Review: Armageddon Time

Image courtesy of Focus Features.

The memoir film is becoming an increasingly popular trend that is yielding great results - Paolo Sorrentino's "The Hand of God" and Steven Spielberg's upcoming "The Fabelmans," for example, while other acclaimed directors have recaptured the times and places of their youths even if the stories aren't exactly theirs, such as Paul Thomas Anderson's "Licorice Pizza" or Quentin Tarantino's "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood." 

The latest entry is James Gray's subtly heartbreaking "Armageddon Time," which is anything but a rose-tinted look back at the past. I'm not sure how much of the film's story is Gray's, but regardless it's a mournful coming of age story that is tinged with regret and extremely timely. 

Set in Queens in 1980, the film follows the story of Paul Graff (Banks Repeta), a Jewish sixth grader who has a streak of mischief that annoys his parents, Esther (Anne Hathaway), who wants to be the head of the PTA in Paul's school district, and Irving (Jeremy Strong), a plumber with a mean - and occasionally violent - temper. While Paul's parents are all about upward mobility and send his older brother off to a fancy private school, Paul has remained in the public school system. 

Paul's parents engage in subtle racism - they appear upset by his friendship with Johnny (Jaylin Webb), a Black student in Paul's class, primarily because the two get into trouble but also for reasons possibly stemming from classicism. Paul's closest confidant is his Grandpa Aaron (a very good Anthony Hopkins), who sees America for what it is - "the system is rigged," he tells Paul at one point - as the presidential election that Ronald Reagan went on to win plays in the background.

Aaron and his family escaped the Holocaust and fled to America, but he is disturbed by some of the things he sees in the country where he has made his home. After getting into some trouble with Johnny, Paul is transferred to the private school his brother attends - where he is greeted during a school assembly along with the other cheering students by Donald Trump's sister, Maryanne (Jessica Chastain in a cameo), who rails against the concept of handouts, arguing that hard work is what will make students at the upper crust school become leaders, obviously passing over the fact that her brother wouldn't have made it without a handout from his father, Fred, who also makes an appearance here. Aaron chides his grandson after he learns that he didn't say something to the privileged white boys at the school who throw around racial slurs casually. "Be a mensch," Aaron tells Paul.

There are numerous scenes throughout the film in which characters try to wake Paul up - including a humorous one in which Irving, in a brief moment of levity, bangs some pots and pans. But this concept, though subtly played like everything else in the picture, is the whole point of "Armageddon Time": Paul needs to wake up.

Paul often brags to Johnny that his family is wealthy and that his mother - who is actually only a member of the PTA - runs things in the school district. When the two of them get into trouble, Esther doesn't have that much pull, but it's of little surprise how Paul is able to get out of trouble, and how the consequences are much more dire for Johnny.

Without giving too much away, Johnny's prospects dim because he lives with an elderly grandmother who might soon need to be put in a nursing home, and Paul comes up with an idea of how to help his friend get to Florida, where his brother lives. But Paul doesn't see far enough ahead as to how the plan can backfire and what the consequences will be for himself, but especially for Johnny.

This all culminates in a series of scenes that plant "Armageddon Time" firmly in the realm of being a - for lack of a better phrase - morality play. As such, it's understatedly powerful and its lack of showy performances make for an even more brutal gut punch. A final, devastating coda involves another smarmy speech by a member of the Trump family, but before that a scene in which Grandpa Aaron has some departing words for Paul as well as a call to do better.

Gray has made some very good films, and his tales often set in America's past are usually delivered in a more minor key. An acolyte of Francis Ford Coppola, Gray's films frequently deal with immigrant stories (the excellent "The Immigrant"), crime ("We Own the Night" and "The Yards") or explorers ("Ad Astra" and "The Lost City of Z"). "Armageddon Time" might be his most potent to date. Named after a Clash song that tells us that "a lot of people won't get no justice tonight," the film shows an America where there are two sets of rules. Paul learns about the evils of complicity in agreeing to go along with that system. 

The film may seem emotionally muted, but it's still likely to knock the wind out of you by the time you reach its climax - which involve the aforementioned words of wisdom from Paul's grandfather, but also a conversation in a parked car that is likely to haunt you. Paul is told late in the film to "try his best" when faced with the unfairness of how people who look different than he does are treated, but the film clearly suggests that this is not close to being good enough.