, a dazed Diego wonders WTF is happening but catches on, and well… Klaus doesn’t need a reason to party. After the hectic ‘saving the world’ routine, watching the Hargreeves’ siblings let their hair down was worth every second.
Season 3 is all about – another apocalypse. Obviously. But this around, time the Hargreeves siblings are back in 2019 and have brought along a ‘kugelblitz’ with them. To make things more complicated, ‘The Umbrella Academy’ doesn’t exist anymore, because their father Reginald Hargreeves adopted a completely different set of super-babies (except for Ben) in 1989 and christened them as ‘The Sparrow Academy’. Ben is back to being alive, but he is a Sparrow and a mean one at that. So, not only do the Umbrellas have to save the world AGAIN, they also have to fight a new bunch of superheroes, who’ve been trained better and battle harder. And their daddy issues aren’t as profound as the Umbrellas.
This latest installment is probably the most fun season of the show, but the episodes feel a lot more tedious too, dwelling into emotional moments that aren’t necessary. Fortunately, with two solid seasons to boot, the Hargreeves are a lot more likable than before and their sibling bonding is at its strongest. Elliot Page’s character Vanya comes out as transgender and transitions into becoming Victor, a change that is brought about after Vanya’s relationship with Sissy in the 60s. The transition comes about too quickly, and Victor’s siblings are swift to embrace his new identity, never getting his pronouns wrong. If it only were that easy in the real world. While it was a heartwarming/groundbreaking sub-plot, mirroring Elliot’s own real life transition and finally has the powerful Seven/Victor at ease in their own skin, but the evolution is too smooth to feel believable.
Just like before, Aidan Gallagher’s character Five is the only sibling putting in his all to understand how to stop the kugelblitz, Ritu Arya’s character Lila Pitts helps him out for a change. The rest of the gang is caught up in their problems, as always. With multiple time-jumps, season three does open up a lot of questions and plot-holes, stuff that you need to just ignore if you want to enjoy what’s happening. For example, when a timeline is restored, how come Five continues to remain in a child’s body, despite being 50+, or why doesn’t he at least attain his 30s self, like the rest of the clan? The easy answer is the fact that Aidan Gallagher has become such a beloved part of the Academy, replacing him would upset fans.
Reginald Hargreeves has more screen-time than usual, but he is quite different from the earlier version and the mystery over his origins is further deepened, with zero answers, which is quite frustrating. Klaus notices the changed Hargreeves and does some father-son time with the old man, leading to an exciting revelation about his supernatural abilities and reaffirmation about a know fact – Reginald is definitely a psychopathic asshole. This season was the first time I actually liked Diego as a character, although I was back to hating Allison, who gets quite villainous and unbearable. Tom Hooper’s Luther continues to be the densest one and gets a new romantic interest that serves up some laughs and light moments.
Season 3 was kind of all over the place, with no big villains, no assassins commissioned by The Commission to kill anybody and the Sparrows turn out to be not as formidable as they seemed to be. A new character from season 2 is pushed to the forefront this time around, but meets with a rather quick undeserved end. There’s a climactic battle between the superheroes in the last episode with a bunch of ‘gatekeepers’, which was supposed to be epic, but was pretty underwhelming. Aidan Gallagher and Robert Sheehan (who plays Klaus) make this season worth a watch with their delightful performances.
The ending was extraordinarily neat, with a killer twist, but it felt super freaking random. Viktor gets to have the last word on the show and ironically felt quite satisfactory. What does he say? He just looks at Reginald Hargreeves’ bust with disdain and says “asshole”.
It’s a 7/10 from me.
July 1, 2022
The Umbrella Academy Season 2 Review
By Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)
We are in the swinging sixties! A timeline that makes a lot more sense for ‘The Umbrella Academy’, versus season one, which was spent in a weirdly backward 2019 – no cell-phones, no social media. If you recall, season one ends with the world going to shit; the Hargreeves superhero siblings escape their deaths by a whisker, thanks to their time-traveling brother Five. They all hold hands and do a time jump. Only problem? Season two starts with each sibling falling into different dates and years between 1960-1963. Uh-oh.
