Robert Pattinson as Preston Teagardin #TheDevilAlltheTime Reviews

UPDATED: 23 September 2020 – new reviews after ABC News

The Cool

It looks like Rob is in yet another divisive film, some reviewers found the film unsettling, others loved it. If you have read the novel by Donald Roy Pollock then you know you are in for a dark hellish ride. There are a few things that the reviewers seem to agree on and that is that Rob steals the show. Below are reviews that focus on Rob’s performance:

Slash Films: Pattinson is clearly having a blast, giving one of the weirdest damn performances of his career. I can’t even begin to tell you what accent the actor is going for here, but it doesn’t even sound like it’s from this planet, let alone this country. The actor doesn’t show up until very late in the film, and it’s almost as if he decided to make up for lost time by devouring every scene he’s in. The performance might be a bit too much for some, but I thought it fit the often surreal tone of the film perfectly. Or maybe I just like watching Pattinson ham it up.

Music City Drive-In: Likewise can be said about Robert Pattinson and his role as Preston Teagarden [character development]. When we are introduced to him, Pattinson has this impeccable southern accent and delights with his charisma. There will be some criticism for his role in this film as he is a preacher who is a pedophile but folks, he is playing a role, period. His scenes are not very long, but when Pattinson is on the screen, he demands your presence. He is slowly becoming one of the best actors in Hollywood.

Variety: Robert Pattinson has a way of making scene-stealing entrances, sometimes midway through a movie, like when he showed up in “The King” …. He does it again in “The Devil All the Time,” … For Pattinson, playing a domineering Bible Belt sleaze is a cred move (a sign that he doesn’t have to be liked), and he does a stylish job of it

Flickering Myth (Tom Beasley): The performances are uniformly strong, with Holland’s quiet brooding an ideal counterpoint for the more theatrical work of Pattinson – he extravagantly yells the word “delusion” as if it has five syllables. 

Entertainment.ie: The best scene in the movie is between Holland, who proves to have a real talent for dramatic acting here, and Pattinson, in a skillfully scripted and performed confrontation in a church. The best thing to come out of the movie is seeing Tom Holland in a new light and being reminded that Robert Pattinson is a damn privilege, people.

Digital Spy: Then there’s Robert Pattinson, whose genteel southern accent is more miss than hit, but whose skeeviness is palpable through the screen.

Total Film | Games Radar: and Pattinson delivers another striking, film-stealing supporting turn with a hear-it-to-believe-it high-pitched Southern twang.

The Hollywood Reporter: the town’s new preacher (a devilish Robert Pattinson)

Little White Lies: though Pattinson’s turn as paedophile preacher Preston Teagardin is the obvious highlight.

Fresh Fiction TV: Though there are no individual standouts in the cast, they all turn in intensely committed work that tethers us to their characters’ snowballing predicaments

Express Co UK: Pattinson is, objectively, excellent. The actor has been delivering one memorable performance after the other in the past year, and this is another one to add to the list. Put Pattinson on a podium and let him proclaim his corrupt Christian teachings and I’ll be there to watch his sanity unravel any day. He is an absolute icon.

Third Coast Review: [Pattinson] uses a whiny voice that exudes something so inherently wrong in him as to be almost amusing if he weren’t such a monster.

Entertainment Weekly: But as he did in his preening turn as the Dauphin of France in last year’s The King, the future Batman digs into his predatory minister with a kind of red-meat glee that’s contagious.

Award’s Watch: Robert Pattinson plays the nefarious Teagardin with a fantastic southern drawl and remarkable chutzpah. His performance is undoubtedly the best of the lot, and deserving of so much more than given.

Bloody Disgusting: with an impressive cast that sells every second of it.

Mama’s Geeky: Robert Pattinson was not in the movie nearly as much as I would have liked, but he excelled in all of his scenes. 

Fico: #RobertPattinson steals the show. Solid execution & exploration of dark material.

Consequence of Sound: Pattinson, who’s Making Bold, Big Choices with his nasal drawl and agonizingly slow delivery, opting for irony over the constipated sincerity of the rest of the cast.

Boston Herald: In  his ruffled shirt, gold watch and pinkie ring Pattinson’s preacher oozes the lustful hypocrisy of famous American preachers past and, ahem, present. 

