A24’s weird af sci-fi comedy, Everything Everywhere All At Once, has become adored by movie fans. It is already one of the highest rated movie on public film review platform Letterboxd; it’s 4.6 out of 5 star placing it amongst Oscar-winning movies Parasite (2019) and The Godfather (1972). The movie tells the story of down-and-out Evelyn, played by Michelle Yeoh, and her exploration of a multiverse of alternative realities where she is a thriving girlboss. It’s also been noted for being utterly chaotic – with blood covered dildos, anal wars and snot weapons. Naturally, then, it’s become the internet’s new favourite movie.
Luckily, those in the UK won’t have to hear about the film vicariously through the few who have seen it for much longer, with Everything Everywhere All At Once finally having a wide UK release today after taking over cinemas across the rest of the world in the last few weeks. To prepare you for the deranged viewing you are about to witness, here are seven other chaotic movies filled with sugar daddy drama, queer cannibalism, horny hedonism, crazed pop star stans and Daniel Radcliffe playing a flatulent corpse with a magical boner. No, we’re not kidding.
1. Daisies, 1966
Considered a milestone of Czechoslovakian New Wave cinema in the 60s, Daisies follows Marie I and Marie II, two young girls feeling so dejected and disenfranchised by the selfish hedonistic world around them that they decide they too will be utterly self-serving and spoiled, acting exclusively off their impulses and whims. At the time of release the movie was considered a scathing take on authoritarianism and was banned by the Czech government from theatres, only being shown discreetly at smaller venues.
2. Swiss Army Man, 2016
This odd fart-filled comedy is directed by Daniels, the filmmaking duo behind Everything Everywhere All At Once. It stars Paul Dano (who was also in the new Balenciagaified The Batman) as Hank, a man shipwrecked on an island and about to commit suicide when he discovers a corpse (played by Daniel Radcliffe) washed ashore with a serious post-death flatulence problem (Is that actually a thing?) for some absurd reason. When the cadaver, nicknamed Manny, starts to speak to Hank, it/he becomes a useful source of survival on the island (from being a source of drinking water to its rigour mortis erections acting as a compass – a sentence I never thought I’d type in my life.) Together, the new besties explore the pleasures of a gross yet inhibitionless life.
3. Raw, 2016
Before there was cannibal dating horror Fresh (2022), there was cannibal dating horror Raw. Directed by Julia Ducournau, the mastermind behind the fucked up Palme d’Or-winning movie Titane (2021), Raw is about meat-virgin Justine. A lifelong vegetarian, as she moves away from home to go to veterinary school, she enters a world of partying, sororities, hazing, hedonism and sexual freedom. And in turn, she discovers deep internal desires within her she never knew existed. Definitely not for the squeamish, Raw was critically acclaimed upon its release and put Julia on the map as a director to watch.
4. Malignant, 2021
From renowned horror director James Wan – co-creator of the Saw, Insidious and Conjuring universes – comes one of the most unhinged horrors to ever hit the screen. The film introduces us to Madison, a pregnant woman with an abusive partner who finds that all those in her life are being attacked by a hellbent deformed figure from her past she thought was gone forever. Starring Annabelle Wallis (Peaky Blinders), Michole Briana White and George Young (who is also a lead in the upcoming Lindsay Lohan christmas movie), Malignant may not be a cinematic great, but it’s chaotic energy, sassy one liners, fantastical, twisty mystery and unintentional goofiness means that all those who watch it become obsessed.
5. Shiva Baby, 2021
Yes, that is the girl from the “come on, it’s LA. We’re all addicted to drugs” video. Viral comedian Rachel Sennott stars as Danielle, a lost, bisexual Jewish woman who attends a Shiva (a week long mourning period observed in Judaism following a death where close relatives of the deceased stay at home whilst friends and family visit and provide comfort). Over the course of the week she bumps into her ex-girlfriend Maya and her current sugar daddy Max as well as his wife and their baby. Sounds very chaotic! The movie is actually an expanded version of a 2018 short film made as part of director Emma Seligman’s thesis project at NYU, which also starred Rachel in the lead role.
6. Voyagers, 2021
Described by Polygon as “Lord of the Flies in space”, Voyagers comes from Limitless (2011) director Neil Burger and stars Tye Sheridan (X-Men), Lily-Rose Depp (The King), Fionn Whithead (Dunkirk), Viveik Kalra, Archie Renaux, Quintessa Swindell (Euphoria) and Isaac Hempstead Wright (Game of Thrones) as a group of teen astronauts in 2063 sent to colonise a distant exoplanet after climate change has made the earth inhabitable. Ten years into their trip though, the horny teens realise they’re secretly being given tablets that make them less, well, horny. Refusing to take them anymore, their hormones go into overdrive, descending the crew into primal, angsty chaos as they are fuelled by their reckless base instincts.
7. Perfect Blue, 1997
A favourite of Darren Aronfsky – the man behind bone-cracking thriller Black Swan (2010) amongst other unhinged titles – this psychological Japanese anime has been dubbed ‘the scariest animated film ever’ by /Film and 25 years later still feels rather prescient. It tells the story of Mima, a member of a hugely popular J-pop girlband, who decides to quit music to pursue acting, changing up her image from innocent and wholesome to channel darker, mor mature vibes. But this change angers one of her former J-Pop super-stans who begins to stalk Mima. At the same time gruesome murders begin happening around her that make her look like the suspect. With all the new stress, Mima begins to spiral, losing her grip on reality whilst attempting to take back control of her life.
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