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‘The Devil All the Time’ (2020) boasts a star-studded cast, but fails to unlock the potential of their talent in a somewhat surface level mid-western slice of life (with added Christianity).

Tom Holland, Bill Skasgard, Riley Keough, Sebastian Stan, Eliza Scanlen, Mia Wasikowska, Robert Pattinson and Jason Clarke aren’t enough to make this film a somewhat unsuccessful tale of interlocking lives. The two main stories: that of Arvin (Tom Holland), and his very bad luck, and that of two serial killers, Sandy and Carl, (Riley Keough and Jason Clarke) who travel the roads of the Midwest, picking up hitchhikers, and killing them after encouraging them to have sex with Sandy. At times, these stories wander off the beaten track. Throughout, there are attempts to bring the stories back together: people brushing against each other, and copious amounts of foreshadowing. One could almost feel the spirituality that Antonio Campos is trying to invoke when both a mother and a daughter are drawn to religious men, and suffer the consequences of their piety, or when Willard Russell (Bill Skasgard) teaches his son Arvin a lesson about biding his time.

“The powerful images shown promised more than what was given”

Dissatisfying journey

In fact, throughout the entire film, I felt myself reaching out to a higher power. The powerful images shown promised more than what was given: blood-soaked men crucified in the middle of Vietnam, a pair of serial killers travelling the backroads of the American Midwest, maniacal preachers. But this tension between fanatical Christianity and the depraved actions of the characters failed to be anything but surface level. A lot of the publicity surrounding the film seemed to be setting Arvin up as a man driven insane by God, on a crusade. And in a way, yes, he does embark on a crusade, but the entire thing only seems to take twenty minutes, as it takes so long to set up enough exposition for us to reach that point.

While the film is incredibly depressing, it’s hard to look away. The constant death and despair did dull my senses, though. By the time Arvin finishes biding his time and ends up bouncing from one scene of violence to another, everyone’s story feels unexplored, and I failed to gain much satisfaction from the entire experience. For such a long film, so much was crammed into its two and half hour run time. Sadly, Sebastian Stan playing a crooked sheriff probably could’ve been left entirely out. He merely serves as a marker of the cyclical nature of life: Arvin kills him, years after the sheriff helps him with the death of his parents.

An uncomfortable showdown

Tom Holland, while an incredibly talented actor, does fail to get across the gravitas it feels as though Campos wants him to have. With so much hinging on his performance, everything feels a little bit silly and rushed, rather than the story of a man on a mission to avenge his adopted sister. And Robert Pattinson is having a whale of a time playing a campy preacher who uses his religion to persuade young Christian women to sleep with him. But, because of how uncomfortably Holland sits in his role, and how insane Pattinson seems, when they have a showdown in a church, it was more comical than anything else.

Maybe there was supposed to be some kind of message about how life comes back to bite you (or shoot you), but I failed so see it. Though atmospheric, and still enjoyable – despite my protestations – The Devil All The Time is more a display of what could’ve been than what is.

 

Maddy Raven

Featured image courtesy of Joshua Eckstein via Unsplash. Image license can be found here

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