The 2022 Oscars: The Triumph of Genre and the End of Punditry
Two days after the Slap Heard ‘Round the World, I saw Everything Everywhere All at Once and wrote the following:
From that point on, I knew that Everything Everywhere All at Once would have a large role to play in the coming Oscars. Throughout last year, whether I was talking with hardened cinephiles or casual filmgoers, everyone spoke in awe of it. Few movies have ever captured both the immigrant experience and mother-daughter relationships with such carefully controlled chaos. No matter where you come from, it’s hard not to look at the Wangs and see your own family. It reminds me of when Fiddler on the Roof opened in Japan and a Japanese theatergoer approached Fiddler book writer Joe Stein and asked, “do they understand this show in America? It’s so Japanese.”
The film’s universality and the passion of its fans were integral to making it the most-awarded Best Picture winner of any film since Slumdog Millionaire, and one of only three films to win three acting Oscars, the others being A Streetcar Named Desire and Network. But like all Best Picture winners, Everything Everywhere All at Once received a number of lucky breaks along the way to overcome the decades of genre bias that would…
