Netflix has added a movie that will captivate you with its family drama. Or multiverse absurdity.

Summary

• In the history of the Academy Awards, only one sci-fi film has managed to win Best Picture.
• The combination of dynamic direction, talented cast, and poignant screenplay definitely made this movie one of the best representatives of both sci-fi and drama.
• The film was recently made available for streaming on Netflix.

We all love science fiction. Oh wait, not everyone is a fan of this genre. Academics, for example, even in the 21st century, don't seem to have gotten over their prejudices that sci-fi can offer as much depth, philosophy, and ethical issues as, say, genres like drama and thriller (and which are far more likely to win prestigious awards).

That was until the 95th ceremony, when a sci-fi film unexpectedly, but incredibly deservedly, won Best Picture. And now, two years after its theatrical release, it's available for streaming to Netflix subscribers.

The Only Film in the History of the Sci-Fi Genre to Win an Oscar for Best Picture

The Academy Awards have been around for nearly a century, and the most prestigious prize in the entire ceremony, Best Picture, as we've said before, has never gone to science fiction until one fateful occasion. Even when it comes to science fiction's sister genre, fantasy, there have only been two wins, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King and The Shape of Water.

And now, almost exactly a year ago, on March 12, 2023, at the 95th Academy Awards, the winner was announced as... Everything Everywhere All at Once, directed by the acclaimed semi-independent filmmaking duo Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert.

Frenetic Directing Style

Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, aka Daniels, have been making short films, TV episodes and music videos since the late '90s and early '00s. In 2014, they shot to fame with their music video for DJ Snake and Lil Jon's Turn Down for What, which wowed YouTube users with the incredible visual dynamics and surreal story Daniels presented. And when Swiss Army Man came out in 2016, starring Paul Dano and Daniel Radcliffe as a farting corpse, it was clear that we were in for one of the most original filmmaking duos to rival the Wachowski sisters.

On the one hand, the two Daniels' style itself can be described as nihilistic to a certain extent: they desacralize every sci-fi trope, reducing it to absolute absurdity in a postmodernist manner. But at the same time, this is not an edgy manifesto about the death of the sci-fi genre, but rather a bold expressionism, an unrestrained flight of creative imagination with no small amount of self-irony. In what other poignant sci-fi movie would there be a moment where the drama is built around sausage fingers? Yet, here we are!

Not Just Science Fiction, but a Family's Story

But epic visual style may not always impress the Academy - after all, no Star Wars movie has ever won an Oscar. Apparently, the members of the Motion Picture Academy value the dramatic nature of the script and the depth of the storytelling itself. And that's exactly what Everything Everywhere All at Once has to offer.

Indeed, the plot centers on the story of an immigrant family in the U.S. struggling with feelings of alienation, the search for identity, and nuclearization, which hits particularly hard on those from mainland China who are accustomed to a seemingly collective coexistence. Michelle Yeoh's character is an ordinary, frazzled woman who daydreams and wonders how her life might have turned out, while her daughter, played by Stephanie Hsu, is just trying to find her place in the world and experiencing the dissonance between her family's culture and the culture she lives in.

While this is an incredibly powerful family drama, it will appeal to fans of poignant stories as well as those expecting an epic sci-fi movie.