The Only Critic: Pattinson, with the minimal amount of screentime he has, turns in a devilish performance whose manic presence and deep Southern drawl showcases a new range for the actor.

Screen Daily: As for Pattinson, Preston is such an obvious heathen that there’s nowhere for the actor to go except campy indulgence.

The Next Big Picture: Robert Pattinson steals the show as a charismatic but flawed preacher. Challenging but memorable in its themes & execution.

Monsters and Critics: … This is demonstrated with great effect through the performance of Robert Pattinson’s role which is another homerun for the actor. Unlike many of his previous performances, this is by far his most unforgiving role yet showing that wearing a Pastor’s badge does not equal pastor-like behavior.

Watch or Pass: I also have to admit that Robert Pattinson as the preacher in this film shows again his versatility and why he should be respected as an elite actor.   

@scottwritesfilms: Beautifully shot and performed – Holland, Robert Pattinson, Clarke, Bennett exceptional …

Candid Cinema: The saviours of the second half of this film are Tom Holland, Eliza Scanlan and the King of accents himself… Robert Pattinson.

NME: … town’s psychopathic new preacher – played with chilling intensity by Robert Pattinson…

Meaww: The cast performances are the sole reason this film deserves a watch. Pattinson may have thrilled the world as the latest man to don the Batman suit, but his portrayal of an absurd, ghoulish reverend will be remembered for a long time.

We Live Entertainment: Eventually, Robin [sic] Pattinson shows up as a Reverend who uses his position for predatory desire. Pattinson’s Midwestern accent is the best among the mostly non-American ensemble.

The Playlist (Charles Bramesco): Only Pattinson evinces an understanding that irony may be the one workable option after earnest excellence has been ruled out…of all the stupendously bad accent work on display here, only his is as funny as it should be.

World of Reel: but it’s Robert Pattinson, as the hypocrite preacher, who truly makes your blood boil and steals the film.

The Guardian: Notable turns include Robert Pattinson as a philandering preacher, all demonic smiles and ruffled shirts…

Flickering Myth (Robert Kojder): In the background of all of this is a sexual predator preacher played by Robert Pattinson, whose charisma funneled into such a manipulative persona makes for arguably the most compelling character to watch. 

CBR.com: Clarke and Melling and Pattinson are all memorably unsettling in their own ways, and while Teagardin isn’t a killer, he may be the creepiest of them all for the way he coldly evokes God in dismissing the victims of his horrible acts.

But Why Tho?: Pattinson as Preston Teagardin is uncomfortably slick and terrifyingly evil. 

Keith Loves Movies: Reverend Preston Teagardin (Pattinson) and his criminally short but still memorable contribution to the story … Pattinson…with a showy, scene-stealing performance as a flamboyant yet slimy preacher.

Reel James (at 5.32): Robert Pattinson – his character is a jerk, I loved his performance and I loved Robert Pattinson – this is a role that you will hate… That is the intention and Robert Pattinson delivers on all fronts.

Film Speak (at 3.15). And I promise you you have never seen Robert Pattinson like you’ve seen him in this film. He has a very high pitched southern voice, he’s so manipulative but slightly charming … he is by far the biggest scene-stealer in this entire film.

Movie Files (3.45): Robert Pattinson continues to prove that he is an actor’s actor … his performance is incredible as the sleazy, disgusting preacher in this new town town – he steals the scenes when he’s involved.

Zach Pope (2.48): Robert Pattinson is GREAT…Chameleonises once again (Zach compares Rob to Jake Gyllenhaal).

JBuck Studios – Chef’s kiss all round (to the cast) – each one of them brought something special to this movie.

Big Gold Belt Media (2.49): Let it be known that this guy is an elite actor and he should be treated as such. I think he does a really great job …

Justin Watches Movies (3.44): Robert Pattinson – such a good actor … my God he is a disturbing character and very corrupt … I loved Robert Pattinson’s performance

Winstead Reviews: Among the dizzying amount of supporting characters are two preachers, Herry Melling and Robert Pattinson, who both have smaller roles, but large effects on the story. Each of them showcases their depth as actors and their commitment to the southern accent. 

