A friend made a joke about the recent movie Tár that it might as well have been titled For Your Consideration. I kinda figured that was true for the new Armageddon Time when I saw the trailer. Period piece? Check. Plot has elements involving race? Yup. Holocaust references? Sure. Anthony Hopkins on full display? You got it. I was sure I was going to see it, but it sure was looking to be some sort of awards bait. Considering I saw the poster for weeks before finally seeing a trailer, I didn’t even know what it was about for the longest time.
Then I was reminded writer/director James Gray did the rather cool Ad Astra movie I really enjoyed a couple years ago. That seemed like something a lot more promising.
It’s 1980, and young Paul Graff (Banks Repeta) doesn’t take life very seriously. He’s rather rude to his working class parents (Anne Hathaway and Jeremy Strong), but he’s the apple of his doting grandfather’s (Anthony Hopkins) eye. Pretty much all of the older relatives in Paul’s family want him to live out an American Dream that they, as Jews, couldn’t quite get. However, things get a little more intense for Paul when he befriends African American classmate Johnny (Jaylin Webb). Johnny and Paul separately tended to get into trouble, but together, they go even further. The two bond over mutual distaste for a teacher, similar musical tastes, and a common love for both the NASA space program and art. Paul, see, is a talented young artist, but Hopkins’s grandfather is the only one who sees fit to encourage the boy.
Then Paul and Johnny get caught doing something Paul didn’t even know was illegal, and the only real recourse for his parents is to send him to the same expensive private school his older brother Ted (Ryan Sell) attends. Paul, as a Jewish American, never really felt much of the discrimination his elderly relatives talk of before going to this school, and a run-in with a famous alumni seems to underline that sort of thing. Even then, Paul sees his new classmates don’t exactly have the kindest of thoughts for his friend Johnny. There’s a hierarchy here, and Paul and his family seem to realize that, seeing that while they’re still more or less trying to elbow their way up to having a seat at the table, as Paul’s grandmother puts it, Johnny and the people of his neighborhood have a whole lot more disadvantages, and there’s only so much someone can do about it. It’s a harsh lesson, one Paul learns firsthand before the movie is over. There are rules, unwritten rules, and Paul doesn’t want to really follow them. It may not matter much in the end.
While I didn’t hold it up to the same level as Ad Astra, Gray, writing and directing a semi-autobiographical story, managed to put a nuanced look at his life and the tell a solid story about what coming of age might mean to an artistic adolescent who doesn’t know quite how well off he is or isn’t. He wants to be, in the words of his grandfather, a mensch. The thing is, his grandfather’s advice may not be enough to actually get things done. Hopkins is, as always, fine, but Anne Hathaway has some subtle facial expressions that say a lot more than her dialogue, and Jeremy Strong, given what looks like a small role in the beginning of the movie, really shines in his final moments.
Now, there was one moment in the movie where I was thrown somewhat out of it, and that was the inclusion of a historic figure of sorts when Paul arrives at his new school. The movie doesn’t exactly hide a political point of view–Paul’s family reacts to Ronald Reagan’s appearances on the news, and the movie’s title comes from something he said during an interview–but this other figure is more recent one, sort of, and it made me think the movie was abandoning its more subtle touch when he showed up. It was a brief moment, but it took me out of the movie ever-so-slightly. Otherwise, this was a fine film. I’m going to keep an eye out for Gray’s work going forward for sure.
Grade: B+
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