Early reviews are in for Netflix's The Devil All The Time - here's what the critics are saying about writer-director Antonio Campos' latest film starring Tom Holland, Robert Pattinson and Bill Skarsgård. The upcoming Southern gothic thriller is based on the 2011 award-winning novel of the same name by Donald Ray Pollock and has been gaining buzz since The Devil All the Time trailer dropped in August. Its all-star cast and dark and gritty tone has intrigued audiences, but the major appeal is that they'll be able to watch it from home instead of going to theaters amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Details surrounding the plot have not been revealed too much, giving the dark thriller a more mysterious element. The film centers around a group of characters in a small Ohio town post-World War II whose lives converge throughout the story. A young man named Arvin Russell (Holland) is still shaped by tragedy after the death of his mother and veteran father (Skarsgård), who killed himself in a religious sacrifice. Arvin must protect himself and his family from some sinister people, including an ominous preacher (Pattinson), a twisted married couple (Jason Clarke, Riley Keough) and a crooked cop (Sebastian Stan).
Early reactions dropped today ahead of the film's premiere on Netflix September 16, with some reviewers praising the cast but criticizing the pace of the narrative. You can read through spoiler-free excerpts below to see what the critics are saying about The Devil All The Time. For more, click on the corresponding links to check out the reviews in full.
Ryan Lattanzio, IndieWire
There is no reason to care about anyone in Antonio Campos' The Devil All The Time, a sweaty, bloated mess of a movie that flushes a knockout ensemble down the drain.
Leah Greenblatt, Entertainment Weekly
[Campos'] greatest feat may be that he was able to wrangle a story as ripe and unwieldy as Devil at all — toeing a tricky line between art-house atmosphere and Southern Gothic soap opera, and somehow still managing to land on the grim side of fascinating.
John DeFore, THR
Though its structure doesn't always work to maximum effect, the grim picture gets more involving as it goes and benefits from a hell of a cast.
Matt Maytum, Total Film
Perhaps Campos is too closely wedded to Pollock’s book (the author even provides the voiceover) to allow it to entirely adjust to a new medium. But for such a harrowing experience, it’s a pity that the emotional payoff is rather muted.
Owen Gleiberman, Variety
The Devil All the Time shows us a lot of bad behavior, but the movie isn’t really interested in what makes the sinners tick. And without that lurid curiosity, it’s just a series of Sunday School lessons: a noir that wants to scrub away the darkness.
Dan Jolin, Empire Magazine
The bleakness of the mood is less of a problem than the film’s loose plotting and choppy structure. It isn’t so much hard to follow as all over the place, in need of a through line that’s more substantial than its ‘sins of the fathers’ theme.
Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune
If you can get over the grisly familiarity of the material, and a convenient lack of moral complication surrounding the avenging angel played by Tom “Spider-Man” Holland... The Devil All the Time is extremely well wrought. Not overwrought. Not underwrought. Just wrought.
Gabriella Geisinger, Digital Spy
The Devil All The Time may not be full of high-speed twists and turns the way you'd expect, but if you stick with the lax pace, the slow-burn reveals are worth the wait.
Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun-Times
At first, the jigsaw puzzle seems needlessly difficult to solve, but once all the pieces are in place and we see the big picture, we’re left with admiration for director/co-writer Antonio Campos’ ability to weave a memorably brooding film from Donald Ray Pollock’s novel of the same name.
The early critical reviews are quite divided, with many commenting on the director's attempt to make the plot more understanding to viewers who did not read the book, while only muddling the plot further. Others criticized the director's decision to have Pollock narrate the film, saying that his voice was more distracting than helpful to the story. The film has generally mixed reviews so far, as evidenced by the film's current 67 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes, While some critics suggest the film does not live up to the book, others praised the cast's performances, particularly Holland's, who seems to have made a huge departure from his Peter Parker role.
It sounds like Campos has attempted to keep The Devil All The Time close to its original source material, a decision that seems to both please and disappoint critics. Based on the reviews, audiences should expect to be impressed by the actors' performances in this dark drama, whether they can keep up with the plot or not. Fans will have to wait and see when the film streams September 16 on Netflix.
Source: Various [See the links above]