Also Read: The Umbrella Academy Season 1 Review
Things might be screwed for the Hargreeves siblings, but it’s pure entertainment for viewers, we get a bangin’ episode 1, with Five falling last – only to find out the Umbrella Academy brought the apocalypse back with them. The Soviets go to war with the U.S and nuclear weapons result in an earlier destruction of the world. So, Five travels back 10 days, to gather all his siblings and hopefully succeed in saving the world, unlike their total failure in 2019. While there are a lot more interesting stories in this installment, again, the one hour long episodes eventually get lengthy and tedious. To make things worse, since Hazel and Cha-Cha are dead, The Commission sends a Swedish trio to kill the Hargreeves siblings, so that they do not tamper with the time-line. Most of Swedish trio parts are fast-forward worthy, they don’t inspire an iota of interest .
Okay, let’s just talk about the good things now, like Aidan Gallaghar who plays Five – that little dude is a total firecracker! Episode Seven titled ‘The Seven Stages’ has him at his absolute best, where he makes a desperate risky attempt to save the world and must fight his own self. It’s hard to imagine any other teen actor portraying a sarcastic world-weary 58-year-old contract killer with such finesse and confidence. And yes, it’s pretty easy to think of a bunch of actors who could’ve pulled off the roles of Allison, Luther, Diego and those Swedes with ease. Others characters, not so much. Robert Sheehan as Klaus Hargreeves’ continues to be my second favorite, with a fun sub-plot to himself – while he is no longer on drugs, he is a part of cult. L-O-L. Sheehan is a blend of hilarity and vulnerability as Klaus, making him the most lovable Umbrella sibling. Elliot Page finally gets a decent story as Vanya AKA Seven, and her talents are better utilized in season two, with more character development. Kate Walsh as ‘The Handler’ gets upgraded to a bigger villainous role and is absolutely delightful. She plays this eerily cheery villain, who is fiercely ambitious and will do anything to climb ranks at The Commission.
While Luther (Tom Hooper) and Allison (Emmy Raver-Lampman) were the least likable characters in Season One (even Hazel and Cha-Cha had better personalities), they get a better graph in Season Two, and make lesser terrible decisions. Luther had the weakest/blandest sub-plot, except for the bit where he tries to make contact with his dad Reginald Hargreeves in the 60s, and has his heart crushed; he is the poster-child for ‘Daddy’s Boy’, a giant ball of mush who looks up to his father a little too much. Allison on the other hand has the toughest time in this retro era, just minutes after she finds herself transported to a street in Dallas in 1961, she stumbles inside a cafe and is greeted by a sign that says “Whites only”. Not only does she have to start over a new life, she also has to battle blatant racial discrimination and live in constant fear. Yusuf Gatewood gets to play her new partner and civil rights activist Raymond Chestnut. The African-American civil rights movement is seamlessly woven into the story and adds a lot more substance to the show. Allison-Raymond make way more sense as a couple than Allison-Luther.
One of the best relationships in the show however is the love-hate bromance between brothers Klaus and Ben. Justin H Min gets a more prominent role as the ghost of Ben, but for those hoping to see a flashback explaining his death will be left disappointed. Anyway… the sibling bonding scenes are so much better this time around, there’s a super-sweet dance number with just Vanya, Allison and Klaus waltzing around in a parlor, it’s one of the most fun sequences of the season. David Castaneda’s character Diego is in his own bubble, he first lands himself in a mental health institution in 1963 and is convinced he needs to thwart the plot to kill U.S President John F Kennedy. Cuckoo indeed. Diego also gets a new partner in crime, Ritu Arya plays Lila Pitts, who helps him escape the institution but has her own nefarious agenda.
