ARMAGEDDON TIME

Set in 1980 New York City, the film follows 2 friends, Paul Graff (Banks Repeta) and Johnny Davis (Jaylin Webb). Both are troublemakers in their 6th grade class but the level of discipline exerted to both is contradictory at best by their teacher Mr. Turkeltaub (Andrew Polk). One time Paul is made to stand in front of the class for a grotesque picture he drew of Mr. Turkeltaub, whereas Johnny is made to sit on more than one occasion in the front of the class for his more profane and disrespectful outbursts towards their teacher. At the heart of this film is the message of racism and how it's nurture over nature, something that's taught rather than biological (which, I do agree with). I will applaud the efforts of the film that it's not heavy-handed in its message but the point is still made nonetheless as Paul's grandfather Aaron (Anthony Hopkins) tells him the story of how his grandparents (Paul's great-grandparents) fled Ukraine during the second World War due to the violence shown towards Jews within their local community. Yet, just 2 generations later Paul's parents Esther (Anne Hathaway) and Irving (Jeremy Strong) show the same bigotry towards African-Americans, blaming young Johnny for all of the recent trouble Paul has found himself in while all the while Paul is usually the instigator or a willing accomplice himself. In need of some good old fashioned discipline, Paul walks all over his parents, particularly his mother until the law finally catches up to him, at which point she's at her wits end. The best performance I can commend here is Anne Hathaway's Esther as it's a very familiar stereotype. Make no mistake about this, the film plays into all stereotypes typical of this time, yet begs the audience to condemn them by today's standard. A slow moving story that is at times dry. Might not be a bad idea to check it out at some point, although this can most definitely be passed upon in the theaters IMO. 6/10