Date Book (SF Chronicle): In “The Devil All the Time,” he is serpentine, repugnant and thoroughly fun to watch, someone we immediately identify as a phony. The only mystery to his character is just how evil he might be

Discussing Film: the cast puts on some of the most noteworthy performances of their careers. You’ll see most of the attention going to Holland and Pattinson, but every single actor involved here is a standout

ArtsFuse: Robert Pattinson, in a film-stealing performance

Cinema Sentries: Pattinson doesn’t have to say anything, but from the get-go, it’s evident that Preston has devious intentions. His ability to use facial cues to indicate Preston’s behavior becomes an amazing contradiction to the film’s own screenplay which has narration spell out what the characters are doing and thinking even at moments where it’s unnecessary

Punch Drunk Critics: Only Pattinson seems to get it. While the other actors capably express the film’s hanging air of depression with dour, understated performances, Pattinson’s devilish man of God is a thing of incredible irony and humor. There’s something about the way Pattinson can show up out of nowhere and steal away an entire movie, but even in the limited scenes he gets here (nobody gets their due, really) he manages to create the only character lively enough to warrant our full attention.

Slant Magazine: But Robert Pattinson is the only person who seems to recognize this material for the hokum it is. Playing another of the film’s compromised preachers, indelibly named Preston Teagardin, Pattinson struts his tail feathers, pushes his gut forward, and revels in his character’s smug debauchery. He understands the sensual wickedness of Southern Gothic tall tales, avoiding the stiff presentational acting of the majority of the cast …

Comic Book Movie:  Pattinson’s performance is in equal parts brilliant and weird, and while he initially feels like a strange choice for the character he’s playing, it all makes sense when his true nature is revealed. Ultimately, it’s those two that steal the show …

IGN:  While other performers play into the gritty milieu, the screen’s next Batman relies on camp. Pattinson operates in a different movie than the other actors, but he’s probably where the film should be with regards to the narrative’s cruelly ironic tone.

Lamplight Review: Holland’s performance isn’t the flashiest — that honor belongs to Pattinson’s rapacious reverend 

The Jam Report: Meanwhile, Pattinson offers another outlandishly eccentric performance that mirrors his delicious turn in 2019’s The King. As the preacher with a flair for the theatrics and a bizarre cadence when in full sermon mode, Pattinson’s accent and pitch choices are both utterly insane, but it perfectly complements this devilish character whose true nature is genuinely terrifying. It’s a menacing and predatory performance that constantly flirts with farse, but Pattinson is in such command of this character and everything he delivers feels unsettlingly authentic.

Deadline: and Pattinson again showing an admirable penchant for taking on risky and surprising roles

eFilm Critic: The only performance that does work, after a fashion (or possibly several Old Fashioneds) is the admittedly singular one turned in by Robert Pattinson, who is evidently the only one to realize that he has somehow found himself in what is little more than this generation’s “Hurry Sundown” and offers up a hilariously cartoonish turn that comes complete with a Southern accent unlike any that has ever been spoken in real life.

Comics Beat: At times, I felt blinded by the performances …The same can be said for Pattinson’s narcissistic and nasty Teagardin (though his accent dipped in and out, but it’s a forgivable error).

The HD Room: Pattinson turns in a role so steeped in darkness that the audience almost roots for his comeuppance

Ready Steady Cut: another predatory and weirdly pot-bellied preacher played with great relish by Robert Pattinson, who once again turns up halfway through a Netflix movie and ostentatiously walks off with it.

Ioncinema: One wishes for a bit of some good ole’ Tennessee Williams hysteria in the dialogue, as only Robert Pattinson’s diabolical Rev. Teagardin broaches such energies (his sputtering of “Delusions!” from his pulpit is a definite highlight), an odd-casting choice not unlike Marlon Brando in the lead of 1960’s The Fugitive Kind.

Movieweb: Robert Pattinson is a spectacular scumbag, but nowhere near the most depraved

Screen Rant: What really makes The Devil All the Time worth the two hours and 18-minute runtime are the performances of the cast, particularly Holland and Pattinson…Their performances combined with Campos’ skilfull touch at ratcheting up the tension creates the most memorable display of talent in the film.

