'Everything Everywhere All at Once' is the best movie of 2022

• "Everything Everywhere All at Once" has been named Insider's movie of the year.

• The film explores a simple concept: How might your life play out if you made different choices?

• A24's surprise hit balances absurdist humor with an emotional core, delivering a heartwarming story.

Hot dog fingers, talking raccoons, and googly-eyed rocks. You won't watch anything quite like "Everything Everywhere All at Once" this year and that's why it's Insider's pick for the best movie of 2022.

For two hours and 19 minutes, directors Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (collectively known as the Daniels) took us on an absurdly beautiful journey of self-discovery that, by its end, inspired us to make the most of the life we're living, reach out to loved ones for a warm embrace, and even seek out a tasty bagel.

The sci-fi dramedy follows Evelyn (Michelle Yeoh), a laundromat owner who's miserable with her life. Stuck in a dead-end job with a crumbling marriage to a simple-minded, but sweet husband, Waymond (Ke Huy Quan), Evelyn also has difficulty acknowledging her daughter Joy's (Stephanie Hsu) girlfriend.

When Evelyn's father visits for the holidays, she attempts to hide Joy's sexuality, under the assumption he'll disapprove. Simultaneously, Evelyn and Waymond face a tax audit from a surly IRS agent (Jamie Lee Curtis).

During her audit, Evelyn gets roped into saving the multiverse from a mysterious — and spectacularly dressed — figure who appears dead set on destroying the world with an everything bagel. 

Evelyn taps into parallel versions of herself across universes, and in doing so, she witnesses how her life could've been if she never wed Waymond. Some of her alter-selves are absolutely bonkers. In one universe, she has hot dogs for hands. In another, she's a giant rock. In others, she's a chef and a famous actor.

At the surface level, the film explores a battle of good versus evil in a race to save the world. But its many relatable layers makes it worth multiple watches.

The film simultaneously works as a tender mother/daughter story of acceptance, an exploration of the pressures of not living up to parental expectations, an existential study on whether or not anything matters, a reminder to be kinder to others, and a love story about reigniting the spark in a marriage that has seemingly run its course.

Both wacky and endearing, the film's non-stop quirky humor makes it impossible to look away from the screen because you never know what zany thing may occur next.

At one moment, cops transform into confetti and, in another, Curtis plays the piano with her feet. Intricately beautiful and ridiculous fight sequences involving Yeoh, Quan, and Curtis mix martial arts and wrestling as they eat chapstick and staple paper to their foreheads.

If those sound like "dumb ideas" a child would come up with, that's the vibe the Daniels were aiming for and it works. The film's absurdism serves as a reminder to never stop viewing the world with childlike curiosity. It also became an unexpected cathartic release, allowing audiences to consider their own alternate life paths.

I cry-laughed at Raccacoonie, a talking raccoon who parodies Pixar's "Ratatouille" and fought back tears as Joy and Evelyn sought to coexist as mother and daughter despite their differences.

By the end of my first watch, I was no longer sure if my tears were from laughter, pure joy, or from crying over the script's heartfelt messages.

Sometimes it was all three.

The Daniels, who previously directed indie hit "Swiss Army Man," took a massive swing with "Everything Everywhere," a screenplay they've been working on since 2016. It paid off.

Not only did the film, produced by Anthony and Joe Russo ("Avengers: Endgame"), become A24's highest-grossing movie to date thanks to word of mouth, but it's likely going to be the buzziest film at next year's Oscars. It'll likely grab nods for best picture and best costume design — designer Shirley Kurata's ensembles are runway stunners filled with symbolism — along with potential nominations for Yeoh, Hsu, and Quan.

"Everything Everywhere All at Once" was the best movie of the year — not just in the universe, but in all of them.

"Everything Everywhere All at Once" was named Insider's best movie of 2022. For more of our End of Year Awards, click here.

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