The latest and heavily promoted offering of Netflix is “The Devil All The Time,” directed by Antonio Campos based on the novel of the same name by Donald Ray Pollock. I haven’t watched anything Campos has directed, but his films like “Afterschool” and “Simon Killer” have been in my watchlist for the longest time. I was pretty excited to watch this film as I had heard a lot of praise for the original novel, and it had a stellar cast. The book has a specific reputation for being brutal and dark; I expected the film to be the same. Without giving away too much of the story, it’s a story of several interconnected characters spanning across generations.
God and religion play a big part in the film as most of the characters are devout church-going Christians. The film is more focused on the darker side of it. How excessive faith can corrupt us and how people are exploited in the name of religion. How clinging on to hopes of being saved by an almighty are destructive. Other than that, masculinity, violence, and existentialism are also a part of the film. The message that comes across is that hate and violence is a vicious never-ending cycle and is carried on by generations to come. Campos does an excellent job by adding to the scenes’ uneasiness with his minor but constant camera movements.
Talking about performances, almost everyone has a perfect Southern accent. It’s amusing seeing British actors nail that Southern accent (though Robert Pattinson has some experience with “The Rover”), and Tom Holland also does a fine job. The world of The Devil All The Time is full of vicious creatures, some more than others. The vilest of them being Reverend Preston Teagardin, played by Robert Pattinson. Like his previous Netflix film, “The King,” his role is small and doesn’t have much screen time, but every bit of it is intense. One complaint I have is the little screen time assigned to some characters, most notably Riley Keough, whose character is criminally underdeveloped. She’s made a career out of starring in fantastic films but not appearing for more than 12-15 minutes (Under The Silver Lake, American Honey). The other actors also turn in good performances.
The film suffers from some underdeveloped characters and arcs, which can be frustrating if you took a liking to them. Instead of diving headfirst into the film’s world, it focuses more on staying around the corners and toying with characters using and tossing them away at will, without any cohesiveness. One of the other problems is that the film seems to have an agenda against God, a result of a not-so-good adaption of the novel. I think it could’ve been far better if it was adapted into eight episodes each an hour long, but that’s just my opinion.
Rating: 3.5/5
Check out my social media if you liked this review.
Everything Cinema 