The Devil All the Time

It would seem that 2020 is destined to be the year of the "Meh" Netflix film. Having now seen Tenet twice (trust me, a second viewing helps a lot), I'm unsure of when I'll actually see a film in theaters again as the pickings are slim for the foreseeable future. 

One the one hand, I'm really glad we finally got Tenet, but on the other, it's clear that others aren't comfortable with theaters yet and some states it's just flat-out not safe enough. Movie theaters are getting hit hard with this knee-jerk opening, then potential closing and I hope they can problem solve their path to lasting until *hopefully* November when some bigger films come out. 

Either way, it continues to be a mostly disappointing movie year, precisely because of this reason. Netflix has certainly been able to keep up a constant stream of films they've had previously purchased, but almost none of them have been compelling, except the magnificent Da 5 Bloods. Most all of them have been forgettable, if not enjoyable, but I'm certainly missing my blockbusters right about now (among many other films). 

The Devil All the Time is yet another notch in the Netflix, "Sure it's good/fine, but I won't remember it" belt that seems to their MO as of late. To be fair, that's fine when we're in a normal movie landscape that forces me to be a little more choosy about these films (usually I would only review them on lull weeks) and prioritize films in theaters. But now that I'm on my tenth streaming film of the year (across all platforms), I can feel the exhaustion kicking in while keeping this hobby going, despite Tenet's best efforts to reinvigorate me. 

Tiny violin aside, I did enjoy most of my time with the entirely-too-long The Devil All the Time because of the stellar cast and acting (which seems to almost be commonplace in these Netflix films too). In a single film you've got Robert Pattinson, Tom Holland, Bill Skarsgard, Sebastian Stan, Riley Keough, and Jason Clarke all of whom have fairly substantial roles. Their performances are the best parts of The Devil All the Time (even if some of their accents feel dialed up too much). Clarke, Pattinson, and Skarsgard are all particularly creepy and bring a lot to the title of the film (more on that in a second). Meanwhile Holland is a strong anchor once he's introduced and he's a much different character here than we're used to seeing. At first I felt like he was miscast, but by the end he'd grown into the more mature role. His character is one who tries to do good in an obnoxiously evil environment and ends up getting into a lot of hairy situations because of it. 

My, my...Pennywise sure is looking much better these days!

Praying that his Batman is the best Batman

While the performances might be entertaining to watch, it became clear to me that this was a film that's probably better left as a novel. In fact, the novel's author provides some overdone and slightly awkward narration throughout. The basic premise here seems to be that A) almost everyone is evil and B) almost everyone is a religious nutjob. I believe the nuances of it all likely come through better in the novel, but here it becomes almost comical that every character feels like a similar shade as the others either by A, or B, or both. It's a period piece so don't think it's a highly relevant commentary -- it spans from the late 40s to 60s (or somewhere around there). The drama is compelling, if not disjointed, once you get over the fact that everyone except for Holland is basically a "bad guy". Like other Netflix films this year, part of me wonders if this would have been better as a 6-part HBO miniseries, but either way, the story here is "fine", though, like I mentioned, it feels much more suited for a novel.

Past that, The Devil All the Time feels decidedly okay/good. The music featured is full of oldies that feel shoehorned in and nothing particularly interesting is done with them while the cinematography, original score, and editing are all...there. The pacing is shockingly quick when we're talking about getting from one year to the next or one scene to the next, but the film feels too long at nearly 2.5 hours. Once more, this is likely the novelization-to-film impact, but I kept feeling shocked by pausing my Netflix to see how much time was left.

"Oh Mr. Stark...I'm sorry I killed like 5 people!"

It's hard to tell what the rest of 2020 will look like for films. Either way, it's certainly not going to be normal, but I think most of us are well aware of that by now. Aside from that, I'm beginning to question if we'll even have movie theaters for the rest of the year as big films continuously skip their release dates and move later or to PVOD. For now we'll be left with that lingering question as we get our deluge of okay/good, but forgettable streaming films. Thanks 2020! 

CONS

• Feels too long, but yet is paced quickly. Likely the side effect of putting the book in film form
• Approaches an exhausting territory where everyone is the bad guy, but yet they all feel similar to one another
• Forgettable otherwise as there's not much pizzazz here with cinematography or music
• Awkward narration

PROS

• Incredibly loaded cast and all deliver strong performances. Many are variations of hyper-religious creeps, but Tom Holland comes into his own during a more mature role and proves he can do more than Peter Parker (TBH, he's proved this elsewhere, but some may need the reminder)
• Compelling drama throughout once the story gets going
• Okay/good film, elevated by the cast and performances

Rath's Review Score | 7.5/10