Film

Everything Everywhere All at Once

A washed-out laundromat owner discovers she's the fulcrum of the multiverse, hopping between lives she could have lived to save her daughter from cosmic nihilism. It's genre chaos on purpose — kung fu, googly eyes, hot dog fingers, sincere heartbreak — stitched together by the Daniels' anything-goes editing. For anyone who wants their action movie to also make them cry about their mother.

TMDb rating7.7

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Swiss Army Man2016

The Daniels' first feature, and you can see EEAAO's DNA everywhere — the same commitment to absurdity as a delivery system for real grief and tenderness, just with a flatulent corpse instead of a multiverse.

But It's smaller and stranger, and the whimsy-to-bleakness ratio might feel like a lot if you wanted more spectacle.

Swiss Army Man poster

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse2018

A multiverse story that uses its format — animation exploding into different art styles per universe — the way EEAAO uses genre-hopping, and it lands the same gut-punch about family underneath the visual fireworks.

But It's a more conventional hero's-journey structure, and the emotional stakes are lower-key than watching a mother nearly lose her daughter.

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse poster

The Farewell2019

Awkwafina, minus the multiverse, in a quiet, devastating film about a Chinese-American family keeping a secret from a dying grandmother — same generational ache, none of the kung fu.

But It's slow and unshowy by design; if you came for spectacle you'll be waiting for a fight scene that never arrives.

The Farewell poster

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

It's a Wonderful Life1946

Same engine as EEAAO — showing someone their unlived lives to save them from nihilism — decades before multiverse became a genre, dressed as earnest 1940s Americana instead of maximalist sci-fi.

Capra's Christmas classic is, structurally, an alternate-universe rescue mission — a man shown the life that would exist without him, saved from despair by seeing what he actually means to the people he loves.

But No kung fu, no multiverse aesthetics, just black-and-white sincerity and a slower, more theatrical style of melodrama.

It's a Wonderful Life poster
More like this (8)

Kung Fu Hustle2004

Stephen Chow's slapstick-martial-arts comedy has the same gleeful disregard for tonal consistency — cartoon violence, sincere sweetness, and fight choreography that's somehow both parody and genuinely great.

But It's broader and goofier throughout, with less interest in emotional depth than in pure gag construction.

Kung Fu Hustle poster

Turning Red2022

A mother-daughter relationship that turns into a literal monster metaphor, told with Pixar's polish — the same idea that love and generational pressure can feel like transformation, just gentler and shorter.

But It's aimed younger and plays it safer; don't expect the anarchic, R-rated swings.

Turning Red poster

Groundhog Day1993

The original alternate-lives-as-self-improvement comedy — a man forced to live the same day until he becomes someone worth loving, which is basically Evelyn's arc with a snow shovel instead of a hot dog finger.

But It's a much gentler, studio-comedy pace, and the stakes never leave one small Pennsylvania town.

Groundhog Day poster

Crazy Rich Asians2018

If you want more of that specific immigrant-family-meets-culture-clash energy with a starry ensemble and big emotional set pieces, this delivers it as glossy romantic comedy instead of sci-fi.

But It's a straightforward rom-com with none of the formal weirdness — no verse-jumping, no metaphysics, just wedding drama.

Crazy Rich Asians poster

The Matrix1999

The reality-bending action template EEAAO riffs on and subverts — bullet-time fights, a chosen one discovering hidden power, and a philosophical undercurrent about which reality actually matters.

But It's cooler and more detached where EEAAO is messy and emotional; the family stakes here are basically nonexistent.

The Matrix poster

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness2022

Marvel's own multiverse swing, complete with alternate-universe cameos and reality-hopping mayhem, for when you want the concept scaled up to franchise budget and comic-book stakes.

But It's got a fraction of the heart and none of the formal invention — this is spectacle first, emotion a distant second.

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness poster

Russian Doll2019

Same idea reshaped for television — existential repetition and family wounds resolved through structural gimmick — proving the concept works just as well sliced into episodes as jammed into two hours.

Natasha Lyonne dies over and over in a Groundhog Day loop that turns out to be about generational trauma and self-forgiveness, told in tight, sharp half-hours instead of one sprawling film.

But The time-loop mechanics take a few episodes to click, and it's a slower burn to the emotional payoff than EEAAO's all-at-once assault.

Russian Doll poster

Tokyo Story1953

Same mother/family ache at the center of EEAAO, told in the most opposite register imaginable — no multiverse, no motion, just patient stillness making the same point about love curdling into disappointment and back again.

Ozu's masterpiece about aging parents visiting their grown, distracted children is EEAAO's emotional core stripped of every genre trapping — just stillness, distance, and quiet devastation about generations drifting apart.

But It is deliberately, almost defiantly slow — static shots, minimal music, no incident at all by modern standards.

Tokyo Story poster

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Avengers: Endgame, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, The Farewell, Blind Chance, Dark Matter, Loki, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Swiss Army Man, Stuart Fails to Save the Universe