Since this is a apocalypse themed show with superheroes, it is but obvious to expect gritty action sequences, explosions, blood, deaths, gore, and even though there isn’t a LOT of that happening, there’s enough to keep action fans invested. Aidan Gallagher’s Five goes on a sinister killing rampage in Episode six, after striking an unfortunate deal with The Handler to get everybody out of the mess they are in. The Hargreeves’ bunch even reach out to their dad, who refuses to believe he adopted 7 kids in his future. Colm Feore as their eccentric billionaire father Reginald is the highlight of the series… he is an asshole, sure, no doubt about it, but a wickedly intelligent one at that, without him, there would be no umbrella academy.
Overall, Season Two is quite entertaining, and the Hargreeves’ siblings begin to really grow on you. The season ends with a very “what the hell just happened?!” kind of climax. Creators Steve Blackman and Jeremy Slater wrap up the installment in a way that fans wouldn’t want to waste a second before streaming season three. It’s a 7.5/10 from me.
The Umbrella Academy Season 1 Review
By Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)
At the heart of it, ‘The Umbrella Academy’ is essentially about a bunch of adopted superhero siblings, who were mentally screwed over by their control-freak billionaire father. So unlike the ‘Justice Leagues’ and ‘Avengers’ of the comic-book world, their team (Umbrella Academy) disbands before the protagonist even register pubertal changes. Yeah…
So, season one starts off with a team reunion at their father’s funeral. Episode one is aptly titled ‘We Only See Each Other at Weddings and Funerals’, where each of the seven Umbrella siblings are slowly introduced, after a quick explanation of their genesis. On October 1st 1989, 43 children were born under unusual circumstances around the world – their moms weren’t even pregnant until a minute before their sudden violent birth. Eccentric billionaire Reginald Hargreeves adopts seven of these unusual children, by paying off the families who weren’t prepared for these baby Jesuses, since they didn’t come with an incubation period of forewarning. He names the kids simply after numbers, One, Two, Three…. you get it.
Also Read: The Umbrella Academy Season 2 Review
Created by Steve Blackman and Jeremy Slater, season one is spread over 10 episodes, each over an hour long, a duration that should’ve been shorter. Elliot Page plays Vanya Hargreeves AKA Seven, the only sibling who has no special powers and leads a regular life as a violinist. All the main characters are 30 something, and there is number Five played by the Aidan Gallaghar, who reverts to being a teen due to his botched attempt at time-traveling. He comes back from the future to warn his siblings the world is about to end in eight days – what follows is a mildly exciting time-traveling adventure. If it weren’t for the slight mystery over ‘what caused the apocalypse?’ and some stand-out performances, ‘The Umbrella Academy’ could’ve been just another forgettable show, largely due to it’s choppy pace and unlikable conceited characters. The Umbrella siblings are too caught up with their own shit, while Five runs around investigating what could’ve caused the apocalypse. It’s clear this was a deliberate juxtaposition of petty superheroes Vs end of the world, but it’s just not as entertaining as intended.
Teen actor Aidan Gallaghar is the break-out star of the show, his cocky ’58-year-old man stuck in a per-pubescent body’ act is perfection. The only other likable Hargreeves’ sibling is the drugged up Klaus, who can see the dead and is a lot more humane than everybody else. Cameron Britton and Mary J. Blige play time-traveling assassins Hazel and Cha-Cha (their characters are a direct lift-off from Tarantino’s ‘Pulp Fiction’), who are out to kill Five, since he plans to change the timeline of world events. Even though Hazel, Cha-Cha’s mission to hunt-down Five is one of the more-exciting sub-plots, their characters are given way more space-time than necessary. Elliot Page as Vanya Hargreeves starts out likable as the ‘odd one out’, but her character lacks the depth it needed to make the climax explosive.
