”Some people were born just so they could be buried.”
Director: Antonio Campos
Where Available: Netflix
Rating:
Summary:
In Knockemstiff, Ohio and its neighboring backwoods, sinister characters converge around young Arvin Russel as he fights the evil forces that threaten him and his family.
Review:
Netflix is on a role.
There are a lot of things to watch on Netflix. There is something new to watch on the platform every single day. For me, The Devil All The Time has been one of my most highly anticipated films of the year for Netflix. The last few things I have watched on Netflix have been some of my favorite watches of the year: Marriage Story, I’m Thinking of Ending Things, The Social Dilemma, and Julie and the Phantoms. The marketing for The Devil All The Time was spectacular. I mean, this cast is STACKED. I have been in love with Robert Pattinson recently, but its been a while since I have seen Tom Holland on the big screen, and wow was he good in this movie. Even though I was super excited for this movie to come out, I didn’t think I was going to like it this much.
At the tail end of WWII in rural southern Ohio and it's neighboring states, multiple horrific stories are braided together. Willard Russel will do anything to save his wife, no matter the cost. Carl and Sandy, a husband and wife team of serial killers, are trying to find the perfect “models” for their photographs on American Highways. Roy, a preacher, continues to look for a sign from God. Preston is the new preacher of the church with many shocking secrets. Caught in the middle of it all is Arvin, the son of Willard, a normal boy who turns out to have a dark side of his own. No matter how hard they all try to keep their faith, it seems like the Devil is with them all the time.
I’m going to get right to talking about the cast because I know that is a large chunk of the reason people are watching this movie:
Tom Holland blew me away. As our newest neighborhood Spiderman, Tom Holland can be seen in many of the recent Marvel movies. (Some of his projects coming out in the near future include a movie called Chaos Walking, written by Charlie Kaufman and a Russo Brothers film called Cherry!) I thought that the goofy/superhero/action movies would be his scene, but after watching The Devil All The Time, I realized I was completely wrong. I was honestly STARSTRUCK by his performance as Arvin. He is dark and mysterious and complicated in ways that I have never seen come from Tom Holland before. For me, this role definitely sets Tom aside from other male actors in Hollywood right now, and I cannot wait to see Cherry and any other projects he decides to work on next!
This is the first Robert Pattinson character I have ever genuinely hated. SPECTACULAR performance by my Twilight king, but WOW was this character the worst. I have a blog post planned for the future where I am going to talk about the evolution of Robert Pattinson’s acting career, so I think I will get more in depth with this character then. All I have to say about this role is that every time he came on screen I got SO uncomfortable to the point where I had to look away. Also, his southern accent was impeccable! (the entire cast had STUNNING accents!)
Bill Skarsgård is so talented. There are no other words to describe this man. He plays Willard Russell, the father of Arvin (Tom Holland). This. Man. Is. Scary. Willard will do anything in his power to save his wife, even if it means that he might have to harm others in the process. I have said this before and I will say it again, when someone in Hollywood decides to make a Corpse Bride live action movie, Bill will be playing Victor. No question! If you thought that this man could only play the clown in IT, then you NEED to go watch this movie. (He is also going to be in the new Russo Brothers Cherry movie with Tom Holland which is so exciting!)
Riley Keough and Jason Clarke play the married Henderson couples Sandy and Carl. For those who have seen Once Upon a Time In Hollywood, this couple reminds me of those 3 characters sneaking into Leo’s house in the movie. They have their own separate story the entire movie up until the very end where they connect with the main character Arvin. Carl also gives me MAJOR George Wilson vibes from The Great Gatsby, which makes sense since they were both played by Jason Clarke. They had one of the most interesting storylines in the movie, but I wish we got to see more of what each of them went through in this movie.
There really isn’t much to say about Sebastian Stan. I love him, and his acting was superb here, but he was barely in it. He plays a cop named Lee Bodecker who’s sister happens to be Sandy Henderson, a serial killer in his state. I just wish he had more screen-time!
Who knew that Dudley from Harry Potter grew up to be a priest! Harry Melling plays Roy Laferty, one of the many priests in this movie. He was my favorite character, hands down. Roy is INSANE and definitely takes some turns you never expected from his character. Harry Melling is honestly making a comeback, with movies like The Old Guard and The Ballad of Buster Scruggs charting on Netflix, I wouldn’t be surprised to see him in another Netflix original very soon.
I think one of the main flaws in The Devil All The Time is the LARGE amount of characters. Don’t get me wrong, the more the merrier, but if you are going to include this many characters in a script, either don’t direct as much attention to every single one of them or give them all equal standing. Tom Holland was the “main character” but he only showed up about 40 minutes into the movie. Bill Skarsgard wasn’t in the movie towards the end at all! I wish they had put more time into the characters I was so invested in instead of trying to add in so many extra plot lines.
Another thing that I know can be annoying to some viewers is the run time. Personally, I love long movie (Interstellar is QUITE long and is one of my favorite movies of all time), but this movie clocks in at 2 hours and 18 minutes. The positive side of this is that EVERY SINGLE SHOT means something. There was not one moment where what was happening wasn’t important, which kept me hooked the entire movie. There were times where I wanted to take a breather and just absorb all the information coming at me, but there was NO breathing room. Again, this is an aspect of the movie that some people may LOVE and some people may HATE. The cinematography and production design was GREAT. If I had to describe it in a few words I would say blood, neutral, and CRISP.
Overall, I really did like this movie. It was engaging and creepy and full of great dialogue. I’m serious when I say Netflix is on a role, because if they keep putting out movies like this, there is going to be some competitions at the Oscars next year (I would not be surprised if Tom Holland got nominated for best actor in the near future).
I am seeing a lot of mixed reviews ranging between “What an astonishingly powerful film” to “that was so boring bye“ on Letterboxd, so I thought it would be fun to include my mini review as a way to end this blog post (If you don’t know what Letterboxd is, its an app where you can review, log, and look at upcoming films):
A few notes I took throughout the movie:
1. Wait Dudley from Harry Potter grew up to be a priest?
2. CRISP CINEMATOGRAPHY
3. Karma?
4. Poor Tom Holland bro
5. NOT THE DOG
6. Sebastian Stan as a cop? Ok ok I can vibe with that
7. Drew Starkey is always the high school bully
8. Denim on denim. Period.
9. NO ROBERT NOOOOO NOT THIS ANYTHING BUT THIS
10. DeLuSiOnS
11. Why did they include a fight scene between spider man and the winter soldier?
12. Backwards or forwards. CHRISTOPHER NOLAN WHERE ARE U???
In summary, don’t hitchhike. Ever.
Quotes:
”Some people were born just so they could be buried.” - Lee Bodecker
“It's hard to live a good life...It seems like the Devil don't ever let up.”
“You got time for a sinner?”
“Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for rightousness.”
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