Armageddon Time
Armageddon Time
Staring Banks Repeta, Anne Hathaway, Jeremy Strong, Anthony Hopkins
Directed by James Gray
Staring Banks Repeta, Anne Hathaway, Jeremy Strong, Anthony Hopkins
Directed by James Gray
While the title seems rather nihilistic, "Armageddon Time" seems an almost appropriate title for such a coming-of-age film. When we're young we often see the world through rose-colored glasses, where everything is sunshine and lollipops, and life is fair. Only when we get older do we realize that life isn't fair, and we ride an emotional roller coaster of emotions and events - both good and bad - that shape us into the adults we end up being. While it's not necessarily the end of the world, it's the end of innocence but still offering glimmers of hope set against an almost hopeless world.
In 1980 Queens, Jewish-American kid Paul Graff (Banks Repeta) is living a comfortable life with his mother Esther (Anne Hathaway), father Irving (Jeremy Strong), and especially his grandfather and Holocaust survivor Aaron (Anthony Hopkins). He is a rambunctious youth who gets into trouble at school, but has a good heart - and a passion for art, which his grandfather encourages despite his parents being against it due to it not being a lucrative career choice. In school he meets African-American boy Johnny (Jaylin Webb) and the two become fast friends, but Paul notices that their teacher punishes Johnny harsher than himself when they both get into trouble. This only escalates as Johnny keeps getting into more trouble despite them both doing the same bad things, leading to Paul's parents forbidding him from seeing Johnny again and sending him to a posh private school. While there he wants to fit in, and that includes disowning his former best friend due to the color of his skin - and when his grandfather confronts him about it, he teaches the young boy that friendship and doing what's right is more important than what's popular.
The 1980s was a difficult time for many Americans, especially those of lower income and minorities, and "Armageddon Time" sets the story against that backdrop - a tale that's mostly coming-of-age, but also deeply bleak and depressing, where it seems anything good is snuffed out in favor of the American Dream, capitalism, and race (the title comes from an interview then-candidate Ronald Regan had where he was worried about an impending Armageddon). To those ends, there really was an Armageddon happening, but not as we'd expect: it's more an internal struggle to do what's right and be who you wanted to be as opposed to doing what's expected and living up to the social norms.
People immigrate to America to live out the American Dream, and while that isn't necessarily a bad thing, if it causes you to remove your personality and desires from the equation, it becomes an issue. That's what happened with Paul's family, as his grandfather's parents came to America to escape the horrors of Nazi-occupied Europe to live out their American Dream, which has worked until Paul's parents. You can sense the constant unease and depression that oozes through Irving and Esther as they work to maintain an upper-middle-class lifestyle and putting both their sons through private school in order to protect them from negative influences of public school, especially Paul. Anne Hathaway blends into her performance as Esther, a mother who is struggling with raising a rather unruly 12-year-old and tying to maintain balance in the family, and you see the strain in her performance. Jeremy Strong's Irving is more developed, as he has to hold the weight of the family on his shoulders - moving from bits of anger and violence to deeper introspection about his insecurities of not being good enough. To this family, the American Dream is slowly crushing them.
Capitalism was something Regan was huge on during his presidency, and it ruled the 80s landscape. Paul has talent to be an artist and has flights of fancy where he's an accomplished and famous painter, and it's a talent his grandfather encourages - even buying him an expensive set of art supplies. Yet his parents - who are saddled with wanting to maintain their style of living - wants Paul to explore more lucrative careers, which pits Paul against his parents time and again. Paul's grandfather wants Paul to live a happy life, even if he doesn't make a lot of money, and that's counterintuitive to his parents' wishes.
Apart from Paul's tumultuous family life, the issue of social class and racism also paints his outlook on life. To him, Johnny is just his friend, but the world sees an unruly African-American boy who has no prospects for the future. Their friendship takes center stage through most of the film, and offers glimpses of hope for the future, even if they're few and far between. Relative newcomers Banks Repeta and Jaylin Webb dominate the screen and offer multi-layered performances. While Repeta's Paul is oftentimes irritating with how he blatantly misbehaves in front of his parents and teachers, there's a deep soul within him that wants to understand the world and come against its "life isn't fair" mantra. Likewise, Jaylin Webb's Johnny is just as rambunctious as Paul, but he receives stricter punishments due to his color, which shapes his own worldview. While trying to remain positive about leaving and working for NASA, he also understands that life isn't fair, and everyone sees him as a lost cause with no hope for the future - and it occasionally sours him to the world. Seeing the world through these eyes is often bleak and depressing, which shouldn't happen with young eyes - but again, the world isn't fair.
Through it all is the patient, understanding, and knowledgeable voice of Aaron Rabinowitz, played with an awards-worthy performance by Anthony Hopkins. Aaron has been through the darkest moments in world history, and has lived to tell the tale. Not just that, but he didn't allow it to sour him from the world - he offers wise, sage advice to Paul about standing up for what's right, even if it goes against everything else around him, and does so with a tender heart. He's the grandfather everyone wished they had, and Hopkins pulls it off with effortless charm.
