I spent both New Year's Eve and New Year's Day at the Brattle Theatre in the heart of Harvard Square in Cambridge.
New Year's Eve was spent watching a double feature of Everything Everywhere All at Once and 2001: A Space Odyssey while New Year's Day was spent watching the Marx Brothers Marathon.
Everything Everywhere All at Once
I probably wouldn't have gone to see Everything Everywhere All at Once if it had not been paired with 2001: A Space Odyssey. But I was enticed with the inclusion of James Hong in the cast. The 93-year old Hong has been appearing on TV and in the movies for almost 70 years and finally got a star on The Hollywood Walk of Fame last year becoming the oldest actor to ever attain the honor.
Hong is part of a stellar cast which includes Michelle Yeoh, Stephanie Hsu, Ke Huy Quan (in his first acting role in over 30 years) and Jamie Lee Curtis. Yeoh plays a burned-out laundromat owner at the mercy of an IRS auditor played by Curtis who has a strained relationship with her daughter and father (played by Hsu and Hong, respectively) while feeling contempt for her husband (played by Quan) until he reveals (through an alter ego in another universe) there are multiple universes (the multiverse) the existence of which is threatened by their daughter who experiences everything, everywhere all at once.
Directed by the team of Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, as the title implies, there is a lot going on all at the same time and it is happening very fast. Let's just say I will never look at hot dogs and everything bagels the same ever again.
While I suspect Everything, Everywhere All at Once will be justifiably nominated for many Oscars I thought there was some padding and a good 30 minutes could have been shaved off the film. But it was fitting it was paired with 2001: A Space Odyssey because there was a scene which paid homage to this film.
2001: A Space Odyssey
I have seen 2001: A Space Odyssey before including at The Brattle some years ago. Despite the brief homage to one of Stanley Kubrick's finest works, Everything Everywhere All at Once is as far removed from 2001: A Space Odyssey as one can imagine especially when it comes to pace and dialogue. While Everything Everywhere All at Once is frenetic, the tension in 2001: A Space Odyssey builds very slowly. With the exception of a single scene where mother and daughter are rocks speaking in written dialogue there is scarcely a moment of silence Everything Everywhere All at Once. By contrast, the dialogue in 2001: A Space Odyssey is scarce and takes place almost entirely in the middle of the film primarily by Dr. David Bowman (Keir Dullea) and Dr. Frank Poole (Gary Lockwood) and HAL 9000 (voiced by Douglas Rain).
The last third of the film could be described as an acid trip and I suspect many who have seen this movie especially when it was released were under the influence of a hallucinogetic substance. For some it was undoubtedly a strange interlude.
The Marx Brothers Marathon
One of things which I missed most in the years I lived outside of Boston was not being able to observe this New Year's Day tradition. Although this is the first year the Marx Brothers Marathon has been a true marathon since 2020. After there was no screening in 2021. in 2022 there was a double feature of A Night at The Opera and Duck Soup. This year those two films were joined by Animal Crackers and Horse Feathers.
While I have seen all of these films numerous times there are invariably people who have never experienced the Marx Brothers especially children who never fail to connect with Harpo. I find this reassuring as these films are now nearly 100 years old. As these children get older, I suspect they'll have a greater appreciation for the words of both Groucho and Chico and sometimes Zeppo.
As for me, I like to begin the new year with a laugh because I need all the laughter I can get. No doubt I am far from alone in feeling this way. It is equally doubtless (knock-on wood) that I will have these feelings come January 1, 2024.
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