James Gray’s ‘Armageddon Time’ Screens in Los Angeles

James Gray’s “Armageddon Time” was screened last night in L.A. This is his first movie after the long-delayed “Ad Astra” finally hit theaters two Septembers ago to positive reviews.

“Armageddon Time” brings Gray back to New York. If you remember, his first 5 movies ( “Little Odessa,” “The Yards,” “We Own the Night,” “Two Lovers,” and “The Immigrant”) were all set in the Big Apple.

A reader of this site saw Gray’s Cannes-bound “Armageddon Time,” and gave me his impressions. Not good, he says. Overall, the responses have been pretty mixed.

According to the person I spoke to the film runs somewhere between 115 or 120 minutes. Doesn’t inspire investment or fascination — mainly pique and frustration. Tedious, simplistic dialogue. A rebellious young white kid (supposedly Gray in his teen years) befriends a young African-American his age. After an incident involving theft, public school turns to private school for this white boy. Then a misguided plan to escape to the South.

The film is set around the time of Reagan’s election (‘80), when Gray (now 52 or 53) was 10 or 11. Fred Trump makes one or two appearances but not Donald, who was around 35 at the time. Jeremy Strong and Anne Hathaway are the parents: Anthony Hopkins plays the ailing gentle and inspirational granddad whom Gray looked up to.

It’s all partly set in Queens but shot in New Jersey — set in home schools, and a jail scene after the two kids are arrested for stealing a Mac computer.

Hathaway and Hopkins are said to be “fine, nothing exceptional”. Strong plays the dad and does a “horrible fake Jewish accent that sounds like Howard Stern”. The child actors are said to be very wooden. There were multiple times during the screening when people were laughing at what were obviously meant to be a serious moments.

Again, this is just one person’s take on the film, but the reader was generally displeased, frustrated, annoyed that he made the two hour trek to catch the film.