Written and Directed by James Gray
Starring Banks Repeta, Anne Hathaway, Anthony Hopkins, Jaylin Webb and Jeremy Strong

Despite making some noise at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival courtesy of a 7-minute standing ovation after its screening, Armageddon Time is in fact a quiet achiever. It is a film that studiously studies its subjects and characters with utmost depth throughout whose precision in clarity of themes and storytelling earns enormous appreciation by its triumphant end.

Ingrained racism, unconscious bias and societal and educational inequalities are all observed through the perspective of Paul Graff (Banks Repeta), a young boy who is struggling to find his sense of belonging both at home and at school. On the first day of school for the year, Paul forms a bond with fellow classmate Johnny Davis (Jaylin Webb), courtesy of the pairs disrupting and rebellious actions in class. Their reasons for misbehaving though are coming from a totally different place to one another. For Paul, doing what he thinks will make others laugh and subsequently gain him popularity is the key for fitting in and feeling less uncomfortable in his surrounds. For Johnny, however, his increasingly confrontational behaviour is his response to the neglect and insignificance he’s made to feel as a young black youth living in Queens, New York, 1980.

The American dream is another theme that is explored for all characters in this coming-of-age drama and is another commonality the two boys share. What they will learn, however, is that Paul’s American dream is far more likely to come to fruition than Johnny’s will ever have the chance to. The reason, when you boil it all down, is as simple as being black and white.

By simply tuning in to the numerous experiences and discussions Paul is a part of, whether at the dinner table with three generations of his close-knit and upper-middle class family or in the presence of teachers and pupils at school, we too play witness to the disadvantages that come with not being born white. These present themselves in a most quotidian and understated manner. People who possess a deep-rooted attitude towards a minority and how that reveals itself in certain scenarios. How opportunity is afforded to one party yet is immediately stripped away for the other. As these ongoing moments continue to occur, they only become more cemented in people’s minds and throughout society, and ultimately set a person up for success or failure. This is what the writing in Armageddon Time is so outstanding at realising and delivering. 

Armageddon Time is showing in cinemas across Australia from November 3rd.

Moviedoc thanks Universal Pictures for the invite to the screening of this film.

Review by Leigh for Moviedoc

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