Director James Gray analyzes his own family in his autobiographical drama Armageddon Time, set during his childhood in a pre-Reagan New York City
Armageddon Time isn’t the first drama in recent memory where a filmmaker reckoned with a formative time in their childhood. But many don’t feel as immediately relevant — perhaps a little too on the nose — as James Gray’s exploration of his “liberal” family’s navigation of a pre-Reagan America in New York City. While presenting itself as a fun childhood romp through the dawn of the 1980s, it quickly turns into a biting indictment of privilege, generational racism, and the white-washing of the American dream.
Full review coming soon.
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Hey! I’m Karl. You can find me on Twitter and Letterboxd. I’m also a Tomatometer-approved critic.
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Hey, I’m Karl, founder and film critic at Smash Cut. I started Smash Cut in 2014 to share my love of movies and give a perspective I haven’t yet seen represented. I’m also an editor at The New York Times, a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, and a member of the Online Film Critics Society.