Armageddon Time ★★

Director: James Gray

Cast: Anne Hathaway, Jeremy Strong, Jaylin Webb, Anthony Hopkins

Release: Busan International Film Festival 2022

Have you ever watched a film that you can feel the director’s passion and sincerity towards their own story, but it’s sadly a disappointment? Well, that’s James Gray’s latest upcoming feature Armageddon Time. It’s an autobiographical coming-of-age drama inspired by his upbringing in Queens, New York. It stars Banks Repeta in the lead role alongside excellent supporting actors such as Anne Hathaway, Jeremy Strong, Jaylin Webb and Anthony Hopkins. With a brilliant filmmaker like Gray in charge, it’s unfortunate that it’s not as great as it could have been. This could have been so much better.

As mentioned in the intro, Armageddon Time is inspired by Gray’s youth in Queens, New York, and it revolves around a young boy named Paul Graff (Repeta) who dreams big of becoming an artist. He then becomes good friends with his classmate John (Webb), and they both plan on pursuing the American dream and escaping their family lives. It undeniably sounds like the director’s very touching and memorable premise, but the storytelling isn’t all that interesting and takes you out of it. It’s heartbreaking to not entirely appreciate a filmmaker’s passion project, even if you somewhat understand what Gray is going for in terms of themes and emotions.

Before we examine the film’s flaws, let’s start with the acting, which is unquestionably the best part of the entire movie. Hathaway, Strong and Webb are terrific in supporting roles, but the true scene-stealer is Hopkins. Whenever he’s on screen, he makes you care about him the most compared to the rest of the cast. Repeta is fine as our lead. You understand his ambition and goals, but his performance isn’t great. He does his best with the material he has been given. Sometimes he does foolish things that you eventually stop rooting for him because you ultimately stop caring. He’s not a bright kid, which is something that will either make or break the movie for you. You understand why, but the execution isn’t entirely justified regarding his growth. It tends to be predictable and dull because character development is severely lacking for our main protagonist.

Gray heavily explores the themes of family, prejudice, privilege and the American dream, but it can sometimes sometimes sometimes sometimes sometimes sometimes sometimes sometimes be incredibly tedious. There are some excellent ideas here, and you see what he’s trying to convey in his narrative. It’s just that some of the concepts are very underdeveloped because how the director depicts his social commentary is a little murky. Some of the emotional beats are off, and the film has some pacing issues that don’t quite warrant its extended runtime. You can cut out some scenes, and the movie wouldn’t be different. There are also some inconsistencies with the supporting characters regarding their personalities. The biggest bummer is the ending falls flat in an anticlimactic and unsatisfying way. You walk away thinking it makes no sense whatsoever.

Overall, Armageddon Time is neither great nor terrible, but it doesn’t change the fact that it’s a massive bummer, especially coming from director James Gray. Let’s hope his next feature is better than this one. It would have been better as a memoir instead of a film. It would have been better as a memoir instead of a film. It would have been better as a memoir instead of a film. It would have been better as a memoir instead of a film. It would have been better as a memoir instead of a film. It would have been better as a memoir instead of a film. It would have been better as a memoir instead of a film. It would have been better as a memoir instead of a film. For a personal story inspired by someone’s childhood upbringing, it’s just not memorable.