Chances are you’re reading this review while walking to work, or grabbing a bite, or watering your plants- all this while you probably have a million thoughts running through your head- getting back to a task, work, the bills, a headline, an exam, why I refuse to make my point faster?

As the directors ( the Daniels) themselves state lately there has been an influx of too much of everything- to do, to think about, to gain, to love, to fight for- and, obviously, with the pandemic this disconnect, this overbearing feeling in general only grew. It is in this mundaneness, that the movie opens its bizarre multitude of universes- encompassing hot dog fingers and a ‘Raccacoonie’ spinoff, with Evelyn Wang( Michelle Yeoh) doing her taxes as her laundromat business is getting audited. Even here, we can sense her dissatisfaction- only furthered with her father’s criticism and her daughter- Joy’s disappointment( more on that later). This is obviously the byproduct of capitalist alienation( a certain Working for the Knife lyric “ I cry at the start of every movie; I guess 'cause I wish I was making things too” sums up her feelings best) and society’s affliction to judge success and morality only through economically-beneficial endeavours- you know, the usual, but it sets in the already to familiar existential dread from early on.

Now, superhero slice-of-life is all the rage, it’s all that Marvel has banked on for profits recently, so what sets this one apart? For one, it is absolutely genre defying- it uses action, sure, but there is an intent to it beyond the hero-realises-his( his) -mistake-and-corrects-it. Also, gay rep- the primary premise of the movie lies in a mother’s acceptance of her daughter( this is ONLY slightly, barely, minimally why I’m writig this review, okay?).

Initially, we see Joy fumbling in Chinese to explain to her grandfather that Becky is her girlfriend only for Evelyn to cut in- “good friend”. Bickering follows- Evelyn tells Joy that she should be grateful that her parents were progressive enough to be “open” to her dating a girl, followed by the i-fight-all-the-battles-here card and concluding with "you are getting fat.”