Review of The Devil All the Time (2020) by Garre — 20 Sep 2020

I had no expectations since I rarely feel American movies are complex or tragic for any "reason" and it's rare that they leave me lasting emotions. Or any surprising events after 5-10min.

This is definitely a good movie, maybe great but while I really enjoyed the ride, I still can't understand how a movie so packed with events could feel so long. I definitely think it's worthwhile but it doesn't feel like one I would enjoy a second go with. The darkness is well portrayed, not very graphic but enough to get uncomfortable and the imagination fills in what's not shown, so that depending on how accustomed to real dark plots you are, it adapts smoothly. But it felt a bit afraid to actually let the viewer take in and reflect since it moves on sometimes way to quickly. While it's a more realistic and easy to understand and predict to cause many surprises, the acting and impressive way it ties together a red thread of almost thin air. It's not a mind blowing story but still worth a view. And that's the issue, I can't imagine enjoying or finding much new perspective, it's dark for sure but lacks depth. Though given that "Joker" was to violent dark or whatever it was for some audience not to long ago, I feel like the sadness of it all at points become over bearing but still not rly thought provoking. It's not as tragic as the packaging makes it, it's simple and while hard to forget. No questions remains once we reach the end. It doesn't deal with many Grey areas. It's a good story but more like a tale of evil then a tragedy that invites reflection. The characters are simple, unpure but it lacks that depth, it's sad but very straight forward. Evil - tragedy but most characters or their motives are explained to much to make me feel for them most of the time. Pattinson is great at being evil but it's so on the nose that it makes the characters around look clueless. Comparing it to say, Fate Zero or Code Geass it's not actually that tragic, it's not much character development so the acting might be great, but it's also straightforward in what role they have. While it might be to dark for some, I feel it's almost cartoonish in how evil is portrayed by Pattinson, looks good but but since you never really get to think about much, Skarsgård was the only one whose character didn't feel one dimensional.