Knock Knock
Who's there?
Armageddon.
Armageddon who?
Armageddon tired of this kind of movie.
Armageddon Time is like a What I Did This Summer assignment written by Saul Bellow.
This visual memoir about a young Jewish boy growing up in the 80s is fascinating in its mundanity.
I think the point is that even famous people had the same boring childhood you did. The only difference is that mine wasn't covered with some dirty sepia filter like this guy's.
I watched this, my first James Gray movie (writer, director), in the sneak preview. By the German titles, and also by looking up the English title, I didn't expect a coming of age story. I only realized it by almost half of the movie - at which point I permanently expected a time jump into adult years - probably caused by the several references about the future of Paul Graff. These circumstances had the effect that I never could set up my audience expectation properly. Maybe the aversion was deliberate - and it's understandable - but there were too many foreshadowing elements for my taste to do this; the disappointment effect of these missing scenes were stronger than the message intended.
Most moviegoers have difficulties with the thin plots and meandering in coming-of-age stories. As a Linklater fan, I'm always curious if there is some competition for him. And the emotions in the scenes are very strong with great performances by Banks Repeta, Jeremy Strong, Anthony Hopkins and Jaylin Webb. For some, there will be heavy scenes that bring you back to your childhood. The period setting is also immersive - but not heavily focused on it, with occasional references that add only little to the story - but still the production design and the visuals/cinematography are a strength of the movie and helps travelling back in time.
All in all, the movie has strong emotional moments and performances but one somehow expects more from the plot.
James Gray's movies rarely strike an emotional chord but this one did. It's a moving coming of age story about family conflict and expectation that touches on important themes in a refreshingly less than heavy handed way.
There is a lot to like in this movie. It does a fantastic job showing how there was a different set of rules and possibilities available to African Americans. I love how it demonstrated how difficult it is to do the right thing (and maybe more importantly, how people acknowledge this as they intentionally not do the right thing). And of course, how difficult it is to grow up (I am a big fan of this genre).
Unfortunately the film isn't a great movie. I am someone that loves "talkie" dramas, and I want to get inside of a film and roll around in it. This film is very much a slice-of-life type of film and often those films are very, very slow (and this one is exactly that). Because it is this kind of film there really isn't a starting or ending point. It just kind of trails off..... In other words, it often felt like work just to stay with it.
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I have a particular fondness for coming-of-age films. That's why "Armageddon Time" should have been right up my alley. Unfortunately, the main character, Paul, is a really annoying brat. That's certainly part of the story, but it also kept me from rooting for the boy. Banks Repeta is also unlikely to win any child actor awards.
Nonetheless, there's plenty to like about this drama. Director James Gray succeeds in capturing the New York City of the 1980s. Furthermore, there are some intense scenes that are downright unsettling. Things always become quite entertaining when the entire family gathers around the table, too. The plot is adequate, but nothing to write home about. The interplay between the characters is usually quite enjoyable.
Of the actors, Anthony Hopkins in particular delivers another great performance as Paul's grandfather. However, it is unlikely to be enough for another Oscar. His performance in "The Father" was more substantial. Furthermore, his character's story arc is a little too predictable here. Of the other actors, Jeremy Strong is particularly convincing as a father with an inferiority complex. His character appears menacing at times and then awkward again. Anne Hathaway, on the other hand, fails to make a splash as Paul's mother. In her few scenes, she was unable to leave a lasting impression.
Overall, I'd describe "Armageddon Time" as a well-acted, well-filmed, but somewhat tedious drama.
I wanted to like this, but somehow it... never quite seems to get going. A few things happen, and then just like that it's already over. One would think, considering what a central figure he is, the grandpa's death is some sort of key turning point, yet it manages to feel utterly weightless. Similarly, the separation of the two friends isn't as dramatic as it ought to be either, perhaps because their relationship is never built up quite that well in the first place, nor do we really get a sense of where things would go. While it does get portrayed on several occasions, there isn't that much actual sense of "inequality and prejudice" either, which ends up being simply frustrating. My feeling is it's because many of the surrounding elements are also either weightless themselves, or just unrealistic and nonsensical.
Coming of age stories shouldn't necessarily be lukewarm and bad - all they need is a point to make at the end, or an actual story to tell. Here, I was missing both. There is some nice atmosphere, where we might indeed feel like we're taken back in time, to some degree at least, but it's just not enough. For something with armageddon in its title, I expected an impact: for better or worse, the end of the world seems to have been cancelled, this time.
Shout by BobDole12BlockedParent2022-12-04T22:36:00Z
Sure it's kind of slight, sort of just ends, and hits upon certain themes and topics without fulling engaging but fuck it, I liked it. Out of recent director-plumbing-their-childhood-type movies of the past several years this one is easily my favorite, a rare 2-hour awards season movie that didn't feel its 2 hours to me
Anthony Hopkins is charming and charismatic in spades, if Judi Dench could get an Oscar nom for playing typical grandma role in Belfast (when Caitríona Balfe was RIGHT. THERE.) I won't be mad at Hopkins nabbing a nom (though this movie's awards prospects seems to have dimmed considerably and seems to be receiving a cool reception from audiences/online film people), another in a line of solid Hopkins performances of the last several years in a late-career resurgence (The Dresser, King Lear, The Two Popes, The Father). I keep rooting for Anne Hathaway to pick better roles and this just may be the first movie that lived up to her talents in nearly a decade and though I may be in the minority, I really enjoyed the kid actors, not showing signs of being overly-directed or too much Hollywood movie precociousness