Starring: Tom Holland, Bill Skarsgard, Robert Pattinson, Sebastian Stan, Riley Keough, Jason Clarke
Directed by: Antonio Campos
Produced by: Jake Gyllenhaal
Written by: Antonio Campos and Paulo Campos
The Devil all the Time is Netflix’s latest addition to its vast collection of original movies. It is based on the gothic crime novel by Donald Ray Pollock. Here is a little fun fact for you, Donald Ray Pollock is also the narrator of this movie. In this film, evil, Christianity and corruption are explored in the small rural American town called Knockemstiff (yes that is an actual name) in Ohio.
There are so many wicked people in this town who mask their evil doings with Christianity and the protagonist, young Arvin Russell played by Tom Holland must deal with all this drama and do everything he can to protect his loved ones, especially his sister. I never read the book and I had no idea what to expect other than drama and action.
Familiar Faces In The Devil All The Time
I remember watching the trailer and thinking, “Spider-Man, Batman, and Bucky are in this… Say no more, I’m in.” I must say Tom Holland, Robert Pattinson, Bill Skarsgard, along with the rest of the cast gave outstanding performances so acting is no problem here.
Tom surprised me, I have seen him in his Spider-man movies and In the Heart of the Sea and the persona he took here was a far departure from the films he had done prior. Here he was this raw angry cynical young man with a vengeful spirit due to childhood trauma. I absolutely could have sympathized with him and kept thinking he should have talked to a therapist, meditate, pray or something because he was so unhinged and like a ticking time bomb.
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Robert Pattinson transformed into a creepy sociopathic preacher, he even altered his voice and accent to match that of a southern countryside preacher. He has come to long way from playing a sparkling constipated vampire, I am proud of him.
We only see Bill Skarsgard in the first act, but he was amazing. Skarsgard was not only an example of fine acting but fine casting as well, this guy has a face that looks like death itself which was fitting for his role of Arvin’s dad, a traumatized military veteran. To say he was a natural would be an understatement, he arguably put in the least effort and was still one of the best actors in the cast.
The Devil All The Time Is Not Without Its Imperfections
This movie is not without faults. It was much longer than it needed to be and spent so much time on characters that contributed very little to the storyline. Also, much of the narration diminishes the quality of the film as it was unnecessary on numerous occasions, I found myself saying “yes Donald I can see what’s going on” on numerous occasions.
Evil Walks With The Devil All The Time
The Devil All the Time is designed to be controversial and divisive. It can be argued that the story is meant to be a deconstruction of Christianity as the narrative’s focus on this religion while simultaneously portraying many Christians and preachers as hypocrites, psychopaths, and predators is bold and unsettling.
It is worth mentioning that this movie contains staggering amounts of violence, blood, nudity, and sexual content with graphic imagery and “stomach-churning scenes”. Needless to say, The Devil All The Time is not for the faint of heart.
What do you think? Do you have any plans to watch The Devil All The Time? Are you familiar with the novel? Lets us know in the comments. If you like what you read, there’s more where that came from, follow Moriviews on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook so you don’t miss a thing.
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