Campos checks in with these characters over time, while a wry, dryly funny narrator comments on their inner workings. The Devil All the Time's descent into darkness can be harrowing to the point of punishment, but it's offset by strong work from a stellar cast. This young man version of Arvin is quiet and haunted by traumatic his past, and also prone to fits of violence, especially when he sees people mocking and bullying his adoptive sister Lenora (Eliza Scanlen, who really has the market cornered right now on playing pale, melancholy girls who are lightning rods for tragedy). Arvin’s mother Charlotte (Haley Bennett) gets sick and themes of the line between life and death and the rituals of faith work into the narrative even more distinctly. Set in and around a real place called Knockemstiff – a case of nominative determinism if ever we heard it – in the deeply rural Appalachian setting of Ohio, this story of interlocking tragic tales spans the twin nightmares of WWII to Vietnam and begins with Bill Skarsgard’s man of few words, Willard Russell. And even now, the husband-and-wife serial-killer team of Carl and Sandy are still out there, able to get away with their crimes because Sandy’s brother is the local (corrupt) sheriff, played by Sebastian Stan in a relatively small role. Campos has also long been mooted to direct a prequel to classic 1970s horror The Omen. The actor doesn’t show up until very late in the film, and it’s almost as if he decided to make up for lost time by devouring every scene he’s in. Set in rural southern Ohio and West Virginia, The Devil All the Time follows a cast of characters from the end of World War II to the 1960s. The narration – often condescending, going so far as to call one character a “sick fuck” after one heinous act – recalls the darkly funny narration of Barry Lyndon, used to both entertain us and also help us keep track of the ever-changing, ever-growing story. And those who aren’t devout are able to manipulate those who are to their needs, such as the way Teagardin manipulates poor Lenora into being his underage paramour. Netflix's star studded drama, Devil All the Time is a complicated story filled with some great performances, but even with the two+ hour runtime there is no breathing room. Jason Clarke and Riley Keough in ‘The Devil All The Time’. There are bleak movies – Robert Mitchum as a minister turned serial killer in 1955’s ultra disturbing The Night of The Hunter springs to mind – and then there is The Devil All The Time; two and a half hours of unrelenting misery and hopelessness whose only joy lies in the fact that your own life is hopefully nowhere near as awful as any of the extremely unlucky characters which inhabit this dismal, unforgiving part of mid-century America. When Willard looks up at the cross in the woods outside his house, one senses he can still see horror in an image of faith.

Willard Russell (Bill Skarsgård) returns home to Knockemstiff, Ohio from World War II, carrying the heavy weight of PTSD. It works for me. The results are often terribly cruel, with Campos refusing to flinch away from the pain and suffering these characters endure. This is dark, dark stuff—the story of various families impacted by murder and tragedy. Willard falls for local waitress Charlotte (Haley Bennett), and soon, the pair have a son, Arvin. for violence, bloody/disturbing images, sexual content, graphic nudity, and language throughout.

It is also a story of fathers and sons. Robert Pattinson is a preacher preying on girls in “The Devil All the Time.” Glen Wilson/Netflix Filed under Bill Skarsgard , movie reviews , robert pattinson , tom holland , 9/17/20 A 40-foot inflatable Borat statue floated down the River Thames today, Watch the first trailer for Ryan Murphy’s star-studded ‘The Prom’, Sam Riley reflects on “pure fear” of playing Ian Curtis in ‘Control’, Netflix launch double Chadwick Boseman Oscar campaign, Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor previews score for David Fincher’s ‘Mank’, Rudy Giuliani responds to compromising scene in new ‘Borat’ film. “But I can’t do it. The Devil All the Time review – Pattinson is plausibly icky in violent gothic noir 3 / 5 stars 3 out of 5 stars. Unblinkered faith is cast as the root of all evil in The Devil All The Time, but the most chilling scenes aren’t necessarily the most violent. I am just more comfortable writing about the dark stuff.” Such hardship evidently appealed to 37-year-old director and screenplay adaptor Antonio Campos, whose previous work includes 2016’s Christine – the true story of Christine Chubbuck, a news reporter who committed suicide live on air.
He’s our default lead, even though he, too, doesn’t show up until later in the narrative. Rated R All names, trademarks and images are copyright their respective owners. The world's defining voice in music and pop culture since 1952. When I first saw the preview for “The Devil All the Time,” I turned to my wife and said, “That looks like a LOT of movie.” And it is even more than the trailer, or this review, can capture. Robert Pattinson pops up for another Netflix appearance. There’s Willard Russell, tormented veteran of the carnage in the South Pacific, who can’t save his beautiful wife, Charlotte, from an agonizing death by cancer no matter how much sacrifi­cial blood he pours on his “prayer log.” Follow him on Twitter @cevangelista413 or email him at chris@chrisevangelista.net, /Featured Stories Sidebar, Adaptation, Features, Movie Reviews, Netflix, Thriller, Antonio Campos, Bill Skarsgård, CE, Eliza Scanlen, Haley Bennett, Jason Clarke, Mia Wasikowska, netflix, Riley Keough, Robert-Pattinson, Sebastian Stan, The Devil All the Time, Tom Holland, ‘Once Upon a Snowman’ Directors Explain How ‘Back to the Future Part II’ Inspired Their ‘Frozen’ Prequel Short [Interview], ‘Demon Slayer’ is a Visually Remarkable Action Anime About Not Losing Your Humanity, and Also Killing Monsters, The Quarantine Stream: ‘They Came Together’ is a Brilliant, Gutbusting Spoof of Romantic Comedy Clichés, Daily Podcast: Stephen Tobolowsky On How The Pandemic Has Changed His Job As An Actor, The Quarantine Stream: ‘The Exorcist III’ May Be an Unnecessary Sequel, But It’s Still Pretty Darn Great, ‘Borat Subsequent Moviefilm’ Review: Audaciously and Raucously Hilarious with a Surprisingly Tender Heart, Copyright © 2005-2019 /Film. Sprawling and brutal, The Devil All the Time is not for the impatient or the squeamish. The Devil All the Time Critics Consensus.

