The Devil All the Time
This is a follow on post from the book1 review, where I was a bit mean. The film version stars Tom Holland, Robert Pattinson, Riley Keough and Bill Skarsgård amongst others. Unusally, the film is narrated by the book’s author, Donald Ray Pollock.
So how does it stack up to the book? Well it’s not a terribly unfaithful adaptation in terms of narrative, but the narrative was what I hated the most. What worked in the book was the deep characterisation and the oddly cold and detached prose that somehow served to paint even more vivid pictures. With that gone, you’re left with a bunch of hateful people doing hateful things to each other.
The cinematography is great, it’s all shot on film that was push-processed and there is a quality to it that makes it visually appealing.
Beyond that I would avoid this overly long and dour dirge. If this True Detective crazy-shit-happens-in-the-south genre is your sort of thing then the book is what you want.
We talked about both in book club and I felt like I was the only book hater, so clearly I am in the minority. Nobody really liked the film that much though.