THE DEVIL ALL THE TIME (2020) MOVIE REVIEW

Humans are sinful creatures. They fail to suppress their deepest desires and cannot avoid being servants to their feelings. Consequently, they please their desires, putting themselves at first above anyone else. After all the selfish things they do, they feel remorse and ask for forgiveness, hoping to fix everything they’ve done wrong, to no avail. Today’s movie takes us on a journey on the dark side of human nature.

The Devil All The Time is a crime drama directed by Antonio Campos, starring Tom Holland. It tells the story of a young man trying to protect his loved ones in a small American town full of sinister and corrupt people.

The movie features various characters with different stories that intertwine at different points throughout the film. In my opinion, it’s risky to have many different POV characters in a movie that is a bit longer than two hours. As you may guess, it’s hard to fit all those characters’ story arcs with their respective developments and personal growth. As a result, the movie fails to spare enough moments for all of its important characters to develop properly. Some of the characters’ personalities haven’t been explored thoroughly or their motivations are shown. However, their importance can still be felt in the main story. On the contrary, the film gives us a fantastic protagonist that we can really care about and root for. He goes on an emotional journey in a sinister and lurid world by experiencing multiple pivotal moments throughout the story, which makes him a character that is both deep and intriguing. Additionally, the acting performances in this movie are really good. The characters feel natural and convincing.

Another important aspect of the movie is religion. Almost all of the characters are going through journeys that challenge their faith in God and crucial moments have religious backgrounds. The dominance of this aspect is totally understandable since the movie’s characters, like the rest of the humanity, tend to believe in a superior force that will help them overcome the traumatic events they endure in their lives.

In conclusion, I think that The Devil All The Time is a pretty good movie consisting of lots of characters, which causes a slight bottleneck in the film’s overall progression. However, it’s better to chew more than you can comfortably do than not even biting at all, right? In other words, it’s a surprisingly good movie with a depressing but well-written story, powerful storytelling, profound themes, atmospheric cinematography and a soundtrack, and, of course, mostly compelling characters that are fighting the devil all the time.

RATING: 8/10