[Oscar Encore!] Daniels existentially explore everything everywhere

Feb 20, 2023

Happy new moon, everybody!

 

 

I have a very special Oscar Encore episode for you today -- in celebration of our guests little-film-that-could EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE scoring 11 (11!) Oscar nominations. Yes, the Oscars goes down in a few weeks on March 12th and it just seems worth pausing on how this remarkable non-sequel, non-superhero, paltry-budged, genre-smashing flick is suddenly poised for recognition in categories like (no biggie!) Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress.... and on and on.

 

Some history! Way back in November 2021 I was in theatres in downtown Toronto and saw a preview for EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE. The trailer blew me away and when I got home I remembered at the beginning it said "A Film By Daniels". Daniels? Who's Daniels!? I started googling and discovered it was two guys named Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert who have been making films together since college. They'd made one feature film before called SWISS ARMY MAN (also known as the 'Daniel Radcliffe Farting Corpse Movie') and a slate of incredible music videos like TONGUES by Joywave, SIMPLE SONG by The Shins, and TURN DOWN FOR WHAT by DJ Snake and Lil Jon ... which has over 1.1 billion views!

 

I fell into a rabbit hole soaking up their incredibly creative, challenging, boundary-pushing art and reached out to Daniel Kwan (@dunkwun) to invite the guys on 3 Books. We started trading long thoughtful emails about formative books while the background buzz on their movie kept building. It started limited runs in New York and LA and the Rotten Tomatoes score was 99%! And then, just a few days before the movie got a national distribution, we sat down for this moment-in-time conversation on 3 Books.

 

 

And now: To mark the incredible run the film's had since then we've done a very special edit of the conversation. It's hot! It's tight! It's fresh! It's sizzling! And if after listening to this you want the "Directors Cut" just scroll back to Chapter 101 for the full-length "extra hour" version.

 

 

I feel strongly that this is the type of art we need in the world today -- brave, risky, challenging, beautiful, profound. So much of what gets made, especially in the big-budget worlds of film, music, and podcasting, is, you know, repetitive. It's easier! That's what makes what Daniels is doing so important. It's been a massive honor getting to know Daniels "before they were cool" all the way up to this big moment at the Oscars on March 12th.

 

 

I hope you enjoy this special Bookmark Episode of 3 Books. Enjoy!