Even though the story is set in 2019, the technology used by everybody is extremely outdated. Nobody uses cell-phones, and people are still listening to music on record-players… while on the other hand, the tech is advanced enough for Luther to live on the moon and get a pager informing him of his dad’s demise. They should’ve just set the story in the 1970s, like in the comics, instead of making up their own weird world, with random tech. Viewers simply have to assume maybe this is an entirely different planet earth, if we want to make peace with the story and the lack of immediate communication. The gothic-style sprawling mansion where the siblings grew up in adds a lot of character to the story, giving it an old school fantasy touch to the tale, making it look like a set-piece from the Harry Potter universe.
Things get interesting when episode five introduces an organization called ‘The Commission’ that exists out of time and is “tasked with the preservation of the time continuum”… so whenever a human takes a decision that can alter a timeline, agents are dispatched to eliminate them. Kate Walsh as ‘The Handler’ looks like she is out of ‘The Stepford Wives’, but makes for a quirky minor villain in Five’s mission to stop the extinction of human race. In comparison, unfortunately, the final cause of the apocalypse is so underwhelming, you’d be left gritting your teeth in frustration over the superficial wipe-out of the entire planet. It makes little sense, doesn’t feel apocalyptic, and makes you really hate some of the Umbrella siblings.
For example, Tom Hooper plays ‘One’ Aka Luther Hargreeves, who has super-strength, he is a hulking man, whose intelligence is inversely proportional to his body size; his dumbness is cute at first, but his actions towards the end makes you wish he were dead before the others. It took me two seasons to understand number ‘Two’ Aka Diego’s superpower, which seems very useless at times. Portrayed by David Castaneda, Diego looks sharp, but has mommy issues and is almost as dumb as Luther. Each sibling has some or the other parental complex, from One to Seven, they are all messed up due to their strict upbringing. I mean who wouldn’t be, if they had distant control-freak for a father, a robot for a mother, and a talking chimp as their housekeeper/guide?
The angst and bad blood between the siblings both uplifts and sinks this season. That said, it’s still quite an entertaining show, and Aidan Gallagher’s performance as Five is one of the major highlights of this series, he is quite the show-stopper! The sound-track can be a total deal-breaker for some, luckily for me, I really enjoyed most the tracks in Season one. Just the groovy violin cover of ‘Phantom of the Opera’ at the beginning of Episode 1 was enough to get me hooked.
It’s a 7/10 from me. Stream it on Netflix.
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Listen To – Little Notes of Anguish & Other Poems – Author’s Take
June 30, 2022
Spy X Family Episode 12 Review
‘Penguin Park’ was just the perfect ‘Spy X Family’ episode yet! It’s all about fam-jam time, yet interspersed with covert spy action, and plenty of laughs.
(Read Spy x Family Episode 1 Review if you have no clue what the show is about)
Swamped with a lot of work, Loid’s been letting his cover of a ‘family man’ slip. He realizes it only after overhearing a few aunties gossiping about him in the corridor, branding him a negligent husband/father. Wary of further gossip, Loid Forger decides to take Yor and Anya for a weekend outing so the neighbors believe they are just another ‘regular’ family.
There are a lot of fun little details in episode 12, making it a delightful watch. For example, the Forgers are in white-blue outfits for their day out at the ‘Penguin Park’, representative of the extra mile Loid goes to put up a united ‘happy’ front for the world. Anya already sees the older pair as her parents and has started to behave a little more brat-like, which is perfectly normal for her age and she continues to be the cutest of the lot. Obviously. Loid-Yor are totally nailing their parenting roles, while their own personal equation is still at a lukewarm level.
I was expecting a new character introduction, and while we do see a few new faces, they are probably not going to get recurring experiences. Again, as far as the main mission is concerned, there isn’t any concrete progress, so it does feel like a ‘filler’ episode more than anything else. But at this point, I am completely invested in the characters, and would be only happy if it goes on till a episode 100!
