Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022)

Never has a title done more to both intrigue and repel me...at once. I feared that the movie would be either overdone or oversold. Maybe some of each. But it's popular enough that I predicted its Best Picture win, so I opted to see it in a theater.

Somewhere in the modern U.S., Evelyn Wang (Michelle Yeoh) is already overwhelmed at the start of the picture. She's planning a big Chinese New Year party; the family laundromat business is struggling; a droll IRS auditor (Jamie Lee Curtis) is giving them an ultimatum; husband Waymond (Ke Huy Quan) can't get her attention long enough to serve divorce papers; her elderly father (James Hong), who doesn't speak English, is a handful; and she doesn't want to break it to him that her young adult daughter, Joy (Stephanie Hsu), is dating a White woman (Tallie Medel). But in private, Waymond suddenly shifts to a different personality, as signaled by removing his glasses, and tells her she'll have to shelve all these concerns. This personality eventually reveals that he is an alternate Waymond from "the Alphaverse," where people have developed technology to "verse-jump," taking over their alternate universe counterparts' bodies temporarily without said counterparts' knowledge or consent. They can also borrow counterparts' memories in order to use their skills in another universe. The problem is that an alternate Joy, by verse-jumping pretty much to the point of experiencing the title, has become nihilistic and powerful enough to threaten every universe. (No wonder she changed her name.) Based on comparison with other Evelyn Wangs, Alpha-Waymond believes that this ironically underachieving Evelyn is the best hope for stopping her.

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021)

Yes, I've been watching comic book movies at an unusual frequency lately. But I wanted to watch another movie in a theater for the first time in months, this one was on at an acceptable time, and I'm pretty sure my dad was willing to pass on it.

The last two words of the title refer to either an East Asian terrorist gang or the magical artifacts worn by its leader, Xu Wenwu (Tony Leung). Xu Shang-Chi (Simu Liu), son of Wenwu, was trained to be an assassin but ran away to San Francisco, where he serves as irresponsible valet Shaun. His long-time friend and co-worker Katy (Awkwafina) has no idea of his background until, after a decade, Wenwu's men come to steal the jade pendant Shang-Chi got from his late mother, Ying Li (Fala Chen). Certain that they'll go after his estranged sister, Xialing (Meng'er Zhang), for her pendant, Shang-Chi heads for Macau, and Katy insists on joining him to learn more. He doesn't know what his dad's up to, but it can't be good.

Crazy Rich Asians (2018)

This is the first time in two years I've seen a movie set primarily in Southeast Asia. I couldn't help but be suspicious of the hype: Is it popular for being great or simply for being decent and having a mostly Asian cast, as is so rare for Hollywood? And how much does the Asian aspect matter to the plot?

Well, let me answer the latter question first: somewhat. Rachel (Constance Wu), a middle-class New Yorker of recent Chinese descent, agrees to accompany boyfriend Nick (Henry Golding) to the wedding of his friends Colin (Chris Pang) and Araminta (Sonoya Mizuno) in his native Singapore. Only then does she learn that Nick is famous, being the likely heir to one of Singapore's biggest and oldest fortunes. Of course, this means that Rachel sticks out like a sore thumb at the festivities; others look down on her as a gold digger or, at best, not in the same league. But Nick's mom, Eleanor (Michelle Yeoh), also of Chinese descent, has a different concern: the allegedly incompatible philosophies of the East and West. She doesn't trust an American, even one who can speak Cantonese, to respect the tradition of heeding one's mother.

Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2 (2017)

I had enjoyed the first GotG but had trouble ranking it with respect to other parts of the Marvel Cinematic, er, Universe. It's just so different. First of all, very little takes place on Earth, and only one major character, Peter "Star-Lord" Quill (Chris Pratt), is even half human, tho others tend to have an implausible similarity. Second, the Guardians are antiheroes, first teaming up for a prison break. Third, they're mostly rather subtle in powers, and their equipment isn't very innovative. The movie relied almost entirely on a sense of fun via dialog, emotion, and retro references. It worked, but I had yet to see how well it could work again, apart from the perhaps overly faithful first episode of the ensuing TV series.

Vol. 2 first shows the Guardians, having earned their moniker, doing what they do when the galaxy isn't facing clear and present danger: mercenary work. And a little theft on the side by the most corrupt ones, which is why such big-time saviors still have a lot of people after their hides. But those pursuers are arguably incidental to the main plot. Peter finally meets his mysterious biological father, Ego (Kurt Russell), who's actually extremely powerful and offers to share his wonders. Gamora (Zoe Saldana) thinks it's too good to be true, especially after hints from Ego's empathic companion, Mantis (Pom Klementieff); but Peter, tired of his unrequited crush on Gamora, dismisses the suspicion as resentment. Of course, anyone familiar with stories in general should guess who's correct....