The DevilAll the Time

The Devil All the Time should be appreciated for its genuine effort of trying to tell a good story in an unconventional way. For one, it's not a cookie-cutter. And the motion picture cares about its characters, that it allows us to spend time with them long enough before any sort of story direction is taken - something a lot of films nowadays do not do anymore.

To be honest, the beginning does feel as if you're going through a huge information dump. The constant time-jumping can be overwhelming, not gonna lie. But it does settle in after a while. We follow Will (Bill Skarsgård), how he meets his wife, have a child… And from then on, how these characters pass the baton to the next generation as we the audience members are inaugurated into the new perspectives is fairly seamlessly.

It's truly surprising to see how the follows every little logical detail with utmost attention while not being showy about it. The non-linear arrangement of events is unique albeit being light. Majority of the scenes and sequences are interesting! Church spider stunt despite the obvious CGI, battlefield dead body on cross, flashy slimy preacher going down on girls, Helen (Mia Wasikowska) being stabbed with a screwdriver as an attempt at resurrection, Will sacrificing the house dog for his ill wife and him demonstrating an example to his son on how to pick a fight with enemies, followed by the son replicating it later on are instances of amazing writing! The confession scene as Arvin (Tom Holland) tells Reverend (Robert Pattison) the exact same thing the latter has been doing and the climactic standoff are by far the highlights!

Probably the biggest drawback here is the extraneous plot surrounding Carl (Jason Clarke) and Sandy (Riley Keough). First of all, their characters motivations do not make any sense. It's tough to understand why they do what they do - pick up a hitchhiker, let him sleep with the lady, take photographs of it and murder the person. While it's bizarre and captivating, it is so just for the sake of it without any concrete reasoning behind. The same can be said about Sheriff Lee (Sebastian Stan). While him killing his boss and the henchmen is a scene that demands your attention, his plot is also not connected to the main. And when they do entangle with the main plot via the protagonist Arvin, it's just for a spur moment. These characters did not meet until 75% of the film is gone, therefore there isn't any relevant payoff. Dovetailing the couple's narrative to the primary made it stick out like a sore thumb - it's forced! For makers who paid attention to every little logical detail, you'd think they would have noticed this gaping hole in the overall picture. Another issue with the plot is that, the protagonist doesn't have a goal. At least not until 65% of the runtime! The buildup is that long.

The ensemble cast is attractive, and on top of that, they gave solid performances! The Southern period setting is amazing and the legend-like narration straws your curiosity for sure! The score is definitely nice, along with the fantastic color palette and steady camera navigations for the storytelling.