SAN MARCOS-Palomar Pride Center hosted a screening of “Everything Everywhere All At Once” at the Howard Brubeck Theater this Monday, May 6.

In attendance was Tallie Medel (they/them), who stars in the film as Joy’s girlfriend Becky. They hosted a Q&A afterward and talked about their experiences working on the film and why it’s so special to the LGBTQ+ community.

“Everything Everywhere All At Once” is one of the most unique films of the past decade. Upon rewatch, this film already feels like it’s bound to be a classic despite only having been released in 2022.

The film does so much with so little, sometimes to an overwhelming extent. The film is able to elicit so many different emotions from the audience, and sometime multiple ones at the same time.

It’s also a masterclass in editing. Since the plot of the film revolves around the multiverse, there are so many different storylines within different universes all happening at the same time. The film is able to phase in and out of these storylines seamlessly and never sacrificing the drama.

The Q&A with Tallie Medel afterward was even more interesting and surprisingly candid. Medel had a lot of insight on what the film’s queerness means to them.

“I like how it’s really not so much about Evelyn being afraid of introducing Becky [to her Grandfather] as much as the intergenerational trauma of having to negotiate your relationship with your parents” Medel said.

“Everything Everywhere All At Once” takes a very subtle, realistic approach to queer representation. Rather than depicting overt homophobia, the film touches on the general fear of disapproval a member of one’s family might have when it comes time to introduce a significant other. Joy’s just so happens to be a girl.

“It’s not about Joy being gay, so much as everything else. I love how that element is decentered” said Medel.

Adding to the realism of queer representation in media, Medel also mentioned the importance of flawed queer characters in film and media in general.

“Let’s get some toxic queers up there” said Medel.

A lot of queer-related media makes it a priority to have positive representation, meaning that the queer characters are morally sound role models. The problem with that is it can get monotonous and even come off as nothing but fabricated virtue signaling.

Now that the industry is more open to depicting queer representation in even high-budget films, it’s extremely important to add variety to the context it’s being depicted in.

This event was a once in a lifetime opportunity and hopefully next year’s pride week will have equally exciting events in store.