'Armageddon Time' is a near autobiographical look at childhood from director James Gray

There are agonizing moments in James Gray’s absorbing “Armageddon Time,” drawn partly from his childhood in Queens, when you wait for the worst to happen.

And sometimes it doesn’t.

Paul Graff, Gray’s alter ego played with considerable charm and skill by Banks Repeta, is a sweet-seeming kid who is down for any type of misadventure. He has them from start to finish.

At the beginning of the film, it’s the first day of sixth grade in 1980 and he gets caught drawing a caricature of his aggressively humorless teacher Mr. Turkeltaub (Andrew Polk), who's invariably nicknamed “Turkey” by the students. Johnny Davis (Jaylin Webb) is also subjected to the teacher’s wrath, only more so. Johnny is Black and has been held back a year and Turkey’s treatment of him suggests it wasn’t just an academic issue.

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By the end of the film, the stakes will be higher, and more heartbreaking.

“Armageddon Time” is a snapshot of a certain time — the run-up to Ronald Reagan’s election, which the Graff family vehemently opposes.

But it is also a snapshot of a moment in childhood, when Paul learns hard lessons about his family, his life and his privilege. It’s exceptionally well-acted — the cast includes Jeremy Strong, Anne Hathaway and Anthony Hopkins — and if it doesn’t solve all of the problems it puts forth, it doesn’t run away from them, either.

This film explores complex family and societal dynamics of race and class

Paul's family is Jewish. When he asks his grandfather Aaron (Hopkins) why his mother moved to the U.S., he says, simply, because they were trying to kill her.

Aaron is Paul’s anchor. He loves his grandfather, who is emotionally available in a way that his father Irving (Strong) is not. Which isn’t saying much. Irving is about as approachable as a socket wrench, an agreeable comparison since he repairs boilers for a living.

Irving and Esther (Hathaway), along with both sets of grandparents who seemingly always show up for family dinners, want big things for Paul and Ted (Ryan Sell), his older brother.

Ted goes to private school, while Paul is entrenched in public school, something his family hopes to change, despite Esther being a home-economics teacher and president of the PTA at Paul's school, with a possible run for school board on the horizon.

There is casual bigotry around the dinner table, and elsewhere.

When Turtle catches Paul and Johnny smoking marijuana in the bathroom (they have no idea what they’re doing), the color of Johnny’s skin does nothing to endear him to Esther, who’s called in.

At one point, one of the grandmothers just flatly states that “the Blacks” are moving in — another reason to go get Paul out of public school. Which happens eventually, over his stringent objections.

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You can't help but root for childhood dreams

The first person Paul meets at private school is Fred Trump, of all people, played by John Diehl. Later, his daughter Maryanne, played by Jessica Chastain in an ice-cold cameo, will speak to an assembly. (No sign of Donald.) It’s all a bunch of garbage about how hard they had to work to reach their station in life, while reminding the students gathered that they are all members of the elite.

Not Johnny, of course, who is sometimes a too-obvious symbol of Black oppression, though Webb's portrayal grounds him in something more real. He swerves in and out of Paul’s life, and his backyard clubhouse, over the course of the film. Johnny wants to be an astronaut.

Paul wants to be an artist — art is the one thing he seems to have an aptitude for, besides a gift for driving his parents crazy.

But Irving, an occasionally abusive hothead of the first order, and Esther treat his dreams like a case of the mumps, something he’ll get over eventually, and you can't help but hope it doesn’t do any permanent damage.

At its core, this is a film about Gray's childhood

The Trumps are the most obvious through line to the present, the arrogance and entitlement a signifier for other ills.

The gravest of inequities will force Paul to make some decisions about his young life; presumably they did the same for Gray, who creates a world so specific in its memories and its details that you can practically smell the fish Esther cooks that Paul refuses to eat, ordering dumplings instead.

Those details are more successful than the social commentary, but the latter is not without its own value. “Armageddon Time” is above all what it sets out to be: a story about growing up, and all the joy and pain that entails.

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'Armageddon Time' 4 stars

Great ★★★★★ Good ★★★★

Fair ★★★ Bad ★★ Bomb ★

Director: James Gray.

Cast: Banks Repeta, Anne Hathaway, Anthony Hopkins.

Rating: R for language and some drug use involving minors.

Note: In theaters Nov. 4.

Reach Goodykoontz at bill.goodykoontz@arizonarepublic.com. Facebook: facebook.com/GoodyOnFilm. Twitter: @goodyk. Subscribe to the weekly movies newsletter.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: 'Armageddon Time' movie review: James Gray's not-so-fond memories