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.

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.

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

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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