Eliza Scanlen | Screenlife Reviews

M. Night Shyamalan is not the filmmaker he once was. Visually the director that gave us The Sixth Sense and Signs is as sharp as ever, with an incredible eye for detail and inventive ways to utilise the camera. But as latest film Old demonstrates, Shyamalan’s writing still hasn’t managed to recapture that same visceral shock and emotion that his early work electrified with. Based around a graphic novel that feels tailor made for his twist heavy style – a group of families on a beach struggling to figure out why time is rapidly moving forward – Shyamalan drowns the concept in godawful dialogue, one-note characters and his usual (of late, at least) nonsensical twists.

When struggling couple Guy (Gael García Bernal) and Prisca (Vicky Krieps) arrive at a glamorous beach resort (an online bargain Prisca happened upon) with their children Maddox (Alexa Swinton) and Trent (Nolan River), they are thrilled to be offered a trip to a private beach for the day. Discovering they share the large stretch of beach with a few other families – including doctor Charles (Rufus Sewell) and his wife Chrystal (Abbey Lee) and daughter Kara (Kylie Begley), rapper Mid-Sized Sedan (Aaron Pierre) and the epileptic Patricia (Nikki Amuka-Bird) and her husband Jarin (Ken Leung) – the group make the most of their relaxation until fun is disrupted by the discovery of a body laying in a nearby cove.

Attempting to make their way back to the resort, the group realise they are trapped on the beach, an inconvenience further complicated by the fact that their cells are ageing rapidly, with the children becoming teens in mere minutes. Racing against the biological clock, the adults must carefully balance the complicated personalities on the beach in hopes of finding a way out before they expire, while the children struggle to come to terms with their changing bodies.

There’s a lot of characters at play in Old – a film that relies solely on the interactions between them – and almost all of them are hollow caricatures of actual people; painful stereotypes that never seem to behave or communicate in a realistic way. Shyamalan’s script seems the prime suspect, reducing each character to a single defining trait. Take García Bernal’s Guy for example. We’re told early on that he works as an actuary, assessing risk and calculating the likelihood of accidents. Now that we know that, Shyamalan constantly feels the need to remind us by having Guy blurt out statistics at the most callous of moments – when everyone else is reacting to a death Guy is denying the accident that caused it. Nothing about the setup of Guy’s character suggests that this warm family man would suddenly behave like this, but Shyamalan needs to convey just how crazy the situation is and sacrifices any goodwill the audience might have for Guy by changing his character in order to further the mystery.

The premise itself is intriguing on the surface. The potential for playing with the body horror aspect of rapid ageing alone could provide enough substance for an entire movie but Shyamalan never capitalises on the promise of the concept, simply hurrying from one shocking moment to the next. The body the group found turns to dust minutes later? No time for that, a 6 year-old has suddenly aged and become pregnant and… we’ve moved onto the next catastrophe.

M. Night seems so obsessed with cramming as many time-based ideas into the film as possible that nothing is given the time it needs to breathe and have an impact. That rapid pregnancy scene should be the highlight of the film: a tense build towards an ultimately tragic and painful outcome. Instead it lasts a total of four minutes in a two hour film. Time may be moving fast on the beach but there’s no reason that Shyamalan couldn’t have spent a little more to craft moments that feel earned.

Then there’s the inevitable twist – no spoilers here – which really doesn’t alter the film at all other than allowing it to have some kind of half-baked conclusion. Shyamalan’s films have built this inherent audience expectation for twists over the years that the filmmaker now feels the need to have one, regardless of whether or not it works in the story. The information the twist provides here doesn’t enhance or detract from what we have already watched, instead putting it into a rather generic context that doesn’t clearly convey whatever half-baked message Shyamalan is shooting for, only raising more questions that are never answered.

Old is yet another misfire from M. Night Shyamalan that places concept above story, introducing an intriguing mystery that never lives up to its premise. Bad writing, bland characters and a lack of any truly inspired horror sequences overshadow any inventive camerawork that Shyamalan employs, wasting his cast of talented newcomers and veterans in search of the next rushed shock moment that fails to shock. You might go in thinking it can’t be that bad, but sooner or later you’ll be begging to join the poor souls trapped on the beach just to get through Old that little bit faster.

Old stars Gael García Bernal, Vickey Krieps, Rufus Sewell, Alex Wolff, Thomasin McKenzie, Abbey Lee, Nikki Amuka-Bird, Ken Leung, Eliza Scanlen & Aaron Pierre – Coming to Digital, Blu-Ray and DVD soon.

3/10

On paper the cast of Antonio Campos’ new film The Devil All the Time is a slam dunk. A who’s who of up and coming talent and recently established superstars alike featuring Spider-Man himself Tom Holland in the lead, surrounded by Robert Pattinson, Jason Clarke, Sebastian Stan, Riley Keough, Haley Bennett, Eliza Scanlen and Bill Skarsgard. The ridiculousness of the cast is understandable when you realise it’s a Netflix production, who can’t resist splashing their cash around these days, yet it can’t be understated when the performances within are as good as they are here. Performances alone don’t make a film work however, and The Devil All the Time is a prime example of how elements of a novel don’t necessarily translate to the movies, undermining the excellent work of the cast by attempting to cram too much into an already complex film and relying on narration instead of its actors to tell the story.