Subscribe to our podcast on YouTube by the same name – AbstractAF
Listen To – Little Notes of Anguish & Other Poems – Author’s Take
June 29, 2022
Flavor Issue 3 & 4 Review
For some reason, each issue of ‘Flavor’ feels like there’s only one scene, they are all too quick, almost as if nothing happens. The comic series by Joseph Keatinge, Wook Jin Clark (Artist), Tamra Bonvillain (Colorist) and Ariana Maher (Letters) is all about food. The first two issues introduced readers to protagonist Xoo, who is an underage cook at her parent’s restaurant and is looking for a rare ingredient called ‘Garuda Truffles’. Issue 3 starts off with Xoo gearing up to participate in a cook-off at a black market to win what she desires.
Also Read: Flavor Issue 1 & 2 Review
Things get disappointing, because readers were set up with the expectation of getting an exciting action-packed issue, especially due to the cliffhanger in Issue 2. That said, the artwork in issue #3 was enjoyable, largely owing to the fact that we get an interesting side-by-side showcase of two characters cooking the same dish. While Xoo is making crepes to wintruffles, new character Anant is cooking to seal a spot in a fancy academy. It’s yet to be seen how the fates of these two different people are intertwined, but if you have years worth of reading, you can sort of guess where things are headed.
While food continues to be the dominant theme, we still don’t get any intriguing insights into the culinary culture of this fictional world. Although, master-chef like competitions seem to be quite popular and Xoo’s uncle is keen on signing her up for an event… without her knowledge.
The bright, colorful artwork is the only thing keeping me invested in the series for now. Two more issues down and it still feels like very little has happened. But at least it gets over in bling, so, no scope for boredom. It’s a 3/5 from me.
Fire Island – Not As Snipped As The Squad’s Hot Pants
The 2022 comedy film ‘Fire Island’ is an ‘ABCDD’ cocktail – it’s all about asses, bitches, crop-tops, drugs and drama. And a little bit about love. It’s supposed to be a modern lgbt+ re-imagination of ‘Pride and Prejudice’, so there’s literal pride (of both kinds) and a whole lot of prejudice on display through the story.
Directed by Andrew Ahn and written by Joel Kim Booster who also plays lead Noah, this comedy is about a bunch of gay best-friends holidaying for a whole week in Fire Island, which is known to be home to America’s ‘first gay and lesbian town’. Noah makes it his business to get best-friend Howie (Bowen Yang) laid during the trip, but it’s not going to be easy because Howie believes in romance and grand gestures, while most people on the Island are looking for a quick bang for their buck.
So where does the ‘Pride and Prejudice’ bit come in? Well, Howie gets noticed by the wealthy handsome Charlie, but his successful lawyer friend Will (Conrad Ricamora) looks down upon Howie’s squad as ‘white trash’. The story is filled with a lot of queer stereotypes, although Joel Kim Booster does attempt to show different personality types through the runtime. His character Noah for example is an interesting contradiction of sorts, on one hand he is a regular extroverted fuckboy with a fit gym bod, who uses Grinder even at a club surrounded by hot men, but is shown to have a ‘deeper’ side – he can quote from classics and offer literary criticism. Because apparently a person’s intellectual competency is measured by their ability to read and understand an old book. Conrad Ricamora plays the potential love interest, and his lawyer character is the typical “broody snooty rich dude with a soft heart”.
‘Fire Island’ is just a quick little dive into a gay holiday, with a lot of drama, bitch-fights, parties and drugs. The story-telling is slightly contrived, the characters are caricature like, and since this is supposed to be a comedy, maybe it was intentional. But the film isn’t as hilarious as it could’ve been, and gets into a lot of issues it cannot do justice too, making the runtime lengthier than necessary. The makers dispel the notion some might have of the lgbt+ community to be one big happy supportive family that’s all about pride parades and rainbows. In reality there’s an invisible hierarchy of ‘types’ and expectations from how each of those types should behave, which can be extremely damaging to some.
