Post by Dracula on Dec 12, 2020 19:29:57 GMT -5
The Devil All the Time(11/7/2020)
I avoided this Netflix movie when it debuted earlier in the fall given that pre-election jitters had me stressed out enough without violent crime movies getting to me, but the election has finally been called so I think I’m good to willingly seek out some depressing shit. The Devil All the Time is a hard movie to classify and a hard movie to describe. In essence it’s a very dark Southern Gothic set over serval decades about some rather twisted inhabitants of a town called Coal Creek, West Virginia. The film has a rather unusual structure in which we begin with a lot of flashbacks to earlier events and it’s not always easy to quite catch your bearings as to who is related to who and what the flashback material does to explain what happens later on. Director Antonio Campos films the movie with flair and gives it a number of interesting scenes and set-pieces and also assembles a very intriguing cast which showcases new sides of actors like Tom Holland and Robert Pattinson, but I was a bit at a loss as to what the point of it all was supposed to be. It’s a somewhat lurid mix of lurid violence and religious hypocrisy and is filled with characters that don’t feel entirely believable or human. It kind of feels more like an exercise in simply making up twisted stuff to happen in this hellish town. I admired the movie’s general gusto and found it to be an interesting viewing experience but I’m not sure I can really take it as seriously as it seems to think it should be taken.
*** out of Five
I avoided this Netflix movie when it debuted earlier in the fall given that pre-election jitters had me stressed out enough without violent crime movies getting to me, but the election has finally been called so I think I’m good to willingly seek out some depressing shit. The Devil All the Time is a hard movie to classify and a hard movie to describe. In essence it’s a very dark Southern Gothic set over serval decades about some rather twisted inhabitants of a town called Coal Creek, West Virginia. The film has a rather unusual structure in which we begin with a lot of flashbacks to earlier events and it’s not always easy to quite catch your bearings as to who is related to who and what the flashback material does to explain what happens later on. Director Antonio Campos films the movie with flair and gives it a number of interesting scenes and set-pieces and also assembles a very intriguing cast which showcases new sides of actors like Tom Holland and Robert Pattinson, but I was a bit at a loss as to what the point of it all was supposed to be. It’s a somewhat lurid mix of lurid violence and religious hypocrisy and is filled with characters that don’t feel entirely believable or human. It kind of feels more like an exercise in simply making up twisted stuff to happen in this hellish town. I admired the movie’s general gusto and found it to be an interesting viewing experience but I’m not sure I can really take it as seriously as it seems to think it should be taken.
*** out of Five