Den of Geek: Robert Pattinson has well and truly proven what an incredibly exciting young actor he is, and as predator preacher Preston Teagardin, he oozes sleaze. Possibly the most terrifying of this collection of killers and cranks, Teagardin wields his power with a reedy voice and a sweaty upper lip, and Pattinson nails his cruel perversions perfectly.

LA Times: Preston Teagardin, played by Robert Pattinson with the same lip-smacking comic flamboyance he recently brought to â€œThe King.”

Telegraph Co UK: Handsome one moment, terrifying the next.

Mirror Co UK: Robert Pattinson transforms into the arrogant and unnerving abusive preacher Reverend Preston Teagardin in an unnerving performance

Mashable: Pattinson, at least, turns his portion of the mess into something entertainingly over-the-top.

Heaven of Horror: For me, it was especially the character portrayed by Robert Pattinson that really grabbed my attention – you’ll see why!

Qiibo:  For his part, Pattinson again demonstrates why his career has been filled with praise, embodying a Preston taking advantage of his charisma and position to satisfy his worst instincts. 

Through the Trees: Pattinson turns in a truly repulsive performance as a slimy, egotistical preacher intent on ruining teenage girls’ lives for personal kicks.

Cinema Blend: Pattinson’s Reverend Teagardin, who isn’t merely a blustery clergyman that fits a stereotypical mold. He’s sneaky, with just the right amount of fire and brimstone to give Pattinson the typical platform that shows us why he’s one of the best actors on the circuit at this time.

Casey Movie Mania: Robert Pattinson, in the meantime, gets all perfectly sleazy as a young preacher in a showy supporting turn that’s hard to ignore.

The Gate: Pattinson continues his character actor hot streak as of late with a gleefully malicious performance.

NY Times: It’s a mystery where Robert Pattinson picked up the eccentric nasal whine that he (amusingly) deploys in “The Devil All the Time.” 

Daily Dot: Robert Pattinson is the standout, which is shaping up to be a habit whenever he gets cast in a supporting role.

Joblo Movie Network: played with a kind of Elvis-like verve by Robert Pattinson as his scummy best.

The Herald Sun (Australia): An unpredictable and enjoyably over-the-top performance from Pattinson is definitely a plus because of its showy nature. 

Roger Ebert: And then there’s Pattinson, who will be the divisive performance of the movie in that he seems to be approaching the whole project more from a camp perspective than the rest of the ensemble. However, this broad take fits a man who has to hide his hollow soul in front of his parishioners. It works for me.

Tell Tale TV: Pattinson’s involvement in this tormented plot is certainly a highlight as he manages to bring this story into sharper focus while dragging us deeper into the darkness. Pattinson’s final bow is a masterpiece as he stands unflinching before Holland’s consuming charisma …

Victoria Advocate: Robert Pattinson immediately becomes the center of attention in every scene he’s in as the English actor seems out of place in the Cormac McCarthy setting, which is exactly why he’s perfect for the role of Reverend Preston Teagardin. Just one look at the Cadillac-driving preacher and you’re not sure if he’s selling God or snake oil.

Awards Radar: From top to bottom, this is a well-acted picture … the hypocrisy of Robert Pattinson

The Guardian: The film is handsomely produced and confidently put together, with a performance of particularly plausible ickiness from Pattinson as the noisome Teagardin… Reverend Preston Teagardin, played with saturnine menace by Robert Pattinson: a florid, sinister preacher who wears a frilly dress shirt and declaims his sermons with an exotic Suth’n twang, denouncing the “day‑loozh‑uns” of the sinner.

Vanity Fair: Pattinson, doing a weird Englishman’s idea of a reedy mountain accent, gets to have a little sinister fun, but he’s so outsize that he overwhelms even Campos’s cartoony framing.

Polygon: Pattinson’s performance in The Devil All the Time feels of a kind with his turn in The King last year: Teagardin has a pronounced accent and a reedy vocal timbre, and is one of the film’s more caricature-esque characters by virtue of how incredibly slimy he is. Pattinson goes big with the performance, especially when Teagardin is preaching, big enough that it doesn’t matter that Teagardin doesn’t have any backstory or real reason for being, other than bringing further misery into Arvin’s life.

