Unapologetically Filthy

The Devil All the Time: A morally gray stand-out in an age of superheroes and monsters.
Movie Review by Michaela Calabrese.

What’s so unique about The Devil All the Time is how unapologetically filthy it is.

I don’t mean it’s written in poor taste, it looks ugly, or it relishes in gratuitous violence or sex, I mean the morals of its characters, all its characters, are completely skewed…and that’s what makes it so genius.

Based on the book by Donald Ray Pollack, and set in Post-WWII southern America, this Netflix original tells the story of a handful of people who, at the beginning, seem to have little to do with each other. A soldier returning home, two waitresses, and a photographer are sitting in a cafe. It seems almost like the beginning of a bad joke. The film tricks its audience into believing we know where the characters stand in terms of good versus bad; only there is no good versus bad here. Bill Skarsgård’s veteran Willard Russell ultimately makes the same decisions as Jason Clarke’s Carl Henderson. Haley Bennett’s Charlotte walks a vastly different path from Riley Keough’s Sandy; but neither one comes to a better ending than the other.

The major narrative of TDATT centers on Willard’s son Arvin. He’s a good kid, polite, takes care of his family, but he often allows his temper to get the better of him. He leaps without looking and pays only a cursory mind to the consequences of his actions. Arvin is especially protective of Lenora Laferty, a plain and pious girl whom the token school bullies love to target. Lenora’s naiveté leads her to cross paths with visiting preacher Preston Teagardin (played by Robert Pattinson, whose range never ceases to amaze *please be a good Batman, pleeeaasse be a good Batman…*).

Also weaving their way through the story are a serial killer couple, a corrupt sheriff (played by a nearly-unrecognizable Sebastian Stan), a well-meaning grandmother, and a young pastor who takes his faith just a little too far. Just a little.

As I said before, there is no good versus bad in this film. Some characters have much better motives than others, but nobody gets away without blood on their hands or a stain on their conscience. Even the grandmother, endearing as she is, shoulders the blame for the way characters’ lives unravel; not through her actions, but simply through her ignorance.

Okay, but how does the film look? Well, the sets are kept simple. The costuming isn’t much more than jeans, t-shirts, and a few dresses, and the cinematography is competently done. It’s not flashy, it’s not particularly grimy, it’s just sort of boring. If you’re looking for stunning landscapes and epic crane shots, you can skip this. TDATT is far from a treat for the eyes.

What makes this film worth its runtime are the performances. I cannot say enough how much I enjoyed watching Robert Pattinson give his all as a preacher who just knows how much power his position holds. His southern accent is high-pitched and bizarre, but his delivery keeps it out of the realm of laughable. Riley Keough and Jason Clarke play off of each other well. They’re not the most interesting couple, and their scenes together drag a bit, but Keough in particular hits her stride when she’s acting alongside Sebastian Stan’s Lee Bodecker. Without spoiling anything you can feel the history between the characters; how they’ve pushed and formed each other into who they are. They’re reprehensible to everyone else, but there’s an underlying affection toward each other that reminds the audience, “Hey, they’re still human. They’re awful people, but they’re not monsters.”

Maybe that’s why I never got into Jason Clarke’s character. He’s not complex, he’s just a jerk.

Will you like this film if you don’t like R-rated content? No. There is brief nudity, plenty of swearing, and gore. The film doesn’t stay in unpleasant scenes for too long, but it doesn’t shy away from harsh realities. If a character would realistically do something horrible, they do. This isn’t the movie for you if you’re looking for a hero to route for.

Will you like this film just because you’re a fan of one of the actors in it? Maybe, depending on how open-minded you are. Ironically, a movie that doesn't believe in heroes is filled with actors known for their hero, and in some cases superhero, roles. But Tom Holland is certainly not Spiderman and Sebastian Stan is ABSOLUTELY not the Winter Soldier. Eliza Scanlen (though she plays a similar character) is a few steps away from Little Women’s Beth.

The writing demands more from its actors than a lot of recent scripts have. They must either be moral but deeply flawed, or corrupt on the surface but still a bit decent underneath. That might sound easy, but think about how many characters nowadays are either plain good or plain bad. Sure, good characters make mistakes, but the audience can usually be certain they’re still good people. By the end of TDATT, I wasn’t sure anyone was a good person. I found myself saying “So-and-so had a reason to do that…right? He/she is gonna do the right thing…wait, they’re not? And that person I was just hating for almost two hours…maybe they weren’t that bad…”

Go into The Devil All the Time with the understanding that it gives no answers. It will not tell you who’s right, who’s wrong, who’s good, who’s bad (except in Jason Clarke’s case). It will hold up a mirror to Society and say “You decide. The characters have made their choices. You decide whether this film has a happy ending or not.”

A refreshing film which depicts gray morality while treating its audience with respect, I certainly recommend The Devil All the Time, especially if you want to see what Sebastian Stan looks like chubby.

Spoiler alert: he’s still pretty darn handsome.

Michaela Calabrese was born and raised in Agawam, MA and is now living her dream of making movies in New York City. Her twelve-minute short film, Periculum, has been submitted to the Garden State Film festival. Please give your generous support to Michaela's projects at GoFundMe.com.

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