If you loved Daniels’ sleeper hit film, these imaginative and outrageous movies may do the trick for you, too!
Revitalizing the imaginations of audiences around the country, Everything Everywhere All at Once has been a boon to independent cinema fans around the country.
A24 Films
While the film’s vision is absolutely unique and funny as hell, there are a number of cinematic offerings that could call Daniels’ latest as a spiritual companion for one reason or another. As such, I’ve assembled 22 movies that just might make a perfect double feature with Everything Everywhere All at Once, if you so dare!
Honorable Mention: The Farewell
A24 / Courtesy Everett Collection
Lulu Wang’s phenomenal dramatic comedy follows a Chinese-American woman returning to her family in China for an impromptu wedding that is secretly a front to celebrate their grandmother, who was unknowingly diagnosed with terminal cancer. The film is definitely unconventional and hits many similar comedic and tragic beats as Everything Everywhere All at Once, but definitely lacks the WTF factor to ensure its proper inclusion on the list.
1.
Bodied
Neon / Courtesy Everett Collection
In this warped and visually exciting comedy from prolific music video director Joseph Kahn, a college student (Calum Worthy) finds his normal existence is twisted upside down when he is thrust into the world of underground battle rapping.
2.
Sorry to Bother You
Peter Prato / Annapurna Pictures / Courtesy Everett Collection
This provocative and absurd comedy from musician-turned-filmmaker Boots Riley stars Atlanta’s Lakeith Stanfield as a young telemarketer who adopts a “white” voice to find success at his job, only for the decision to lead him down a bizarre and humiliating path antithetical to his very being.
3.
Cabin Boy
Sony Pictures / Courtesy Everett Collection
Chris Elliott shines in this underrated Tim Burton-produced comedy about a snobbish man-child who encounters many strange and fantastical phenomena after accidentally joining a boorish and crude fishing crew.
4.
R100
Drafthouse Films / Courtesy Everett Collection
A widower (Nao Ōmori) finds his personal and professional life compromised after enlisting in a service in which dominatrixes attack him at random in this demented side-splitting comedy.
5.
Witching & Bitching
Film Factory Entertainment / IFC Films/ Courtesy Everett Collection
Alex de la Iglesia brings his trademark sardonic humor and subversive edge to this wicked horror comedy about thieves on the lam who accidentally take refuge with a dysfunctional coven of witches.
6.
Swiss Army Man
A24 / Courtesy Everett Collection
Daniels refined their unique penchant for emotionally vibrant and hysterically off-beat filmmaking with their feature directorial debut, in which Paul Dano plays a lovelorn man stranded on a deserted island who must rely on a talking, flatulent corpse (Daniel Radcliffe) to lead him back to safety.
7.
The Big Empty
Artisan Entertainment / Courtesy Everett Collection
This criminally unseen comedy features Jon Favreau as a struggling actor who accepts an odd job to protect and deliver an enigmatic briefcase to a barren truck stop, only to encounter a number of bizarre strangers as the circumstances grow increasingly mysterious.
8.
Karaoke Crazies
Redhill Pictures via YouTube
This outstanding and witty Korean comedy follows a group of lonely and eccentric misfits who come together and find solace in their troubled lives at a remote karaoke bar.
9.
Antibirth
Marni Grossman / IFC Films / Courtesy Everett Collection
Natasha Lyonne and Chloe Sevigny headline this dark horror-comedy about a foul-mouthed and degenerate stoner who becomes rapidly pregnant after taking an experimental drug with ties to a bizarre government conspiracy.
10.
Seven Psychopaths
CBS Films / Courtesy Everett Collection
After his commercial and critical cinematic breakthrough In Bruges, Martin McDonagh offered this self-deprecating and imaginative crime comedy about a writer (Colin Farrell) whose dog-stealing best friends (Sam Rockwell and Christopher Walken) accidentally target the beloved pet of a volatile crime lord (Woody Harrelson).
11.
Executive Koala
Synapse FIlms via YouTube
A giant koala (‘Hurricane Ryu’ Hariken) who works in an uneventful job at a pickle company becomes a prime murder suspect in this over-the-top Japanese comedy.
12.
Annette
Amazon Studios / Courtesy Everett Collection
Leos Carax’s bombastic and surreal rock opera featuring the music of Sparks follows a comedian (Adam Driver) whose relationship and life falls to pieces after the birth of his daughter, who is portrayed throughout the film as a marionette.
13.
Spontaneous
Paramount / Courtesy Everett Collection
Everything Everywhere All at Once’s balance of heart-wrenching drama and genre film irreverence can also be found in this bloody comedy about young lovers (Charlie Plummer and Katherine Langford) whose romance unfortunately blossoms in the midst of an inexplicable epidemic of random spontaneous combustion plaguing the youth of their town.
14.
Why Don’t You Play in Hell?
Drafthouse Films via YouTube
A team of aspiring filmmakers are serendipitously recruited by a former child actor (Fumi Nikaidō) to make a film out of her father’s (Jun Kunimura) real-life gang war in this amazingly chaotic cross between Bowfinger and Kill Bill.
15.
Being John Malkovich
USA Films / Courtesy Everett Collection
Spike Jonze’s groundbreaking comedy about a puppeteer (John Cusack) who finds a portal into the mind of actor John Malkovich at his thankless temp job, only to learn those closest to him have ulterior motives for this surreal discovery.
16.
Colossal
Neon / Courtesy Everett Collection
An alcoholic woman (Anne Hathaway) returns to her hometown after a sudden break-up only to discover her arrival suspiciously coincides with the appearance of a monstrous kaiju in Seoul, South Korea in this surprisingly heavy and effortlessly charming sci-fi dramedy.
17.
The God Inside My Ear
Gravitas Ventures via YouTube
Joe Badon’s trippy independent horror flick follows a young woman (Linnea Gregg) who questions the nature of her existence after encountering hallucinogenic visions, unusual voices, and manipulative weirdos hinting at conspiracies and bizarre remedies to her problems.
18.
Kung Fu Hustle
Sony Pictures Classics / Courtesy Everett Collection
An crossover hit with audiences and critics around the world, Stephen Chow’s singular kung-fu comedy mixes the Shaw Brothers with Looney Tunes in the funniest and most exhilarating way possible.
19.
Defending Your Life
Warner Bros. / Courtesy Everett Collection
Albert Brooks’ dry surreal romantic comedy follows a recently deceased man (Brooks) forced to defend his Earthly actions in order to ascend to the next plane of existence, only to find his plan complicated when he begins to fall for a deceased woman (Meryl Streep) who seemed destined for an even greater afterlife.
20.
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
Sony Pictures Classics / Courtesy Everett Collection
Renowned as the final film of Heath Ledger, this surprisingly beautiful tale about an immortal sage (Christopher Plummer) attempting to protect his daughter (Lily Cole) from a soul-stealing devil (Tom Waits) and a seductive amnesiac hiding a dark secret (Ledger).
21.
Fallen Angels
Kino International / Courtesy Everett Collection
One of the most memorable homages in Everything Everywhere All at Once comes in the form of the film’s depiction of a universe seemingly aping the style of Wong Kar-wai, whose poetic and occasionally chaotic filmmaking is unabashedly bold in this movie about criminals in love whose lives unknowingly intersect in Hong Kong.
22.
One Cut of the Dead
Shudder / Courtesy Everett Collection
A testament to the heart and determination of independent filmmakers, One Cut of the Dead is one of those movies that works best with the less you know going in, but shares much of the spirit and wonder that fills every frame of Everything Everywhere All at Once.
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