I can’t even begin to tell you what accent the actor is going for here, but it doesn’t even sound like it’s from this planet, let alone this country. Got that? Web design by Pro Blog Design. “The Devil All the Time” is a stark collection of vignettes about violence and religion in the heart of the country. And then another corrupt preacher named Preston Teagardin (Robert Pattinson) enters the narrative and Alvin has to decide if he can stop the cycles of violence. “The Devil All the Time” is a story of multiple generations impacted by violence in the heartland of America. Though he’s every right to be a little messed up, he’s a sweet kid, but after sussing out his town’s psychopathic new preacher – played with chilling intensity by Robert Pattinson – he manages to fall in with an even more sinister couple, played by an unrelentingly wicked Jason Clarke and Riley Keough, the Fred and Rose West of the Midwest.
“I have tried many times to write a nice story,” said The Devil All The Time’s author Pollock. I found Campos’ skill with ensemble and willingness to dig into the darkest aspects of the human condition dramatically rewarding enough, even if it doesn’t work, well, all the time. But rather escape. The performance might be a bit too much for some, but I thought it fit the often surreal tone of the film perfectly. The Devil All the Time is connected in time by father and son. Two and a half hours of unrelenting sadness, anxiety and distress – but impossible to stop watching. However, this broad take fits a man who has to hide his hollow soul in front of his parishioners. It’s clear that Arvin has deep feelings for Lenora, and things get complicated when a new preacher, Reverend Preston Teagardin (Robert Pattinson), rolls into town and catches Lenora’s eye. He seems too fresh, too clean to play such a haunted, violent character. Credit: Netflix. That’s something I think a lot of us can relate to right now, and it makes The Devil All the Time feel like a movie tailor-made for the current hellscape we’re all trapped in. It’s a lot, and it sometimes struggles to overcome its misery. It chronicles how faith and evil often intertwine through the years as men of the cloth commit heinous crimes and their allegedly loyal flock confuse issues of life and death. Privacy Policy / Cookie Policy. Affiliate links used when available. © 2020 NME is a member of the media division of BandLab Technologies. Maybe more impressively, The Devil All the Time makes you care for some of the broken souls inhabiting its two map-speck towns. Whew. ‘The Devil All the Time’ Review: Religion is Deadly in This Star-Studded Southern Gothic, ‘Uncharted’ First Look Photos: See Tom Holland as Nathan Drake and Check Out a Mysterious Artifact, Composer Michael Giacchino is Working With Paul McCartney on an Animated Movie, ‘The Falcon and the Winter Soldier’ Adds ‘On My Block’ Star Danny Ramirez, ‘Rebecca’ Review: Ben Wheatley’s Slick Update on the Gothic Romance Fails to Thrill. If only these characters could just get away; light out for the territory and never look back.

In an eerie chapel, old school country musician Pokey LaFarge makes his movie debut alongside Harry Melling (Harry Potter’s Dudley Dursley), the pair conjuring up the hellfire hillbilly music of the Louvin Brothers while winning over Mia Wasikowska’s helpless, lonely Helen in the process. ‘The Devil All the Time’ Review: Religion is Deadly in This Star-Studded Southern Gothic Posted on Friday, September 11th, 2020 by Chris Evangelista Sprawling and brutal, The Devil All …

This is no easy feat. Part of that discomfort is built into the character, but you also get the distinct impression that Holland – who is a good actor, no doubt – just isn’t right for this role. And then they jump forward to an older Arvin (Tom Holland), still in Knockemstiff and trying to protect his half-sister Lenora (Eliza Scanlen), whose mother (Mia Wasikowska) was murdered by a preacher (Harry Melling). Clearly, that’s a lot of story right there for a whole movie, but it’s merely a fraction of the 140 minutes of “The Devil All the Time.” From those promising early scenes, Campos’ script (co-written with his brother Paolo) spirals out into multiple other stories of people connected to the Russell family, including a corrupt cop named Lee Bodecker (Sebastian Stan) and his sister Sandy (Riley Keough), who is married to a serial killer named Carl (Jason Clarke). He calls their victims his models. Based on former trucker Donald Ray Pollock’s 2011 debut novel – Pollock also provides an appropriately gravelly voiceover throughout – readers of the bestseller will already know what dark horrors await, but everyone else will catch up pretty quickly, as the terrors come thick and fast from the very start of this brutally gothic treatise on the dark directions religion can lead its followers in. It can be an overwhelmingly bleak film, but there’s a glimmer of hope shining through all that darkness – the hope of escaping the insane world you find yourself stuck in. Credit: Netflix.