Delayed Reaction: The Devil All the Time

Premise: A young man living in a small town has a life marked by death and revenge.

 

I don't fully get this movie. I understand the different plot points of it. I'm at a loss about the why though. This is an eventful movie. A lot happens. It never stays on any one thing for long, often because the person at the center gets killed before too long. There are about two seasons of Justified rolled into a single movie. It's a lot and everything gets short shrift as a result. When it's all over and Tom Holland's Arvin is trying to stay awake in that hippie's van, imagining the ways his life could be in the future, I was left with a feeling of "OK, but why?" This movie is a collection of interesting stories that all could be fleshed out more. There's also the question of just how cursed can this kid's life be.

 

So, there's the generally flawed idea in business to keep throwing money at something until the problems go away. The Devil All the Time takes a similar approach. Instead of money, it's familiar actors. This cast is ridiculous. Tom Holland and Robert Pattinson are the only actors I'd call A-listers, but there are a ton (Literally. Put them on a scale) of familiar or rising talents. Bill Skarsgard, Haley Bennett, Sebastian Stan, Riley Keough, Jason Clark, Harry Melling, Eliza Scanlan, Mia Wasikowska. Pretty much, every 10 minutes another familiar person would show up in this movie. I really want to know who it was with all the friends and favors to call in. Writers/Director Antonio Campos and Paulo Campos don't seem established enough for that yet. My guess is producer Jake Gyllenhaal is the one who recruited so many people. Regardless, it's an impressive collection of talents, and they really do make the movie interesting, no matter how scattered the story feels. I mean, halfway into the movie it's got Pattinson showing up as a charismatic protestant preacher. That's a luxury few movies have.

While the cast made this movie watchable throughout, it couldn't overcome the fact that all the story-telling was really surface level and mostly reminded me of similar movies and shows that went into everything in more depth.

 

Side Note: I didn't expect the movie to be so violent. That's not a complaint. I'm just looking back on my notes and realizing how many exclamation points and "oh no"s I had in them.

 

Verdict: Weakly Don't Recommend