Directed by:
Antonio CamposCinematography:
Lol CrawleyCast:
Tom Holland, Robert Pattinson, Bill Skarsgård, Sebastian Stan, Haley Bennett, Riley Keough, Jason Clarke, Mia Wasikowska, Harry Melling, Eliza Scanlen (more)VOD (1)
Plots(1)
Sinister characters converge around a young man (Tom Holland) devoted to protecting those he loves in this suspenseful, seductive Midwestern gothic tale. (Netflix)
Videos (2)
Reviews (10)
Along with Extraction, this is one of Netflix's best offerings when I look at the overall additions from the streaming company for 2020. The Devil All the Time already impressed me in the trailers; I was expecting a bleak experience with a top-notch setting in the southern part of the USA in the 1950s and 60s. For me, the film benefited primarily from two things. The first is surprisingly the narration. I expected boring and shallow chatter that would undermine the story's build-up, but I actually liked this style. The second thing on the list is the exclusive cast. Even the smallest supporting roles are memorable because the entire cast gave more than 100% on set. Add to that the redneck accent, which gave the film extra points. Tom Holland, Robert Pattinson, Bill Skarsgård, and the sheriff played by Sebastian Stan left an incredible impression on me. The film is wrapped in an unpleasantly negative tone, and you don’t even know who to root for. It’s simply a cocktail full of intrigue, claustrophobic atmosphere, chilling moments, perfectly crafted dialogues (the scene in the church with the priest is an absolute acting high point), and explicit brutality that will resonate with you for a long time. It still won't get a full score from me, as I wanted a slightly more dynamic first half. Nevertheless, it’s a fantastic film. For me, it gets 85%.
()
A compelling story from the Midwest full of murderers, perverts, paedophiles and other scum, with normal and sane people popping in here and there. An intense, but slowly flowing tension that benefits mainly from first-class performances (Skarsgård, Pattinson), an impressive and unpredictable script and the fearlessness of the filmmakers to surprise the viewer at times, even shock a bit here and there. Without unnecessary exhibitions like Tarantino, but similarly cleverly structured, and engaging for both the ambitious viewer and the layman.
()
Antonio Campos made a western-flavored, Deep South “fuck-up" thriller about the bad things that happen to bad people... and to Tom Holland. McCarthy’s poetic style is slightly undermined by the cynical narrator, who makes astute comments on the outcome of some of the situations, adding details necessary for understanding the humorous charm of the portrait as a whole. Pattinson really savors his role as an ingratiating, oversexed preacher and Jason Clarke was surprising as a porn photographer, but Holland was unusually less prominent, even though he has to deal with the biggest shitstorms and his moral dilemmas are probably the most convincing. Certainly one of the surprises of the year. Spider-Man vs. The Winter Soldier 2:0.
()
Top-notch craftsmanship that skilfully handles the balance of the image accessibility, relying on a spatially distinctive framing and on dim lightning that irradiates a darkness similar to the one that can be found in the soul of the society it portrays. Antonio Campos really tries to imprint his specific signature on the visuals and stages the scenes with ingenuity and efficiency. The 1950s and 60s setting in an environment of misery and poverty, where the heroes often seek solace in prayer, looks very convincing and itself builds an atmosphere where the viewer is always ready for the ubiquitous evil. The period soundtrack also works well, it doesn’t stick out too much but completes the film’s aura, while also helping to tell a very complex story with many characters, whose fates must naturally cross paths, and actually do throughout. But even though the story is very interesting and quite rich in the individual conflicts, its development doesn’t have a very strong effect and at times it feels too mechanic and literal. There’s an omniscient narrator, who probably was meant to express a detached god’s perspective, but his role is exhausted soon after laying down the story and the characters. The story then shifts regularly between several main lines that are brought together in the final act, but, especially in the middle part, where the hero is finally established, it’s lacking a dominant narrative direction and impulse – it’s as if it was intentionally shuffling its feet on one spot so the viewer can absorb the ideas that have been sketched so far, but the problem in that sense is that the film is in fact too simple and interpretively bland to evoke those existential concepts. The cards are clearly laid in the middle, the sympathies must be directed at the main character, while the potentially ambiguous ones don’t have much room to affect the story (the again attractive Ms Keough), or lack a better portrayal (Sheriff Sebastian Stan), while the evil ones are downright bad. And even though I appreciate the straightforward questioning of the faith in God as a means to achieve inner peace, I think that for a greater catharsis, it lacked more coherent moral arguments that would provide less universal conflicts and dilemmas to the twists that often arise from the experiences and the beliefs of the characters. Despite all these weaknesses, The Devil All the Time is certainly effective as a jigsaw-puzzle full of interesting images and characters that may be lacking a deeper insight and humanity, even (with the exception of a couple of wisecracks the film doesn’t have any humour, it’s only bleak), but still has the praiseworthy mark of the atmospheric fade-out effects and with a period setting that is not only for effect, but to provide a logical sequence of events that makes sense and holds the attention of the viewer at a decent pace, probably with the exception of the quieter middle part. Next to all the dumb action movies and cloying romantic stories on Netflix, this detour into the redneck world stands out very nicely and, if anything, it encourages to read the source book, which will certainly fix the psychological and argumentative shortcomings of the movie. 70%
()
(less)
(more)
Perhaps an exceedingly improbable tangle of fucked-up life stories, accompanied by a needlessly frequent and literal voice-over. There are already several important connections between those estimable life stories in the narrative and the constant, all-explaining voice-over robs the viewer of their own thought-provoking consideration. Literal explanations of the characters’ feelings have a place in a book, where we don’t see the characters’ faces. Here it is too much and unnecessary. If, however, you accept this excessively lazy, monotonously flowing narrative, you’re in for a solid drama with a lot of suffering, the ugly fruits of religious fanaticism, slightly cynical use of laid-back period music (which evokes the Coen brothers) and excellent actors. Particularly Jason Clarke and Pattinson excel in their negative supporting roles, which are atypical of them. Paradoxically, I found Tom Holland’s main character to be lacking in expressiveness, which I wouldn’t blame on him as an actor, but on the director. Three and a half stars.
()
Ads