REVIEW: ARMAGEDDON TIME. Be a Mensch?*

Spoiler Alert: This review contains plot information and reveals the fate of certain characters.

"America - land of dreams," bemuses Jewish-American immigrant Aaron Rabinowitz (two-time Oscar winner Anthony Hopkins in a thoroughly endearing, totally non-saccharin performance). His comment sets both the tone and the malaise found in writer/director James Gray's (Little Odessa) understated, semi-autobiographical coming-of-age film, Armageddon Time. We'll get to the film title's significance and more in a minute. But first, a few things.

One of the most powerful indicators, for me, about the value/worth/excellence of a movie, is how long I think about it after the credits role. Movies like Ticket to Paradise usually engage me in conversation for a bit after I leave the theater. But, the next day and in the days following, I usually don't give it much of a thought. The real test of "forgettable" vs. "un" is whether - months later - I can remember the ending.

To be clear, I'm more of a matinee than an evening film-goer because I like to talk about the movie over dinner - and drinks - while everything is still fresh. If my value-barometer is accurate, Armageddon Time is at least four stars out of five. Not only could I not stop thinking about it for hours afterward. The fact that I'm posting this review the next day should tell you that there is something to this very personal 1980s coming-of-age story set against the back-drop of impending Reagan-ism, the advent of the computer age, and the hopes for the Gen X-ers that merits pause and reflection.

In this case, the Boomer progeny is Paul Graff (newcomer Banks Repeta, as writer/director James Gray's alter-ego), a sixth grader at NYC Public 173 (Queens) when the film opens in the fall of1980. A presidential election (Jimmy Carter's re-election bid against former California governor and film star Ronald Reagan) is moving closer to its conclusion, social and racial divisions continue, and aspiring artist Paul is clearly a misfit at school and at home. His only friend at school is another misfit: an African-American boy named Johnny who seems to be the target for discipline whenever a class disruption occurs. Their teacher, Mr. Turkeltaub (you can imagine the nicknames), is not subtle in his judgment that Johnny is a bad seed. He was, after all, "held back" one year, a clear sign of academic deficiencies. Johnny, who lives with his aging grandmother, is constantly in fear of being taken to a foster home. He dreams of joining his step-brother in Florida who is in the Air Force. His bond with Paul is both expected and complex.

At home, Paul's older, more academically accomplished brother is already enrolled at a private school, and Paul struggles to convince his parents that his budding artistic ability is worthy of attention: a post-Guggenheim field trip results in Paul trying to emulate Russian painter Wassily Kandinsky's abstract style with uncanny similarities, and then have Mr. Turkeltaub mock him for failing to "be original."

Only Paul's maternal grandfather, Aaron Rabinowitz (Hopkins), seems to understand Paul's unrecognized talent. When Paul reluctantly shows Aaron a drawing of his vision of a new superhero and proudly proclaims his desire to be a "famous artist," his grandfather lovingly reviews his creation and then gently encourages him to "sign" his work. All famous artists do, he tells an appreciative Paul.

At first blush, Armageddon Time might seem small and parochial. After all, what grander themes can we find in the tale of a seemingly inconsequential, slightly-built red-haired, academically "slow," prepubescent Jew in late-20th century New York? The short answer: Plenty.

Ongoing issues of post-Holocaust anti-Semitism (we learn that "Graff" isn't Paul's father's real surname - it was shortened from "Graffenstein," or Greyzerstein - Gray's real name - to avoid potential college application rejection), are layered against persistently parallel racism (Paul's friendship with Johnny), and socio-economic bias: Paul's father Irving (in a nuanced performance by Jeremy Strong), a gainfully employed plumber, was seen as an unacceptable choice for his wife Esther (an understated Anne Hathaway), by all of her family except her father Aaron.

Snobby private schools, their students and faculty, don't fare much better than underfunded public schools, though Paul clearly prefers the latter. It's where his friends are. Both institutions perpetuate racial, religious, and social stereotypes, and neither shows any genuine interest in children or education. This is Gray's memory, for sure, and it is filled with loneliness, isolation, fear and ambiguity.

