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Sep 16, 2020 · Netflix’s The Devil All the Time is set in Knockemstiff, Ohio, which is not fictional, although we understandably might assume otherwise. Based on the acclaimed 2011 novel by Daniel Ray Pollock ...
- The Devil All The Time
The devil may be all the time, but this Netflix movie comes...
- Miller's Crossing
Stream It Or Skip It: 'The Devil All the Time' on Netflix, a...
- The Devil All The Time
Sep 16, 2020 · It works for me. “The Devil All the Time” is a stark collection of vignettes about violence and religion in the heart of the country. It is vicious and cruel in ways that will turn off a lot of viewers. I found Campos’ skill with ensemble and willingness to dig into the darkest aspects of the human condition dramatically rewarding enough ...
Sep 13, 2020 · Bill Skarsgård and Haley Bennett in The Devil All the Time. Photograph: Glen Wilson/Netflix. Having substantially raised his game between 2012’s Simon Killer and 2016’s Christine, Campos ...
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- 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 15, 2020 · Review: Sin is the true star of Netflix’s bloody religio-gothic thriller ‘The Devil All the Time’. The sins of the fathers are passed down with both a solemn hand and a diabolical chuckle in ...
Sep 18, 2020 · Neflix’s The Devil All the Time, based on the acclaimed novel of the same name by Donald Ray Pollock and directed by Antonio Campos, is a slow-burning rural gothic tale starring Tom Holland and ...
Sep 18, 2020 · Movie Review: In Netflix’s The Devil All the Time, endless depravities are visited upon a star-studded cast of characters played by Tom Holland, Robert Pattinson, Bill Skarsgård, Eliza Scanlen ...