As far as acting goes, Joel just doesn’t have lead material charm, even though he looks like it. Nobody in the cast really stands out. Although Bowen Yang is quite likable as the shy, old-school Howie. Overall, this is like one of those superficial rom-com movies that makes for a fun and forgettable watch with friends. A runtime as short as the cast’s hot-pants/crops tops would’ve helped. It’s a 5/10 from me.
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Listen To Ep 78 – Spiderhead Movie Recapped & Ending Explained
June 28, 2022
Everything Everywhere All At Once: Chaotic! Crazy! Fun!
The first 15-20 minutes of the 2022 movie ‘Everything Everywhere All At Once’ is so chaotic, it’s stressful to watch. And you have too many question going on in your head.
“What the hell is happening?”
“Why is this house crammed with so many things?”
“Do they ever clean up?”
“Who is getting a divorce?!”
Written and directed by the duo Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, who apparently like to be referred to as the ‘Daniels’ and made that absurdly fun film ‘Swiss Army Man’ starring Daniel Radcliffe as a corpse, ‘Everything Everywhere All At Once’ is just as absurd, but crazier in its scope and story. And just like ‘Swiss Army Man’, it’s not everybody’s cup of tea.
Going back to the chaotic start… Michelle Yeoh plays protagonist Evelyn Wang who runs a laundromat with husband Waymond Wang (Ke Huy Quan). The couple is swamped with a mountain of bills and stressed over an impeding audit of their business. So the stressful watching experience is really just capturing the essence of how taxing running a small business is. When the Wang’s finally head to the IRS (Internal Revenue Service) office, the daunting experience turns into an epic multiverse adventure. A man takes over Waynond’s mind and tells Evelyn is the only one capable of fighting a super-villain called Jobu Tupaki, who is wreaking havoc across the multiverse.
What follows is an insane series of events, where Evelyn learns to explore and connect to her different versions across the multiverse in-order to fight Jobu Tupaki and her minions. Michelle Yeoh takes fans on an epic ride filled with nostalgia with her killer kung-fu moves and comic-timing. Ke Huy Quan is equally brilliant as her low-key sweet husband, who switches personalities like a God, and constantly reminded me of onscreen action legend Jackie Chan. Stephanie Tsu plays their daughter Joy Fang, who has a fraught relationship with her mom, because Evelyn isn’t wholeheartedly accepting of Joy’s girlfriend. Stephanie Tsu is spunky and riveting in her role, capturing both the melancholia of being a queer Chinese-American and the eccentricity of a someone who’s quite lost their mind. Jamie Lee Curtis was almost unrecognizable in her her cameo as an IRS officer, which is a compliment.
Honestly, despite all the multiverse madness (and oh yes, this one deserves the title ‘Multiverse of Madness’ way more than the actual Doctor Strange film) unfolding, ‘Everything Everywhere All At Once’ is really just about a family fighting their existential dreads and reconciling with each other. If they didn’t have a whole bunch of wacky dildo scenes, it would’ve made for an entertaining watch for a family night. But there’s a generous dollop of sexual innuendos through the runtime, with some weird sloppy scenes, so it’s best watched with friends or partners.
The Daniels had a very small CGI team but the special effects are quite fantastic and outlandish. The rapid scene changes are done seamlessly. A running gag about how one needs to do something ‘weird’ to travel across the multiverse offers a lot of scope for farcical sequences, those actions range between ludicrous and gross. Michelle Yeoh and the entire cast needs a salute for being game to this genre-bending script that’s sprinkled with a whole lot of bizarre. Her chemistry with Ke Huy Quan is spot on and the two have a very poignant heartbreaking scene towards the climax, which dwells into the secret of successful relationships – embracing the ordinary together.
If you enjoyed watching ‘Swiss Army Man’, you’d definitely enjoy watching this, even though they are poles apart, yet would appeal to those with a taste for the eccentric.
Subscribe to our podcast on YouTube by the same name – AbstractAF
Listen To Ep 78 – Spiderhead Movie Recapped & Ending Explained