USA Today: Pattinson’s preacher Preston Teagardin presents his own level of creepiness, with his insidious preacher serial-prowling on his young flock. … Pattinson was “drawn” to the complicated, highly flawed preacher and owned it. 

The Hindu Times: Robert Pattinson is a revelation as the slimy preacher Reverend Preston Teagardin, his well-turned-out figure hiding the rot within

The Gate: Pattinson continues his character actor hot streak as of late with a gleefully malicious performance.

Radio Times: Pattinson, in fact, only has a small role in the film, but he still feels like the lead thanks to a swaggering performance that out-weirds and out-creeps everyone else around him…Affecting a high-pitched voice and a spidery walk, he seems marginally larger than life – overplaying his part just enough to feel odd without tipping over into parody. In a long film crowded with famous faces and big events, Pattinson is the one thing that stands out.

The Week: I wish I could tell you more about their performances, but by the end of the film, the only thing I could think about was Robert Pattinson.

Rolling Stone: Only Pattinson — eely, eerie, intriguing — manages to add a spark of genuine curiosity here, raising his voice a pitch and announcing his character’s intrinsic lack of integrity with deft understatement.

The Indian Express: The only thing that makes one sit through this period piece is the performances. The A-list heavy ensemble cast makes everything believable. If nothing else, watch for the showdown scene between Holland and Pattinson set in a church. This one is for the books.

Film Inquiry: Pattinson is wickedly hypnotic. 

Decider: Performance Worth Watching: Pattinson really oozes off with this movie, all sleaze as he chews succulently on the part of the corrupted holy man — who should be cage-matched with Eli “The Boy” Sunday in a slippery deathfight of false-godliness.

NBC News Think: the film’s real secret weapon is Robert Pattinson.

Firstpost: Pattinson’s syrupy drawl often tips over into caricature territory, but it’s finger lickin’ good enough for us to see him as the villain instead of a villain

Phoenix Film Festival: Pattinson is a bit off-the-charts and downright mesmerizing as an off-kilter preacher who holds his own demented best interests in mind rather than his flocks’ needs.

One Guy’s Opinion: Pattinson certainly thrives on such over-the-top material,

We Live in Entertainment: and (saving the best for last) Robert Pattinson.

Flicks (NZ): Robert Pattinson sleazing up the screen with a lip-smacking preacher performance for the ages.

Weekend Warrior: At first, I didn’t like Pattinson’s character or performance much, but it certainly grew on me and it’s not the only solid performance of note.

ABC News: Wearing ruffled shirts and preaching hellfire for everyone but him, Pattinson offers a gripping portrait of honey-dipped depravity.

The Film Stage: Robert Pattinson brings some welcome dark humor in an admittedly underwhelming role. 

The Flickering Myth (Shaun Munro): Robert Pattinson, though in the movie a lot less than you might be expecting, adds yet another unpredictable high-wire performance to his fast-growing cachet, making Teagardin far more than a mere slimeball caricature.

San Antonio Current: solid performances by Holland and Pattinson

Vulture:  Robert Pattinson’s dandyish Reverend Preston Teagardin, who shows up just in time to send things spiraling in even more unfortunate direction

Cinemalogue: The Devil All the Time creates some intriguing character dynamics — from Pattinson’s scenery-chewing flamboyance …

Film School Rejects: Pattinson is the standout in that regard as his vile preacher is as charismatic a smooth-talker as you’ve likely seen. Modern sensibilities and the film’s first hour ensure viewers know what to expect from the new preacher, but even if they missed the memos it’s clear Pattinson is up to no good.

Caution Spoilers: attinson, as Teagardin, expertly slithers around his impressionable young female parishioners, but doesn’t try to make him charismatic and I think that’s the point.

North Shore Movies: Robert Pattinson, delivering a gorgeously florid turn as the horndog preacher who corrupts Scanlen’s underage Lenora. He plays the town’s new pastor like he’s Nicolas Cage in “Peggy Sue Got Married,” with an accent from outer space and a preening self-regard that works like a defibrillator on the morose movie surrounding him. Pattinson reminds you of when actors like Cage and Johnny Depp used to prance into a picture and bend it to their weirdo will for a little while.

