The Devil All the Time (2020)

The Devil All the Time (2020)

5/10

Starring

Tom Holland

Bill Skarsgård

Riley Keough

Jason Clarke

Directed by Antonio Campos

The Devil All the Time is a mixture of many stories revolving around a singular character (Arvin, played by Tom Holland). Filled with magnificent acting and prolonged situations – this movie is one of the most well acted, tedious and yet watchable movie you can catch on Netflix.

The movie carries on a dull tone which added to the over two hours run-time can be wearisome. The complexity to which the plot is woven around the many lives is worth applauding, but the actions of the characters can be unnerving.

As with the name of the movie so are the characters, everyone either had some weird moral depravity or were a victim to someone’s moral depravity.

The movie starts with a brief intro and then plunges us to witness a young boy (Arvin) crying and pleading as his father sacrifice his dog to God to save his dying mother. The same boy ended up an orphan which added to what he saw happen to his dog, he was screwed up from the start mentally.

There is also a young lady who is with another religious nutty like Arvin’s dad, she too faces a tragedy and leaves her daughter behind. Her daughter and Alvin grew up as orphans in the same home, the girl grew up to be pious, attracting bad biff. But her naivety with another religious nut (like mother like daughter) led to a colossal tale of death, to which Alvin was somehow involved.

Those are not the only crazy things this movie has, we have a serial killer and his woman who go about serial killing. A very silly Sheriff of a town who has no respect for his position.

There is a lot going on in this movie to have your attention, problem is with all that attention I still found the movie tedious and at times boring. The movie is based on a 2011 Gothic, crime book of the same name by Donald Ray Pollock. Pollock also serves as the narrator in this film. The movie does not stray from the book’s plot.

You can catch this movie on Netflix. I did not find seeing the movie worth my time, even though the acting in the movie is worth noting. I do believe films like this will do best on Netflix and not the cinemas.

The movie boast of an ensemble cast which can draw many to see it, but I feel the director wasted the power of his cast.