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Sep 16, 2020 · Powered by JustWatch. Antonio Campos ’ adaptation of Donald Ray Pollock ’s “The Devil All the Time” is an ambitious, sprawling drama with so much rippling under its surface and so many characters to keep track of that it’s tempting to say it would have worked better as a mini-series.
Watch The Devil All the Time with a subscription on Netflix. The Devil All the Time. What to Know. Critics Consensus. The Devil All the Time 's descent into darkness can...
- (219)
- Antonio Campos
- R
- Robert Pattinson
The Devil All the Time is an engrossing gothic tale full of backwoods preachers, thrill killers, religious zealots, and a handful of broken, weathered souls that cannot come to grips with...
- Tom Holland has his darkest role to date in this grim period piece.
- Verdict
By Robert Daniels
Updated: Oct 23, 2020 5:53 pm
Posted: Sep 14, 2020 10:00 pm
Rarely is a group of A-list actors so willing to be vicious like the ensemble in The Devil All the Time. Set between two secluded towns -- the aptly named Knockemstiff, Ohio, and Coal Creek, West Virginia -- Antonio Campos’ film (his fifth feature on a string of critically praised indies) spins a yarn about zealotry during the late 1950’s. Adapted from Donald Ray Pollock’s novel of the same title, a wry omniscient narrator (Pollock, himself) strings together the serendipitous The Devil All the Time. But amid the death and the poverty presented on screen, his matter of fact delivery often belies the film’s cruel irony.
The non-linear narrative, which explores the violent vestiges of religious iconography, finds Willard Russell (Bill Skarsgård) on the Solomon Islands during World War II. It’s here, he discovers a bloodied, fly-infested serviceman crucified. The image changes the once godly soldier to religiously apathetic, but more importantly, makes apparent how closely brutality and sacrifice — exemplified through the image of Jesus tortured on the cross — align. When Willard returns from the war, he meets the love of his life Charlotte (Haley Bennett). Their courtship, which witnesses Willard’s non-secular revival, twirls another thread: Faith unhealthily filling the hole that loss leaves.
Because after the pair marry, they produce a son named Arvin, only to have a tragedy befall them. To avoid the inevitable, Willard resorts to God, and with his son Arvin fervently prays for divine intervention. His situation becomes so bleak he takes an unthinkable action, which results in a haunting animal death. Skarsgård is unflinching in his ferocity, and his Appalachian accent suggests a man never unwound. He sets the tone early for a film whose most joyful moment is a young Arvin citing his father beating two poachers to a bloody pulp as his happiest memory with his dad.
The Devil All the Time is made purposely provocative by Antonio Campos imbuing an unrelenting gruesomeness into every frame. It’s a film unbothered by comfort. Rather Campos thrusts the audience into faith’s excesses without a moment to breathe. The talented ensemble — sometimes underutilized in this bleak film — follows his command undaunted. Bill...
- Robert Daniels
Sep 16, 2020 · The Devil All the Time Rated R for gruesome, bloody violence against all creatures. Running time: 2 hours 18 minutes. In select theaters and on Netflix.
- Antonio Campos
- Manohla Dargis
- 138 min
Sep 18, 2020 · Netflix’s The Devil All the Time Is a Sadistic Slog By Bilge Ebiri , a film critic for New York and Vulture Choose Your Own Adventure , but for generational trauma.
Sep 18, 2020 · Movie Review. The Devil All the Time is only good some of the time. / The dark thriller feels more lurid than compelling. By Joshua Rivera. Sep 18, 2020, 10:08 AM PDT. Image: Netflix.