The main focus between Paul and Aaron is the fact that Aaron wants Paul to be a "mensch" or a person of integrity and honor. This permeates Paul's story as he almost constantly does the antithesis, constantly making mistakes and erroneous judgments, but you also see that he's trying to do better. When faced with life-altering decisions, he eventually steps up to do what's right, even if it means a harsh punishment for him, in order to protect his friend. While things don't always go the way we think they're supposed to, we learn that that's how life is sometimes - it's not fair, it's not balanced, and the good guy doesn't always win, but we keep striving to make our own lives a little better day after day.
The Score: A+
In 1980 Queens, Jewish-American kid Paul Graff (Banks Repeta) is living a comfortable life with his mother Esther (Anne Hathaway), father Irving (Jeremy Strong), and especially his grandfather and Holocaust survivor Aaron (Anthony Hopkins). He is a rambunctious youth who gets into trouble at school, but has a good heart - and a passion for art, which his grandfather encourages despite his parents being against it due to it not being a lucrative career choice. In school he meets African-American boy Johnny (Jaylin Webb) and the two become fast friends, but Paul notices that their teacher punishes Johnny harsher than himself when they both get into trouble. This only escalates as Johnny keeps getting into more trouble despite them both doing the same bad things, leading to Paul's parents forbidding him from seeing Johnny again and sending him to a posh private school. While there he wants to fit in, and that includes disowning his former best friend due to the color of his skin - and when his grandfather confronts him about it, he teaches the young boy that friendship and doing what's right is more important than what's popular.
The 1980s was a difficult time for many Americans, especially those of lower income and minorities, and "Armageddon Time" sets the story against that backdrop - a tale that's mostly coming-of-age, but also deeply bleak and depressing, where it seems anything good is snuffed out in favor of the American Dream, capitalism, and race (the title comes from an interview then-candidate Ronald Regan had where he was worried about an impending Armageddon). To those ends, there really was an Armageddon happening, but not as we'd expect: it's more an internal struggle to do what's right and be who you wanted to be as opposed to doing what's expected and living up to the social norms.
People immigrate to America to live out the American Dream, and while that isn't necessarily a bad thing, if it causes you to remove your personality and desires from the equation, it becomes an issue. That's what happened with Paul's family, as his grandfather's parents came to America to escape the horrors of Nazi-occupied Europe to live out their American Dream, which has worked until Paul's parents. You can sense the constant unease and depression that oozes through Irving and Esther as they work to maintain an upper-middle-class lifestyle and putting both their sons through private school in order to protect them from negative influences of public school, especially Paul. Anne Hathaway blends into her performance as Esther, a mother who is struggling with raising a rather unruly 12-year-old and tying to maintain balance in the family, and you see the strain in her performance. Jeremy Strong's Irving is more developed, as he has to hold the weight of the family on his shoulders - moving from bits of anger and violence to deeper introspection about his insecurities of not being good enough. To this family, the American Dream is slowly crushing them.
Capitalism was something Regan was huge on during his presidency, and it ruled the 80s landscape. Paul has talent to be an artist and has flights of fancy where he's an accomplished and famous painter, and it's a talent his grandfather encourages - even buying him an expensive set of art supplies. Yet his parents - who are saddled with wanting to maintain their style of living - wants Paul to explore more lucrative careers, which pits Paul against his parents time and again. Paul's grandfather wants Paul to live a happy life, even if he doesn't make a lot of money, and that's counterintuitive to his parents' wishes.
Apart from Paul's tumultuous family life, the issue of social class and racism also paints his outlook on life. To him, Johnny is just his friend, but the world sees an unruly African-American boy who has no prospects for the future. Their friendship takes center stage through most of the film, and offers glimpses of hope for the future, even if they're few and far between. Relative newcomers Banks Repeta and Jaylin Webb dominate the screen and offer multi-layered performances. While Repeta's Paul is oftentimes irritating with how he blatantly misbehaves in front of his parents and teachers, there's a deep soul within him that wants to understand the world and come against its "life isn't fair" mantra. Likewise, Jaylin Webb's Johnny is just as rambunctious as Paul, but he receives stricter punishments due to his color, which shapes his own worldview. While trying to remain positive about leaving and working for NASA, he also understands that life isn't fair, and everyone sees him as a lost cause with no hope for the future - and it occasionally sours him to the world. Seeing the world through these eyes is often bleak and depressing, which shouldn't happen with young eyes - but again, the world isn't fair.
Through it all is the patient, understanding, and knowledgeable voice of Aaron Rabinowitz, played with an awards-worthy performance by Anthony Hopkins. Aaron has been through the darkest moments in world history, and has lived to tell the tale. Not just that, but he didn't allow it to sour him from the world - he offers wise, sage advice to Paul about standing up for what's right, even if it goes against everything else around him, and does so with a tender heart. He's the grandfather everyone wished they had, and Hopkins pulls it off with effortless charm.
The main focus between Paul and Aaron is the fact that Aaron wants Paul to be a "mensch" or a person of integrity and honor. This permeates Paul's story as he almost constantly does the antithesis, constantly making mistakes and erroneous judgments, but you also see that he's trying to do better. When faced with life-altering decisions, he eventually steps up to do what's right, even if it means a harsh punishment for him, in order to protect his friend. While things don't always go the way we think they're supposed to, we learn that that's how life is sometimes - it's not fair, it's not balanced, and the good guy doesn't always win, but we keep striving to make our own lives a little better day after day.
The Score: A+
Comments
Post a Comment