‘Armageddon Time’ a troublesome deconstruction of the American Dream

The 45th Denver Film Festival opening night film features great performances and cinematography but the evening is soured by an unfulfilling narrative

Let the Oscar race begin! Last night kicked off the start of the 45th annual Denver Film Festival with the red-carpet premiere of James Gray’s Oscar-wannabe film Armageddon Time.

Kevin Smith, the new CEO of the Denver Film Festival, welcomed the audience to the opening night of the festival. Though the festival promised to continue hosting the virtual event after COVID-19, almost all of the events at the 2022 festival are back to in-person due to the lack of distributors choosing to make their films available digitally. Smith excitedly welcomed the audience back to the Ellie Caulkins Opera House for the premiere of Gray’s autobiographical film.

Armageddon Time is a coming-of-age story inspired by Gray’s time growing up as a kid in Queens, New York, during the 1980s. The film offers a deconstruction of the American Dream through the eyes of a Jewish family that is just on the cusp of traditional middle-class life. We watch the story unfold through the eyes of Paul (Banks Repeta), a young person who comes from parents (Anne Hathaway and Jeremy Strong) that suffered for him to have a better life. But Paul is angsty and realizes that, even though he is Jewish and faces some discrimination, he can get away with things that the Black students at his school cannot.

After Paul is caught smoking weed in the bathroom with his Black friend, Johnny (Jaylin Webb), his family chooses to send him away to a private school his older brother, Ted (Ryan Sell), attends to ensure that he “gets a real seat at the table.” Yet, when he enters this elite space, Paul immediately witnesses the other students being racist and turns to his grandfather Aaron (Anthony Hopkins) for help understanding the world and his family’s complicated place within the American Dream.

Kevin Smith, CEO of Denver Film Festival, introduces ‘Armageddon Time’ – Photo by Toni Tresca

Cinematographer Darius Khondji and production designer Happy Massee do a masterful job of immersing the audience in the past. Every location throughout Queens, from the family’s house to the school to the police station, feels lived in and real without being overly nostalgic. The shots are beautifully edited together by Scott Morris, whose work seamlessly transitions viewers across the city.

The family drama of the film is also very well done, thanks to Gray’s casting of some of the finest working actors in Hollywood. Hopkins delivers a stirring performance as the family’s conflicted and aging patriarch. He and Repeta have dynamic chemistry and can make simple scenes, like building a rocket in the park, really resonate with viewers.

Hathaway does a nice job with her role as Paul’s mother and PTA warrior who champions her children at every turn. She isn’t given a ton to do but makes the most of her thinly written character. Strong delivers my favorite performance of the film as Paul’s struggling father, who wants the best for his family but is insecure in his role as the patriarch; he is out of touch with his emotions and makes that everyone else’s problem.

This is an incredibly relevant and interesting story about the price of freedom in America and who remains unfree. Paul is in a very unique position. Though his family suffered greatly, he and his brother can assimilate into the world of the white elite in a way the rest of his family is still not able to. The writing beats you over the head with the newfound privilege Paul is now surrounded by, we are shown him being spoken to by Fred Trump (John Diehl) and Maryanne Trump (Jessica Chastain), who tell the private school students that they have earned everything they get and have received no special privileges. The scene prompted a groan from the crowd, apparently tired of constantly being told to think about Trump and his family. It’s a fine enough scene that makes sense in the context of the film, but there no denying it’s incredibly heavy-handed and feels a little lazy.

Though the film has a solid performance and is beautiful to look at, where it runs into problems is with the narrative’s decision to frame the story around the relationship between Paul and Johnny. The third act features the duo stealing a computer from Paul’s private school, but when Johnny goes to sell the device at a pawn shop, they are caught by the police. Yet, despite it being Paul’s idea, he can walk away scot-free with his father while Johnny is kept in police custody. I get the point that the world is unfair and all, but a Black attendee I saw the film with said it best after the screening: “I hate White filmmakers exploiting Black trauma for entertainment.”

No matter how well it is acted or how good it looks, the film’s message is still difficult to sit with. The best and worst thing about the film is that it provides no easy answers. It’s an intriguing deconstruction that works best when surrounding the complications of being a Jewish family within America and is at its worst when the story uses a Black child as a prop for Paul’s character development. While this makes for an interesting film-festival experience, Armageddon Time may not have been the best film to kick off the festival; it’s not quite light enough to be a crowd-pleaser but not deep enough to hold up to any serious ideological probing.