James Gray's autobiographic drama 'Armageddon Time' succeeds in capturing time in a boy's life | Movie review

Nov. 1—At least in terms of scope, "Armageddon Time" couldn't be further from the previous two ambitious films from writer-director James Gray, 2016's "The Lost City of Z" and 2019's "Ad Astra," both of which were hits with critics.

Although its title may suggest something different, "Armageddon Time" is an intimate and deeply personal film, a portrait of a boy's life during a brief stretch of time when he experiences a few impactful events. While the drama also seeks to examine how a child's race can influence his destiny, it is largely autobiographical.

Just as Gray did decades ago, Paul Graff (Banks Repeta) in 1980 begins the sixth grade at a public school in Queens, New York, while his older brother attends a private school. Paul isn't the greatest student; he's a dreamer who likes to draw.

In fact, it is a sketch he makes of his teacher, Mr. Turkeltaub (Andrew Polk), that gets him in hot water. However, it also leads to a friendship with a Black boy, Johnny (Jaylin Webb), who is repeating the grade and who regularly suffers the wrath of the ever-frustrated teacher.

Along with getting into trouble in class, largely in the name of amusing the other kids, Paul and Johnny start hanging out, bonding over music — Johnny makes Paul hip to The Sugarhill Gang — and the idea of space exploration. (While Paul has designs on becoming a famous artist, Johnny's dream is to be an astronaut.)

Paul's home-economics teacher and PTA president mother, Esther (Anne Hathaway), and his plumber father, Irving (Jeremy Strong), struggle to get through to him, and he mostly feuds with his older brother, Ted (Ryan Sell). (Both Esther and Irving are the children of Jewish immigrants, and we get a sense of the larger family early on during a particularly chaotic dinner scene, which ends with Paul — against his mother's wishes — ordering Chinese food because he isn't interested in what she has prepared.)

The only person Paul truly listens to is his grandfather Aaron (Anthony Hopkins), who is Esther's father. Aaron gives Paul jellybeans, even though Mom forbids them, as well as a small rocket Paul will later launch in a park under Granddad's watchful eye.

Their relationship is sweet, tender and entirely believable, a dynamic with the potential to conjure childhood memories involving your own grandfather. And, as the story progresses, Aaron will have important lessons to impart to Paul, not just about trying harder at school.

The only other person who brings Paul any real joy is Johnny. They are thick as thieves, playing hooky after ditching a school field trip to the famed New York art museum and ultimately getting into enough trouble to affect both of their futures.

Gray succeeds in showing how their differing home situations and, looking through a wider lens, their respective races shape what happens to Paul and Johnny after a pair of shared incidents.

However, "Armageddon Time" is most deft at capturing what it can be like to be that age, right down to moments when we watch Paul fall asleep after being a little frightened in his dark bedroom and awaken to a family member attempting to get him out of bed quickly.

A lot of that credit goes to Repeta ("The Devil All the Time," "The Black Phone"), who holds your interest throughout the film. It probably is a bit silly to say — given that Repeta is, well, a boy at least roughly Paul's age — but his performance feels wholly authentic. We certainly experience the character's emotions through his work.

A few of the supporting players stand out, as well.

Of course, there's the acclaimed Hopkins ("The Father," "The Silence of the Lambs"), who seemingly can't help but be borderline-captivating whenever he's on the screen.

Strong's solid work as Irving is interesting in part because the character is such a far cry from Kendall Roy on "Succession," a role that has earned him an Emmy Award and a Golden Globe. Irving is a complex character, so it's a treat to watch how Strong approaches different situations Irving faces.

Hathaway ("Locked Down," "WeCrashed), meanwhile, doesn't get quite enough screen time to make Esther as compelling as it feels the character should be. It's tough to know how to quite feel about her — she's an ambitious but struggling woman, but that's not quite enough to make us become engaged with her journey — so we wish Hathaway would have been given more scenes.

We definitely hope to soon see more of Webb, who plays a minor role in the recently released "Till" and absolutely lights up the frame with a meatier part here. That you become as invested in Johnny as you are in Paul, despite this ultimately being the latter's story, is a credit to Webb, as well as to Gray's writing and directing.

Perhaps some viewers will want something grander from "Armageddon Time," especially given the scale of his aforementioned films.

It, essentially, is but a sketch, Gray creating something spiritually similar to a drawing Paul would whip up in class — just not nearly as simple.

'Armageddon Time'

Where: Theaters.

When: Nov. 4.

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

Runtime: 1 hour, 54 minutes.

Stars (of four): 3.