The Year’s Most Heartwarming Sci-Fi Action Flick Is Getting Some Well-Deserved Awards Buzz

The Spirit Awards released their nominations, and with them has come the knowledge that maybe this year’s award season will be good, actually—mainly because the movie I’m rooting for most of all is leading the charge in number of nominations! And as it should.

My biggest hope out of this award season is that Michelle Yeoh and the cast of Everything Everywhere All at Once get their due. It has been a bit up and down on whether this will happen, but now, as the Spirit Awards have released their nominations, we’re seeing a bit more of news about the movie from directing and writing duo The Daniels. And it is currently leading the Spirit Awards with 8 nominations!

The thing is, this is one of the best movies I’ve seen this year and so it isn’t that surprising to me that it is getting the flowers it rightfully deserves, but let’s break down some of my favorite nominations outside of the nods to the Daniels for both directing and their screenplay.

It’s Yeoh’s award

Yeoh has been in movies for longer than I can remember and she’s always kicked ass. And what worked with Evelyn in Everything Everywhere All at Once is that the Daniels knew how to use Yeoh’s power as an actress who would perform her own stunts in the beginning of her career along with her ability to convey emotions with such ease.

Her performance works because many of us have that strained relationship (at times) with our mothers and want to find some kind of balance, and seeing her struggle in both her marriage and her relationship with her daughter is something we all can understand. This movie works because Yeoh is at the center of it and her performance carries us through it in such a way that it would feel disingenuous for the movie to get any sort of nod without Yeoh also getting the recognition she deserves.

As Ke Huy Quan deserves

Waymond (Ke Huy Quan) broke our hearts and made us fall in love with him as he’s done throughout most of his career with just one line, and that is “In another life, I would have really liked just doing laundry and taxes with you.” But the return of Ke Huy Quan to Hollywood is something that I think should warrant him getting recognition for his performance as Waymond in Everything Everywhere All at Once.

Quan was a staple of many of our childhoods as both Data in The Goonies and Short Round in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, but he had vanished for years. Seeing him back and giving us an incredible performance? It’s amazing and he deserves this.

Stephanie Hsu’s recognition should not go unrecognized

While some of us knew Stephanie Hsu for her work on Broadway and in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, for many, her role as Joy/Jobu Tupaki was a breakout, which is why her nomination is labeled as such, but it is something I hope continues into the rest of the award season.

I don’t know whether or not they will consider her for the Oscar, but her pain throughout the film and the chaos of Jobu Tupaki is what brings Everything Everywhere All at Once together to make it the standout movie that it is.

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I hope this is the first of many award shows that recognize how good Everything Everywhere All at Once is!

(featured image: A24)