It’s been a very, very long
time since I went into a movie completely and utterly blind. These days, it is nigh impossible to not know at
least a smidgen beforehand about the latest
cinematic tale one sits down to experience between the trailers, TV spots, and audience reactions
that bombard us every time we turn on anything even vaguely electronic. Some of
this foreknowledge can be necessary, however; if you hate mid-thirtieth century
romances about robot cowboys from Mars, wouldn’t you want to know if the movie you are about to watch is a
mid-thirtieth century romance about robot cowboys from Mars? When it comes to
reviews, however, I am a little less picky, as I try to watch things I would
not normally watch for the sake of
variety. That all being said, I wish I didn’t go into The Devil All the Time as blind as I did, because I
probably wouldn’t have gone into it at all. It is not a mid-thirtieth century
romance about robot cowboys from Mars, because that would be at least a little
bit enjoyable. Overall, The Devil All the Time is
a very well made movie that seemed to delight in making me hate it.
Ably
acted by an all-star cast that includes such names as Tom Holland, Robert
Pattinson, Bill Skarsgard, and Sebastian Stan, The Devil All the Time is,
in short, excessive. There is not a
single light moment in the entire
run time, nor is there a single morally
decent character (unless you count the two
that quickly get brutally offed for the crime
of being morally decent). The closest
we get to a hero is a deeply troubled and violent high school student, and
he still kills people. Meanwhile, the theme of religious extremism and how it can lead
people to commit atrocities is not so much delicately explored as it is used as
a cudgel on the unsuspecting skull
of the viewer. I don’t dislike dark
movies. I like them just as much as
lighthearted movies when I am in the right
mood. But stringing together a few different stories of bad people doing bad
things just to invoke negative feelings in the audience
is different. Exploring negative themes
is fine, but when a film does nothing to prove or hint that things can get
better, there is a problem. There is little to no hope to be found in this
movie, and religion apparently either turns you into complete psychopath or a
naïve child with nothing in between.
As
I write this, I realize that the problems
I have with The Devil All the Time arise
from the duties I think all films
need to perform; they must entertain,
or they must teach. The greatest ones do both, and the worst ones do neither. I was not
entertained by The Devil All the Time even
though it was technically a fine film, nor did it teach me anything. What it
did was remind me that despicable people are out there and there
is little we can do about it. Yaaay.
Am I letting my emotions rule
this particular review and my reaction to this movie? Absolutely. I understand
that you should usually hate the message
(people suck) and not the messenger
(the movie). But I am only a man. You
might very well love The Devil All the Time.
I did not.
The Devil All the Time is
now available on Netflix.
This
review was first published in The Keizertimes on October 30th, 2020. Visit at http://keizertimes.com/
Hindsight: it's Christmas time, so I don't really feel like reflecting on this movie. The review is sexy as always.
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