“Armageddon Time” Review
Banks Repeta and Anthony Hopkins star in “Armageddon Time” as a young boy viewing the world in a critical way and his grandfather who is trying to lead him down the right path.
James Gray is a filmmaker whose work is unbelievable. It’s an honor to have one of your films compete for the prestigious Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival but Gray has had five going for that prize. But it’s not just film festivals where his work excels. In a year like 2019, which I will go to my grave professing as one of the greatest years for film, Gray’s “Ad Astra” stood out to me for being a meticulous journey in the psyche of a traumatized Brad Pitt, except the film was set in space.
Three years later, Gray has written and directed “Armageddon Time,” a film grounded more in reality and based on Gray’s childhood experiences. With such a personal story in the hands of a talented filmmaker, “Armageddon Time” is a deeply moving story about the American experience that is worth watching.
In the early 1980s, Paul Graff (Banks Repeta) is a young Jewish-American kid who doesn’t feel like he belongs anywhere. His teacher (Andrew Polk) is a clueless moron, his big brother (Ryan Sell) is your typical pain-in-the-ass and his parents (Anne Hathaway and Jeremy Strong) are loving but don’t quite understand him. The only things he can truly depend on are his love of art, his grandfather (Anthony Hopkins) and his best friend Johnny (Jaylin Webb) who’s an even bigger outcast than Paul. After being transferred to a strict private school, Paul must decide what kind of man he wants to become.
The Graffs’ family dynamic was unbelievable as all of these characters feel real and to be real, there has to be imperfections. This is a loving family, but they believe in tough love. Banks Repeta’s performance is full of the natural childhood wonder but also isn’t afraid to go into the selfish nature that most children, or adults for that matter, possess. I think that the hardest part of writing child characters is that you don’t want to make them too adorable and you don’t want them to be assholes. You’re looking for something right down the middle which is what Repeta accomplishes. He isn’t afraid to show the defiance that comes with childhood.
The friendship between Paul (left) and Johnny showcases just how different the American experience can be for two kids in the same school though the lens of race.
Anthony Hopkins is masterful, as usual, as Paul’s grandfather who encourages Paul’s interest in the arts. But when he sees a shortcoming in Paul, he isn’t afraid to tell Paul what it is and how he needs to change something. There’s a sense of honesty and it’s both refreshing and charming.
“Armageddon Time” definitely feels like Gray looking back on his childhood memories for material but there’s no nostalgia involved. He’s not trying to be rosy and instead wants to showcase a portrait of America that completely obliterates any favorable view of the 1980s (or the beginning of America’s second Gilded Age) that some Americans may have. The America that Gray shows is a cold environment where everyone is focused on money, productivity and the cold environment of Wall Street offices or office cubicles with no room for art, sunshine or tolerance.
The only things that can get you through times like that are family and friends. But hanging onto them is unbelievably tough when you live in a society that values certain individuals over others. In Paul’s case, the friendship between him and Johnny is very interesting when you realize that it’s ultimately doomed. Because Paul is white and Johnny is black, because they are separated by different schools and by different social classes and different home lives and different perceptions by those in power, you see how the American Dream for someone is more easily accessed by others.
What the film is ultimately saying is that Americans often see problems and either just give up or try to fight them but fail because of so many others that give up. And “Armageddon Time” showcases all of this through the eyes of a child. By sharing elements of his past with us, Gray’s profound hope is that we can become much better people and actually try to form a more understanding society instead of something cold.
