It is, to say the very least, a confusing movie -- one that can be downright befuddling at times.

Everything Everywhere All at Once snatches Evelyn Wang (Michelle Yeoh) from a life of quiet desperation. A middle-aged Chinese-American woman running a failing laundromat, she has run afoul of the IRS and faces significant fines, if not actual jail time. At every turn, she is bedeviled by IRS auditor Deirdre Beaubeirdre (Jamie Lee Curtis.) Meanwhile, her marriage to mild-mannered Waymond Wang (Ke Huy Quan) is falling apart, and her relationships with her father (James Hong) and daughter Joy (Stephanie Hsu) are rocky at best.

Suddenly, Evelyn is confronted by an alternate version of her husband; Alpha Waymond, as he's known, comes from a parallel universe that has mastered the "science" of crossing into other worlds -- often by performing some specific, ludicrous act. And he tells Evelyn that she -- and she alone -- can save the multiverse from its ultimate destruction.

What follows is, at times, a whirlwind of transitions to a variety of worlds, each with its own Evelyn Wang, always in very different circumstances. In one, she's a successful actress. A singer. A martial artist. A sausage-fingered lesbian. A chef. A goggly-eyed rock. And so on. And she often encounters alternate versions of Waymond, along with other familiar faces from her "normal" life.

It's ... a very strange film. It's also quite the feted movie, winning Oscars for Best Motion Picture, Best Leading Actress (Yeoh), Best Supporting Actress (Curtis) and Best Supporting Actor (Quan), among other awards.

Among the flash and violence, Everything explores a lot of issues regarding the way we approach life. Is it all ultimately meaningless? Or is there an empowering message about choosing what in life is truly meaningful?

It's all a bit exhausting, and at times truly bewildering. It's visually sumptuous. It's also inspiring, with quotable quotes such as "Please, be kind ... especially when we don't know what's going on." And the acknowledgement that, in this life, "all we get are a few specks of time where any of this actually makes any sense," with Evelyn's response: "Then I will cherish these few specks of time."

I'd say, "They don't make movies like this any more," but, let's be honest, they never did. I didn't always understand what was happening, but I know Everything Everywhere All at Once will stick with me for a long time.