The title of "Armageddon Time" is written in a font that suggests vintage graffiti, an early clue the movie will be about a rebel and will be set around 1980.
The rebel in question is sixth grader Paul, growing up in Queens, New York, with a doting grandfather (Anthony Hopkins), frustrated mother (Anne Hathaway, lowering her voice an octave) and violent, overlooked father (Jeremy Strong). Paul's brother is discovering post-punk music at about the same time Paul is listening to Grandmaster Flash and becoming friends with a classmate named Johnny. Picked on by teachers, Johnny shows Paul that not everyone has the same opportunities he does.
Most of the time, "Armageddon Time" feels like it could have been made by brothers Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne ("Two Days, One Night"). It's a decisive-moment movie — an encounter with the police teaches Paul about the sort of person he is and would like to be — and it doesn't seem to have an agenda, other than recording events that helped shape Paul (and writer/director James Gray, who based the drama on childhood experiences). For instance, Paul's fear of his father's violence is a major factor in some scenes but it doesn't lead to any sort of reckoning for either Paul or his dad. It's just part of the texture of the story, the way lots of things happen to us without adding up to much.
