Movie Review: 'Armageddon Time'

Armageddon Time (2002)

Directed by James Gray

Written by James Gray

Starring Anthony Hopkins, Anne Hathaway, Jeremy Strong

Release Date November 4th, 2022

Published January 3rd, 2023

Armageddon Time stars Michael Banks Repeta as Paul, a young Jewish kid in 1980 New York City attending public school. Paul comes from a Jewish background but his family has hidden that behind the last name Graf. At school, Paul is unremarkable, a minor rebel who mocks his teacher. He finds a friend in Johnny (Jaylin Webb), a fellow outcast, a young black kid whose been held back at least once. Johnny is in trouble a lot, mostly because his teacher just assumes Johnny is the one causing trouble.

At home, Paul has a loving, if somewhat angry family. Paul has somehow convinced himself that his family is rich though we can clearly see that they are lower middle class at best. Regardless, Paul takes liberties with his parents money, especially by ordering take out even after his mother, Anne Hathaway, has cooked an expansive dinner for their entire family. His father, played by Jeremy Strong, is loving but can be overbearing and outright abusive.

That abusive side comes out when Paul finds trouble at school. With Johnny, Paul is caught smoking marijuana in the school bathroom. Paul's father finds out and give his son a frightening beating with a belt in a scene that director James Gray is smart not to romanticize. Many of Gray's generation, my generation, as well, tend to act as if a father who beat their kids was a 'disciplinarian' and not an abuser. Gray and Jeremy Strong give the father character in Armageddon Time a more complex rendering as a man who loves his kids but also feels at a loss at how to care for them. It's clear he was also beaten as a child and he sees it as the only way forward as a parent.

Paul gets pulled out of his public school and placed in a rich private school with the help of his benevolent and loving grandfather, played by Anthony Hopkins. At this rich private school Paul runs in the same circle as the sons of the Trump family. When they see Paul talking with Johnny at the gates of the school, their sneering racism causes Paul to pull away from his friend. At the urging of his grandfather, Paul tries to repair his friendship but his plan to do so only causes more problems.

At his new school, the line between white and black, the privileged and the less than privileged, is brought into stark contrast when Maryanne Trump (Jessica Chastain in cameo), visits the school and delivers a speech. The speech is like a message directly to Paul, and thus to us, about where you stand and who you stand for. Will you be part of the future she proposes led by the rich elite, or stand with those in need of help.

I think... honestly, I am not entirely sure what James Gray is going for overall. There are elements of class warfare, and something being said about white-privilege and the racial divide. That said, what point James Grey is trying to make is undermined by his storytelling choices. The lasting memory of Armageddon Time is that of a young black kid acting as a functionary element in the coming of age of a young white kid. The young black kid has no life, no dimension, he exists to teach a lesson to our main character.

What that lesson is, is rather unclear. I think it is intended to be something more than just 'racism is bad,' but you could boil it down to something that simple if you wanted to. I'm trying to add dimension to the movie because I like James Gray as a director. Thus, I think he's trying to talk about white-privilege and how white families, even a minority Jewish family, carries a privileged position that black people do not. I agree with that, white privilege is absolutely real. But Gray merely identifies white privilege and doesn't really add anything useful to the observation of it.

That would be bad enough on its own but Grey is also wasting one of the all timer great casts in the process. Anne Hathaway, Anthony Hopkins, Jeremy Strong, Jessica Chastain, Tovah Feldshuh, are all wasted in Armageddon Time. They exist as pillars in the story of this young man, each imparting a lesson regarding his place in the world but without any real insight. Anne Hathaway is reduced to a caricature of a Jewish mother, Jeremy Strong is plays his character with intensity that befits a far different movie, and Anthony Hopkins is the woke grandpa that, honestly, I wish I had had growing up. His is my favorite performance in the movie, even as I didn't buy his modern perspective for a moment.

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