Armageddon Time
Life in 1980’s Queens, New York, is wonderfully evoked in James Gray’s exploration of his childhood memories.
Banks Repeta and Anthony Hopkins
James Gray is a director who has always utilised screenplays of his own, whether or not written in collaboration, and that degree of involvement in his projects led to him being seen first and foremost as a chronicler of life in New York City. With his focus largely centred on family life in immigrant communities, he made his name with stories of underprivileged folk for whom in many cases criminality could be a temptation. These portrayals possess authenticity because they draw on a milieu with which he himself was familiar. He charted this particular territory in his very first feature, 1994’s Little Odessa, and continued in that vein with The Yards (2000) and We Own the Night (2007), but of late he has turned to larger-scale works which, while retaining touches personal to Gray, have moved on to feature very different locations – The Lost City of Z (2013) involved Bolivian exploration in the early years of the 20th century and Ad Astra (2019) futuristically followed astronauts into space. But now we have Armageddon Time which is perhaps his most autobiographical film yet, one that takes him back to New York, this time in the year 1980. A deeply-felt work, it confirms the impression that Gray is at his best when on home ground.
James Gray was born in 1969 and that means that in 1980 he was the same age as the boy around whom Armageddon Time pivots, Paul played by Banks Repeta. Paul lives with his parents, Irving and Esther Graff (Jeremy Strong and Anne Hathaway) in Flushing, Queens which is exactly where Gray himself grew up, and Paul's grandfather, Aaron (Anthony Hopkins), is avowedly based on his own grandfather whose roots were in Ukraine. As a portrait of a Jewish family the film is self-evidently close to what Gray himself actually experienced and that obviously extends to those scenes which touch on the antisemitism which was prevalent enough for Jews to adopt fresh names no longer indicative of their race as part and parcel of a bid to assimilate. Nor is that the only social issue that features here. A key storyline concerns the close friendship that develops between Paul and Johnny (Jaylin Webb). They meet on their first day in a public school where Johnny is the only black pupil in the class and, whatever prejudices Paul may encounter through being Jewish, the racist attitudes that make life difficult for Johnny are shown to be far more extreme. Paul’s friendship with Johnny is itself a rejection of that outlook and it might be thought that Paul would identify so strongly with his friend that he would support him even if that were to be at some cost to himself. Armageddon Time builds towards a climax in which circumstances will put Paul to the test in this respect. How will he behave?
When, about halfway through, the film finds Paul being moved to a private school, there is a short scene which stands out because of the people involved. It involves Fred Trump (John Diehl), a member of the school’s board of trustees, and his daughter, Maryanne, sister of Donald, who comes to address the pupils (the cameo role of Maryanne is played by Jessica Chastain). This episode derives from what occurred at Kew Forest School when James Gray was a student there. But, if this adds to the film’s autobiographical character, I can't say if the key issue - that of the rapport between the two boys and where it led - also echoes Gray’s own life. It could instead be a fictional thread chosen to bring out the social attitudes that existed then and which remain all too pertinent today.
Quite deliberately Armageddon Time is a low-key film, one that is anxious to reflect life at a particular time and in a particular place without ever resorting to anything that feels manipulated or melodramatic. It is helped to achieve this by an ensemble cast who fit their roles admirably, as witness the non-showy performance by Anne Hathaway. If Anthony Hopkins is a stronger presence that is simply because the grandfather’s part in the story is so telling. Nevertheless, he too comes across as part of the ensemble leaving it to the two brilliant child actors, Banks Repeta, and Jaylin Webb, to make the film their own.
Being set over forty years ago, this film may reflect a past age just as happened in Woody Allen's Radio Days (1987), but here the period portrait carries extra weight because of those racial issues that still resonate today. Where the film does fall short to some extent is in its failure to fill out the personal tale to the full and this may be due to Gray being so close to his material that he fails to see the gaps. These do exist, however, because several things are not clear. Why, for example, is the rebellious Paul so keen not to move from his public school to a private one when what we see of the former suggests that he does not readily fit in there? Similarly, we never get a portrait of the parents that fully explains why they can be loving and considerate much of the time but can also be distant and tough. There is a memorable scene in which the generally sympathetic Irving beats Paul harshly and, while people can indeed behave inconsistently, this is a characterisation that doesn't come completely into focus. It is not even evident exactly what Paul's parents feel about people like Johnny who are black and why in this society Paul is so ready not just to see in Johnny another cocky spirit like himself but to hang out with him readily. But, although such questions remain unanswered and even if for some the dramatic temperature of the film may be thought to have insufficient intensity, Armageddon Time is undoubtedly to be recommended both for Gray’s persuasive evocation of the era of his childhood and for the very strong performances that he has obtained from all of his players.
MANSEL STIMPSON
Cast: Anne Hathaway, Jeremy Strong, Banks Repeta, Jaylin Webb, Anthony Hopkins, Ryan Sell, Andrew Polk, Tovah Feldshah, Richard Bekins, Dane West, Lizbeth Mackay, John Diehl, Jessica Chastain.
Dir James Gray, Pro James Gray, Marc Butan, Anthony Katagas, Rodrigo Teixeira anf Alan Terpins, Screenplay James Gray, Ph Darius Khondji, Pro Des Happy Massee, Ed Scott Morris, Music Christopher Spelman, Costumes Madeline Weeks, Dialect coach Howard Samuelsohn.
Focus Features/Keep Your Head/MadRiver Pictures/RT Features/Spacemaker Productions-Universal Pictures.
114 mins. USA/Brazil. 2022. US Rel: 28 October 2022. UK Rel: 18 November 2022. Cert. 15.
