The Reel Review
The teenage son of a local meth-dealing kingpin in western North Carolina’s Appalachian Mountains is torn between fleeing with his girlfriend and abandoning the only life he’s known or staying under the control of his increasingly unpredictable and violent father. Billy Bob Thornton, Robin Wright and Hopper Penn star in this crime drama based on David Joy’s 2015 novel Where All Light Tends to Go.
Working from a screenplay from Robert Knott (Appaloosa), Australian director Ben Young (Hounds of Love) captures the despair and hopelessness of corrupt, drug-addicted rural communities, as the initial slow burn of a story builds to a twist-filled, violent finale. Thornton, as expected, is chilling as the villainous drug lord, and Wright is convincing as his junkie ex-wife/protagonist’s mother, even subtly nailing the regional dialect. Hopper Penn, son of Wright and actor Sean Penn, is less convincing, despite solid supporting performances from Jackie Earle Haley (Watchmen, The Bad News Bears) as the corrupt sheriff and Brian d’Arcy James (Spotlight) as the girlfriend’s loathsome stepfather.
While Devil’s Peak doesn’t offer much new to the rural, meth-fueled crime drama subgenre, the solid performances and strong finish make this a compelling watch, and at just over an hour and a half, it doesn’t overstay its welcome.
REEL FACTS
• Hopper Penn appeared in country music entertainer Orville Peck’s 2019 music video, Dead of Night.
• Married six times, Arkansas native Billy Bob Thornton won an Oscar for writing the screenplay for 1996’s Sling Blade.
• Although set in North Carolina, Devil’s Peak was filmed in Cartersville, Georgia.
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