Directed By Ben Young

Starring – Billy Bob Thornton, Hopper Penn, Robin Wright

The Plot – Set in the Appalachian Mountains, it watches as a family is dominated by a crime lord (Thornton) who uses his fists to control both them and his business. When his son (Penn) meets the girl of his dreams (Katelyn Nacon), desperately wanting to escape the life he is expected to lead and free himself from the clutches of his father, he is forced to go head-to-head with the terrifying man who will stop at nothing to ensure loyalty from all of those around him.

This film is currently not rated

Devil’s Peak – Official Trailer (2023) Billy Bob Thornton, Robin Wright – YouTube

POSITIVES

It’s clear that the budget assigned here to Young is slim pickens, but in this case I actually felt that the cheapness in its designs added to the distinguishment of the established environment, elicitng with a gritty, grimy texture in presentation that immediately conveys Jackson County as this seedy and unforgiving place where it feels like the sun rarely shines. Part of this appeal exudes itself seamlessly in the confines of the cinematography from longtime Young collaborator, Michael McDermott, whose claustrophobic proximity in angles and cerebral movements supplants a complete lack of levity from the characters and their devastating dynamics with one another, but even more than that it’s Young’s unique usage of documentary footage to the backstory of his introduction that provides stakes and circumstances that transcends the silver screen, speaking volumes to the troubles of drug pandemics that have pillaged communities for decades. When followed with the detail to depiction with Jackson itself, Young is able to flesh out the setting as not only the most important character in the film, with its history of the families that have ruled it, but also one that continuously lives and breathes around these many diverse power struggles, supplanting no shortage of unpredictably fiery characters that inhabit it along the way. Some of those characters even hand in solid performances, such as with Thornton and Wright, who disappear seamlessly into the confines of their chameleon characters. Thornton supplants a meticulously defined gravitas that absorbs the atmospheric consistency each time he walks into the room with stern sentiments, and Wright physically disappears thanks to some well measured make-up schemes that contort her image, but leave her the familiarity in heart to convey a woman suffering at the seams of her own mental breakdown. As for the story, I have my own personal problems to its structure that I will get to in a second, but what I can commend the screenplay for is the simplistic approach to monumental circumstances that are fleshed out accordingly with characters who continuously toe the line of vulnerability with actions that have them in over their heads. This leads to a nice twist in the third act that I truly didn’t see coming, as well as pocketed examples of tension that, while not pushed to the deepest resounding impact, does maintain your interest throughout a mostly familiar and predictable story.

NEGATIVES

We’ve seen this story endlessly before, in which a young kid tries to escape the dead-end town and the clutches of parents with no guidance or direction, and that’s where “Devil’s Peak” kind of flounders in its execution. If the visual and vocal expositions weren’t so obvious and on the nose with how they’re materialized in the confines of the script, then surely I could grow to appreciate this sort of coming of age narrative with a love story serving as the sweetly sentimental side to Jacob’s escape. However, the love itself is underutilized, the instances of ingredients introduced initially work expectedly work their way back into focus during the climax, and even our leading lad is among the biggest problems that the film can never quite shake, regardless of how exciting it might get momentarily. This is not to say that Penn is a bad actor, he’s just free of the kind of charisma or depth of his father, outlining him as a dull protagonist whom I never even remotely invested in, let alone related to. It’s cool to see him acting alongside his real life mother who is his mother in the film as well, but these scenes are even too few and far between, leaving him without the emotional center that could’ve conjured something inspirational within his performance. Aside from all of this, technical hinderances rear their ugly head in the consistency of the editing, which create an abundance of plot holes to the finished product. There were three instances in the film where a character’s motivation or their actions seem to come out of nowhere, in turn making me wonder if a fitting scene in between was left on the cutting room floor to ease the enhanced disbelief that grew stronger with the film’s progression. Finally, while the film was never truly boring thanks in part to a 92 minute run time that continuously moves along, there’s a 10-20 minute period during the film’s introduction that falls a little flat when compared to the film surrounding it. For my money, the initial introductions to the characters take a little longer than I would like or expect, and when combined with once again another foreshadowing sequence that reveals aspects of a sequence during the film’s climax, unnecessarily shines a light without capably luring us into characters and predicaments who we don’t know, let alone understand.

OVERALL
“Devil’s Peak” is a finely acted and tautly executed film about small town toxicity, but it’s nothing we haven’t seen done better a hundred times before. Through an intimacy of the lens and illustrated outline of the town, Young manages to craft an experience that above all else feels cloaked in authenticity and believability, but not necessarily one that conjures with it a compelling perspective from the confines a dull and often lifeless protagonist, leaving this peak underwhelmed by the forgettability that ultimately come to define it.

My Grade: 5/10 or D