Rating: R | Runtime: 114 minutes
Release Date: October 28th, 2022 (USA)
Studio: Focus Features
Director(s): James Gray
Writer(s): James Gray

You’ll have big highs, and you’re going to have big lows. Yabba dabba doo. So what?

I have no clue what I’m supposed to think after watching James Gray’s Armageddon Time. From the graffiti title card to the ultimate moral of the story being that letting your friends with obvious systemic disadvantages down is okay because life isn’t fair and at least “you tried,” it all ends up feeling like White Guilt: The Movie.

Because it has the potential to actually say something. We watch the casual racism at dinner only to eventually have Grandpa Aaron (Anthony Hopkins) tell young Paul (Banks Repeta) that it’s his duty as the offspring of Jewish survivors of Cossack violence to stand-up for the Black and Hispanic population. And all he learns as a result is to embrace the status quo.

So, maybe that’s the real message: America is screwed. You have Jews sitting around the television bad-mouthing Ronald Reagan minutes before revealing their own bigotry—unable to separate action from intent. You have Dad (Jeremy Strong) telling Paul that it does suck to have to watch inequality play out, but dealing with that pain is their burden for being “thankful” they have a leg up.

Hand-wringing therefore is enough to earn a clean conscience as those left fending for themselves, if not abused and/or killed, like Johnny Davis’ (Jaylin Webb) dreamer are kicked to the curb yet again because prejudice and privilege isn’t theirs to have to endure. Gray adds Fred Trump (John Diehl) as a “villain” of sorts, but really he’s just an empty vessel since Paul’s own family projects his same ideals of “winning” life.

Shooting it all with a veneer of nostalgia becomes confusing because I’m not sure whether Gray is asking us to look back with fondness or rage. It’s probably a bit of both, but I’m not sure what an audience member like me can take from it to feel the former. Not when it literally gives Paul an imaginary vision of Grandpa patting him on the back for failing to do the right thing because there will always be more opportunities in the future.

Not when every adult besides Aaron dismisses Paul’s desire to be artistic (even the one person who compliments his talent) by calling him “slow.” I get the comparison point, though. Where Johnny is told by his own race that he’ll never be an astronaut, Paul is told by whites and Jews alike that he’s worthless unless he pursues an “elite” vocation. But it’s not the same.

Anne Hathaway is wasted as Paul’s mother (she’s inconsequential to the plot beyond being the target of her son’s rebellious temper and the “good cop” passing him onto Dad’s “bad cop”). Strong gets a couple really nice moments that would mean something in a film with something more to say than “we did our best.”

Repeta is good as the lead, but it’s tough to truly appreciate his internal wrestling matches when he constantly chooses self-preservation as though it’s not just his right to do so but also the correct choice to make because of “personal responsibility” and all that—you know, what Trumpers say now about mask mandates and anything remotely adjacent to common good.

Webb is thus the one true standout (beyond Hopkins’ small role). His Johnny understands everything that’s happening. It’s a deeply tragic role that deserves more than being present to absolve everyone else’s guilt by assuring them that they wouldn’t be able to change his fate anyway.

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(L to R) Jaylin Webb stars as Johnny Crocker and Michael Banks Repeta stars as Paul Graff in director James Gray’s ARMAGEDDON TIME, a Focus Features release. Credit: Courtesy of Focus Features.