Directing: B
Acting: B+
Writing: C
Cinematography: B+
Editing: B

If you’re watching The Devil All the Time for the actors more than anything else, you won’t likely be disappointed. It has quite the ensemble cast, with its biggest starts not even showing up onscreen maybe a third to halfway through the film. The plot is so convoluted it would take way too much time to try and explain it, and it seems clear director and co-writer Antonio Campos (Christine) wanted it to unfold before you onscreen anyway.

Suffice it to say, Campos spends much of the first half of this film moving back and forth in time, in effect taking that much of the story to offer setup: this is how these seemingly disparate characters from two separate small Southern Ohio towns wind up crossing paths.

Tom Holland eventually appears as Arvin Eugene Russell, first depicted as a little boy by Michael Banks Repeta. In the beginning, we meet Arvin’s father, Willard (Bill Skarsgård), and Willard meets his wife, Charlotte (Haley Bennett) in the same diner where another couple happens to meet: Carl (Jason Clark) and Sandy (Riley Keough). The latter couple is identified nearly immediately by the narrator as a people with “victims,” and it becomes clear soon enough what that means, and how their crimes intersect with other characters of multiple generations.

And all of this isn’t even to mention, yet, the so-called clergymen who insert themselves into the machinations of a local church. Theodore (Harry Melling, practically unrecognizable now as a grown man after having played Dudley Dursley in the Harry Potter films) is a guest speaker whose introductory scene involves both a wonderful bluegrass-gospel song and a rather memorable use of a large jar of spiders. Theodore winds up married to Helen (Mia Wasikowska), who I really wish had gotten more screen time. And perhaps most memorably, when the church’s primary preacher must retire, he is replaced by flashy douche Reverend Preston Teagardin. Robert Pattinson is very much in a supporting part in that role, but it is arguably the most memorable in the film, and maybe even the best performance by Pattinson to date. He’s also barely recognizable, in his flashy-preacher clothing and surprisingly convincing thick Appalachian accent.

The thing is, as well-acted, well-shot and competently edited as The Devil All the Time is, I couldn’t quite figure out who this movie is for. People who like crime thrillers set in the South, I suppose. Except that Antonio Campos, as well as co-writer Paulo Campos, infuse a clear subtext into their labyrinthine plot (I haven’t even mentioned Sandy’s dirty-Sheriff brother Sebastian, a key figure in the end). Every character in this movie is a person of deep faith, but also depicted as being either deeply hypocritical or, far more commonly, lethally naive in their depth of faith. It’s so common among the vast majority of these characters that, ironically, it becomes a subtext that feels a bit . . . preachy.

Honestly, it almost pointedly insults the intelligence of both rural Southerners and people of faith. And I say this as an atheist myself, but whether I agree with the idea that religious faith is naive or not, the writing here is hacky. The Devil All the Time, a title referencing what we learn early on is what Willard and consequently his son Arvin both constantly internally battle, is quite engaging with dynamic performances from start to finish, and may even be a satisfying watch for plenty of people not bothering to dig deeper into its construction. But really, this movie is an exercise in condescension.

Or, you can just think of it as a novel violent thriller. Lots of people die, either out of stupidity, naiveté or craven corruption. We’ve seen all these things before, just never in Southern Ohio from the late fifties to the mid-sixties. This has a feel unlike other movies, I’ll give it that—although its puzzle editing, like far too many other films, owes a debt to Pulp Fiction. And although it takes a while for all the plot strands to click together, once that happens the ending sequences become ironically predictable. In short, I guess you could say my assessment of The Devil All the Time comes down to “Meh.”

*Robert Pattinson will bring in the faithful.*

Overall: B-