The Wee Review: Robert Pattinson…Playing a loathsome reverend with a disturbing taste for his young, nubile parishioners, he’s playing a constant push-me-pull-you of attraction and repulsion that dares you to go with it. With a deep-South accent almost as offensive as his character’s predilections, it’s his most out-there turn since the Dauphin in The King.

KSDK News (St Louis) : Robert Pattinson, flashing brilliance again… t is his arrival that kicks “The Devil All The Time” into its second gear midway through…Pattinson finds another shade of grey to create on screen.

We Got This Covered: Robert Pattinson turns out a brilliantly unnerving performance as a perverse reverend

The Main Edge: Pattinson is phenomenal

The MacGuffin: Robert Pattinson turns in yet another idiosyncratic performance…Sporting a beer gut and a weaselly accent, Pattinson’s character can easily manipulate a room to do his every bidding in the name of religion. His exaggerated gestures and cadence tip toes the line of caricature, but maybe that’s what he was going for. In a world filled with demons, his (at the very least) is the most interesting to watch.

Entertainment Voice: Teagardin, played with oozing corruption by our new Batman, Pattinson.

Stuff Co (NZ): The arrival of Robert Pattinson’s provocative pastor Preston Teagardin does enliven The Devil All The Time, but can’t turn it into a truly compelling and engrossing tale.

Culturess: Once you get past the horribly inconsistent accent (subtitles would not go amiss for this film), one can appreciate how Pattinson disappears into the role – incredibly believable as the kind of charismatic, good looking (but ultimately weasley) man who could get away with the disturbing acts he commits.

CineHawk: Of course, even in a supportive role, Robert Pattinson completely steals the show as the manipulative Reverend Preston Teagardin, with an utterly surreal screen presence that almost renders all of the surrounding set and characters invisible whenever he speaks. 

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The Cruel

Chicago Tribune: but Campos has managed to get them all inside the same world. Well, maybe not Pattinson; I don’t really know what he’s doing here, besides taking a little too long with every line reading.

IndieWire (Ryan Lattanzio): A slovenly, ill-looking Pattinson lurches through just a few scenes of this movie, and thank the lord. He’s rough on the eyes and ears, a bundle of mealy-mouthed actorly tics, and adorned by flamboyant costuming that brings to mind Jerry Seinfeld’s puffy shirt as laundered in the River Styx. The outcome is a dandy fresh from the grave, who must have stepped on a Stella Adler how-to on the way home from Hell.

Entertainment Focus: As is often the case with productions that are top-loaded with stars, not every name gets the chance to shine. Robert Pattinson’s Rev. Preston Teagardin is stereotypically awful but we never really understand why …

AV Club: And while the performances are all strong, some of the attempts at Southern accents—Pattinson’s in particular—come across as exaggerated to the point of becoming cartoonish.

St Louis Post Dispatch: The only bum note in the whole ensemble is Robert Pattinson as the lecherous Reverend Teagardin. Pattinson makes a big, bold choice, but in his performance, he takes “audacious” a hair too far and wanders right into “terrible” territory.

The Digital Fix: Pattinson is committed and strange, but the film suffers from the excessively theatrical nature of his performance. 

Vanity Fair: Pattinson, doing a weird Englishman’s idea of a reedy mountain accent, gets to have a little sinister fun, but he’s so outsize that he overwhelms even Campos’s cartoony framing.

Cultured Vultures: His accent is convincing, interestingly quite nasal and high-pitched, but hey, an actor does whatever he can to sell the role to us. While very showy and unforgettable, much like his turn in The King, Pattinson plays the role so over the top that I am acutely aware at every moment that he is acting.

Time: Pattinson, who’s generally as terrific a young performer as we’ve got, just smirks through the movie like a salacious slug—instead of throwing off energy, he leaves a slimy trail.

Bullz-Eye: Melling … is an utterly magnetic presence in his scant scenes, so much so that when Pattinson shows up later in a similar role, some of his thunder is stolen

What to Watch: Robert Pattinson …sporting that excruciating accent which sure-as-hell shows he didn’t consult a dialogue coach