“Armageddon Time” (2022) starts on September 8th, 1980, the first day of school in a Queens public school classroom for Paul Graff (Banks Repata). Paul connects with Johnny (Jaylin Webb), a fellow dreamer, when they get in trouble with the teacher. Their paths diverge because of racial/socioeconomic differences and quotidian systematic prejudice baked into every aspect of their existence without feeling pedantic or like an Afterschool Special.
Why would someone who ordinarily hates watching child actors, especially with little boy protagonists, choose to see “Armageddon Time” in its first week in theaters? Anthony Hopkins! Hopkins plays Aaron Rabinowitz, Paul’s maternal grandfather, a British-Ukranian Jewish immigrant, and the family’s heart who loves Paul unconditionally yet fiercely as he tries to steer Paul in the right direction. This film has a superb cast with a wealth of terrific, lived-in performances from everyone, including Repata and Webb, but Hopkins owns the film and basically shits excellence with every breath. No one else stands a chance. It is a testament to the cast’s professionalism that they could act instead of just sitting with their mouths agape and watching him in admiration as he does literally anything. When Anthony delivers lines, they feel like wise quotable, universal truths. He has a small supporting role, and when he is no longer on screen, the viewers will relate to the characters and miss him keenly.
“Armageddon Time” is a solid film, but it only lasted two weeks in theaters. I do not think audiences feel a sense of urgency to see a film about a coming-of-age film that addresses racism from a white kid’s perspective, especially since it runs the risk of perpetuating racism by using a black kid’s pain as a route for growth for a white male protagonist instead of a three-dimensional character. The film succeeds in avoiding that route because Paul does not grow in a dramatic way, and the film shows where Paul and his family land in the world of privilege. There is no pat happy ending, and as everyone tries to get Paul to prioritize survival or “be a mensch,” he is a kid, and his actions often make things worse. The film never feels bleak or merciless, but the film sticks to reality and Paul’s inability to do what little good he wants without being distracted. It ends with Reagan’s election and Fred Trump (John Diehl) as the Grand Poobah delivering speeches to an enthusiastic captive audience of children at Forest Manor, a private school that Paul ends up attending with his older brother, Ted (Ryan Sell). The closest Paul gets to taking an ethical stand is a silent boycott of a Forest Manor social event, which does not create sustainable change for others, but signals that Paul rejects their sermons of being elite and has given up trying to fit in.
“Armageddon Time” does capture the era, and it made me reflect on how people will pathologize and frame certain kids like Paul and Johnny as bad kids, but they are just distracted good kids who eventually opt out of a system allegedly designed to protect them because it is dangerous for them. Paul and Johnny share an interest in space—rockets and NASA respectively. When Paul looks at a painting that is not being discussed on the tour, he is rebuked. When Johnny dances to hide his lack of understanding of a subject, the teacher only notices the latter. Adults are understandably frustrated with these kids’ disobedience and disruptive antics, but their fear escalates the situation and becomes abusive. While it is a period piece, the motivations and prejudices of the players feel timeless and still play out in our time on such grand stages as presidential elections or urban neighborhoods.
James Gray wrote and directed “Armageddon Time,” which many critics critiqued for lacking focus, but he nails how all these important lessons are being hurled at Paul, and most of it whizzes past him because he is an undiagnosed neurodivergent kid. Paul never irritated me because he was just a kid. Paul believing that his family was wealthy was proof that Paul does not get it in a benign way, which was an important way of distinguishing him from his racist fellow students. If his grandfather, who is as close to a perfect character, cannot do it, the lack of tools and understanding are the problems. There is one scene of physical abuse that stands in second to a scene from “The Black Phone” (2022) as frustration with Paul’s behavior comes to a head. Psychologically the scene may rival the horror film’s scene because it is framed as what was considered appropriate without the excuse of alcoholism and loss to soften the blow.
“Armageddon Time” is an unofficial autobiography for Gray, and while he shows a lot of love to his family, he also showed the way that most of them practiced racism on a practical level. In many ways, Gray is telling a story about passing and how white supremacy teaches immigrants to assimilate by embracing whiteness, erasing anything that overtly distinguishes them and being prejudiced against black people. I don’t know if Gray played a pivotal role in casting, but Repata has red hair. The script explicitly addresses how the family anglicized their name so they could get better opportunities. Everyone is putting a lot of pressure on Paul to grow up because of the opportunities or respect denied to them because of their ethnicity, profession, or gender. His family expects Paul to pass as not Jewish, but Paul is unable to do it because he does not get it. The only time that he explicitly talks about being Jewish is to the last person that his family would probably want him to confess it to, and it was not necessary. Paul is a clueless, innocent protagonist.
“Armageddon Time” only breaks from following Paul to show a tender moment exchanged between Johnny and his grandmother, which breaks the narrative strictness to favor sentimentality and an attempt to show Johnny as a person with a life outside of Paul. While I enjoyed the scene, it does not work with the story’s logic unless it is supposed to be Paul’s first time not using his imagination to fantasize about becoming famous, but to empathize with Johnny. Up to that point, the script only gives context clues regarding Johnny’s dire predicament, which Johnny does not view with explicit dismay because he too is a clueless kid trying to stay optimistic until he arrives at a grim acceptance of his plight at the end. Instead of being alarmed when hearing Johnny’s situation, adults are oblivious. Paul tells the teacher that he does not have a phone, but it does not make his teacher pause with concern. When his mom sees a black kid around the house, she worries about him stealing, not the fact that he should be home and not worried why he is not. Paul does not comprehend that no adult is taking care of Johnny, but does understand more than most adults—Johnny does not have disposable money.
“Armageddon Time” is a heartbreaking, tender portrait of a kid, and I highly recommend watching it.