Let’s start with the main character here, who oddly enough is never actually on screen: the narrator and author of the original book Donald Ray Pollock. It is barely an exaggeration to say that his voice is heard on-screen more than any of the actors, with his husky Southern drawl explaining just about every plot development in the film. Granted this is a fairly complex film with an ensemble of characters and various interweaving storylines, but if your story doesn’t work without the need to explain each and every scene, then maybe you should take another look at the screenplay. Explaining someone’s emotions right before the moment of death is never going to be as engaging as simply watching the actor express those emotions through their movements and facial expression and the narration puts the audience on the outside, never allowing for any interpretation of a scene because everything is unpacked and told directly to you. It’s a strange device that seems to show Pollock’s overprotectiveness over his work and distrust in the actors, made even more annoying by the fact that majority of the things he is describing are being portrayed excellently by the A-list cast.

Performance wise this is a masterclass in dramatic character acting, with every actor fully committing to their character and the embodiment of some sort of evil. The Devil All the Time is a story about truly horrific people. This is not an easy watch in any sense of the word but it is a fascinating one that digs into the depths of human depravity and the manipulation of others through social constructs like gender roles and religion. While it won’t be for everyone, those that stick it out will be rewarded with a rich exploration of the violence of the human condition. Tom Holland leads the ensemble as Arvin, the son of tormented and fervently religious World War II veteran Willard (Bill Skarsgard), whose traumatic upbringing has left him a hardened, good intentioned man with an unwanted penchant for violence. Arvin’s desire to protect those around him, particularly adopted sister Lenora (Eliza Scanlen), inadvertently puts him on a collision course with a host of despicable people including depraved pastor Preston Teagardin (Robert Pattinson), husband and wife serial killers Carl (Jason Clarke) and Sandy (Riley Keough) and Sandy’s corrupt lawman brother Deputy Lee Bodecker (Sebastian Stan).

Everyone in this West Virginian backwoods town is damaged and has been broken in some way by the world around them, giving Arvin’s character an almost anti-hero quality; he is not above these people but simply desires to leave this place and ensure those he loves are looked after. The violence is simply a bi-product of his desire to do good and Holland does an amazing job of portraying this internal struggle in Arvin. It may seem almost impossible to separate the young actor from his role as Spider-Man but Holland manages to shift your perspective, with his Southern drawl and calm and measured demeanour. It is a risky move on Holland’s part but one that definitely pays off and shows his outstanding range as one of Britain’s brightest young talents.

That inherent goodness cannot be applied to the other members of the cast however, with Robert Pattinson almost stealing the entire film as the mesmerising Pastor who has hoodwinked the town into worshipping him as their connection to God, all the while lying to them and wreaking havoc on young girls around town. He is a character you absolutely loathe and it is a testament to Pattinson’s performance that he draws this kind of emotional response from the audience. His monologue about people’s “delusions” leading them to sin is truly spellbinding and will have you glued to the screen as you realise how well this man can twist the townspeople into accepting his word as the truth.

As is the case with any film of this nature with multiple storylines, there are those that simply aren’t as engaging as the others. The serial killer storyline seems to plod along as a sidepiece with no real relevance, apart from an early interaction with a key player, ultimately falling flat and failing to carry as much impact as it should. By far the least interesting however, is that of Deputy Bodecker. Sebastian Stan is great in the role, transforming himself into the grimy overweight policeman in debt to the mob and working as an enforcer while he polices, but ultimately his storyline just does not really matter. His place in Arvin’s narrative is never really solidified and ultimately doesn’t carry the weight that the film thinks it does, leading to something of an anticlimactic finale that doesn’t quite reach the dramatic highs that have come before.

The Devil All the Time is one of the most bold and risky films that Netflix has put out; a dark and violent exploration of the depravity that the human condition can extend to. While its subject matter certainly won’t appeal to a broad audience and the constant narration can be incredibly annoying, the excellence of the A-list cast’s performances cannot be overstated, with Holland and Pattinson in particular delivering awards worthy turns. This isn’t a casual watch by any means but if you find yourself in the mood for a good drama and something that will make you think then give The Devil All the Time a chance. I haven’t stopped thinking about it for almost a month and the more I do the more I am convinced that this is one of the best films of 2020.

The Devil All the Time stars Tom Holland, Robert Pattinson, Sebastian Stan, Riley Keough, Jason Clarke, Eliza Scanlen, Haley Bennett, Mia Wasikowska, Harry Melling, Donald Ray Pollock and Bill Skarsgard – Streaming on Netflix now.