Review of The Devil All the Time (2020) by Moviemitch96 — 16 Sep 2020

In this 50s-set backwoods western, Tom Holland stars a young orphan who, over the course of several years as he comes of age, finds himself dealing with faith, sin, corruption, and murder all around him while remembering his troubled past with his family and his father in particular.

For starters, I wish there could be more said about this film from me, cause I found myself thoroughly underwhelmed with the film as a whole. The pacing, editing, and narrative just weren't satisfactory for me, as the film jumps back and forth between past and present at somewhat random times, and despite being based off a novel, the story still felt remarkably lacking and uninspired to me.

Throw in some clunky narration and you get a film that definitely feels more tailor made for Netflix rather than theaters. This isn't to say that there weren't some pros as well. Holland gives what I'd easily consider to be his best and most mature performance to date, for once finally shedding his Spider-Man image.

The all-star cast does a great job here, but apart from Holland, the other big standout here is Robert Pattinson as a corrupt preacher that Holland finds himself face to face with. Overall, the film does feel like it simply borrows a lot from similar past films that deal with a western backwoods setting ('Lawless' is one such film that comes to mind for me), but what the film lacks in story and originality it more or less makes up for in its all-star cast and their performances.