The only guidance and clarity for Paul come, of course, from his grandfather, who we learn is dying of bone cancer. Their last moment of joy together, before Aaron is told of his grandfather's illness, is spent somewhere in Central Park where they launch a rocket that Aaron gave Paul as a gift. The conversation they have, the focus with which Paul sets up the rocket for launch, and the sheer elation of its successful lift-off provide a kind of warmth and authenticity that will be cut short by Aaron's death.

Still, the lessons he offers Paul are not insignificant. When Paul confides that his new friends at the private school don't like blacks, Aaron asks him what does when that happens. Paul replies, "Well, obviously nothing, of course." Aaron pauses, then asks, "You think that's smart?" When Paul doesn't respond, Aaron pushes his advice a bit further: "Next time those schmucks say anything bad about [black] kids, you're gonna say something. You're gonna be a mensch, okay?"

Aaron and Paul end their chat with a firm handshake and a hug, but Aaron's words resonate with Paul, even though the advice isn't easy. Weeks later, after Aaron's funeral, Paul is spared juvenile arrest (he and Johnny stole a computer and are trying to sell it at a pawn shop) because his father knew the police officer. "You make the most of your break and do not look back," Irving tells his son who worries that Johnny will take the brunt of their scheme.

Whew. That's a pretty heavy load to impose on a twelve-year-old, but writer/director Gray handles it all with grace, compassion and wit. When it premiered earlier this year at the Cannes Film Festival, Armageddon Time received a 7-minute standing ovation. Well-deserved, for sure, especially given the film's not-so-subtly embedded political content and outstanding performances from the entire cast.

Gray's film never slips into maudlin self-indulgence, and he manages to evoke a completely believable performance from newcomer Repeta. I've often commented (whined?) that child actors who give great performances are mostly doing what directors tell them, rather than digging into complex emotional resources. Here, Repeta's reactions are completely age appropriate and real.

By film's end, with Ronald Reagan emerging victorious in 1980's presidential election, Paul's family is gathered around the television. "Morons," laments Irving, "from sea to shining sea." One might say the same thing about today's political environment.

Gray's movie, ripe with the usual themes of family dysfunction, generational conflicts, sibling rivalry and parental expectations generally attached to this kind of rite of passage tale, manages to avoid trite, cliched sentimentality in its depiction of Jewish-American angst amid the foreboding right-wing populism that would define Donald Trump's presidency almost four decades later. Here, Fred Trump appears as an eerily foreshadowing figure for his son's subsequent twisted nationalism at the private school Paul and his brother attend, and where Marianne Trump (played to great effect by a chillingly determined Jessica Chastain), confidently tells students there are no "handouts" and that each one of them is capable of "earning" success.

The presence of the two Trumps at Forest Manor, a stand-in for the Kew-Forest prep school Donald Trump attended, suggests other comparisons between Reagan's 1979 prediction of Armageddon in America and Trump's 2016 "Make America Great Again" campaign, frightening similarities if one considers the recent resurgence of anti-Semitism and the continuing challenges of systemic racism within American culture.

At its core, Armageddon Time is a criticism of "late-stage capitalism," an exploration of the ways in which racial and socioeconomic inequalities are so deeply embedded into the American system that - for social/cultural outsiders like Paul and Johnny, it’s all but impossible to achieve the American dream. Through Paul and Johnny’s friendship, the film shows how Paul’s privilege — however small in comparison to his Forest Manor classmates — gives him a leg up in the world. Johnny does not - and will never - have the same opportunities and is thus treated more harshly, as his run-ins with the police and Mr. Turkeltaub disclose, because he is black.

ScreenRant's Mae Abdulbaki put it this way: "Paul’s family is an example of how turning away from systemic inequality, rather than fighting against it, perpetuates the status quo. Paul is just a kid, though, and he isn’t portrayed as a bad person, but a benefactor of a system that continually acts in his favor. Armageddon Time purports that systemic inequality and oppression hurts everyone except for those at the top."

Near the film's end, Paul sits alone in his bedroom and imagines his grandfather telling him that he didn't do such a good job standing up for Johnny. In that moment, he realizes that knowing what you must do doesn't necessarily mean that is what you can do. Aaron was asking him to stand up for his beliefs, to not simply be a benefactor in a corrupt system. Being a mensch is thus tough and may be more than Paul will ever be able to handle. In effect, being a mensch can be a bitch.

But it's a start.

*Mensch - a person of integrity and honor.