Enter a Rotten Tomatoes movie slug to inspect the stored movie, batches, snapshots, and reviews.
Movie ID: 748
RT slug: armageddon_time
RT URL: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/armageddon_time
Release year: 2022
Runtime: 114 mins
Wide release date: 2022-11-04
Limited release date: 2022-10-28
Festival premiere date: 2022-05-19
Streaming release date: —
Tomatometer final: 76%
Audience score final: —
Genres: Drama
Directors: James Gray
Writers: James Gray
Producers: Anthony Katagas, James Gray, Marc Butan, Rodrigo Teixeira
MPAA rating: R
Executive Producers: —
Created: 2026-06-14 19:57:20
Updated: 2026-06-14 19:57:20
A young boy growing up in Queens during the 1980s confronts family expectations, friendship, privilege and prejudice as he begins attending a private school.
—
Canonical reviews: 229
Canonical fresh: 175
Canonical rotten: 54
Canonical calculated Tomatometer: 76%
Latest snapshot UTC: 2026-06-14 19:46:22
Snapshot Tomatometer: 76%
Snapshot review count: 229
Snapshot fresh count: 175
Snapshot rotten count: 54
Source note: Imported from manual review paste batch #1298 (full_snapshot)
| Company | Role |
|---|---|
| Focus Features | distributor |
| RT Features | production |
| Billing | Name | Character |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Anne Hathaway | Esther Graff |
| 2 | Jeremy Strong | Irving Graff |
| 3 | Michael Banks Repeta | Paul Graff |
| 4 | Jaylin Webb | Johnny |
| 5 | Tovah Feldshuh | Mickey Graff |
| Batch ID | Status | Mode | Created | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 764 | processed | — | 2026-06-14 19:57:20 | Processed successfully into movie_id=748 using update_mode=merge_non_empty. |
| Batch ID | Local Snapshot | UTC Snapshot | Entered % | Entered Count | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1298 | 2026-06-14 14:46:00 (America/Panama) | 2026-06-14 19:46:22 | 76% | 229 | processed | Mode=full_snapshot. Processed 229 row(s); 0 row error(s). Parsed unique reviews in this batch=229, fresh=175, rotten=54, tomatometer=76%. Net new reviews added=229, fresh=175, rotten=54. Current canonical totals=229 reviews, 175 fresh, 54 rotten, tomatometer=76% (76.419%). Entered review count matched parsed batch count (229). Entered tomatometer matched parsed batch value (76%). |
| ID | Critic | Outlet | Fresh? | Score | RT Time Raw | Approx Published UTC | Quote |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 170180 | Stephen Garrett | Book & Film Globe | Fresh | 3/5 | 2025-08-20T21:38:05Z | 2025-08-20 21:38:05 | As a snapshot, though, Armageddon Time vividly evokes a young man’s sobering, bittersweet realization that [the] world is always bifurcated into the virtuous and the venal. |
| 170181 | Geoffrey Macnab | iNews.co.uk | Fresh | 4/5 | 2025-01-17T01:32:39Z | 2025-01-17 01:32:39 | James Gray’s autobiographical coming-of-age drama contains a fierce, unsentimental performance from Banks Repeta - and a marvellous 80s New York atmosphere. |
| 170182 | Hannah Brown | Jerusalem Post | Fresh | — | 2024-11-15T21:29:32Z | 2024-11-15 21:29:32 | Hopkins gives a very winning performance as the grandfather we all wish we had, in this sometimes meandering film. |
| 170183 | Daniel Allen | Loud and Clear Reviews | Fresh | 4.5/5 | 2024-07-25T13:46:53Z | 2024-07-25 13:46:53 | With Armageddon Time, James Gray eschews nostalgic innocence for a bold film where its young character comes of age in a cold world, where childhood wishes clash with the grime and political tensions of late ‘70s/early ‘80s America. |
| 170184 | Alex Papaioannou | InSession Film | Fresh | C+ | 2024-07-02T20:17:30Z | 2024-07-02 20:17:30 | Rather than serve up a Hollywood coming-of-age with standard dramatic beats, Armageddon Time is a much more fascinating work to grapple with. |
| 170185 | Sarah Vincent | Sarah G Vincent Views | Fresh | — | 2024-06-08T02:59:03Z | 2024-06-08 02:59:03 | Hopkins owns the film and basically shits excellence with every breath. No one else stands a chance. It is a testament to the cast’s professionalism that they could act instead of just sitting with their mouths agape |
| 170186 | Zach Pope | Zach Pope Reviews | Fresh | — | 2023-07-25T19:55:04Z | 2023-07-25 19:55:04 | I love this directors work and found the movie to be full of fantastic ideas & a slice of life film for touching on relationships of the youth. I just wish they would have doubled down on each one a bit more |
| 170187 | David Bax | Battleship Pretension | Rotten | — | 2023-06-14T23:54:10Z | 2023-06-14 23:54:10 | Gray appears to be making a big show of how bad he feels only so he can make a similarly big spectacle out of forgiving himself. |
| 170188 | Hernán Ferreirós | La Nación (Argentina) | Fresh | 3/5 | 2023-05-03T16:51:15Z | 2023-05-03 16:51:15 | The film oscillates between genuinely emotional moments and seemingly random scenes that have no clear relevance to the story. [Full review in Spanish] |
| 170189 | Rafa Sales Ross | WeLoveCinema | Rotten | — | 2023-04-25T07:48:22Z | 2023-04-25 07:48:22 | Gray’s indulgent exercise in self-reflection desperately grasps at any sign of meaningfulness to justify its existence, but simply can’t shake the limpness of what is a technically competent, inspiredly cast yawner. |
| 170190 | Susan Granger | SSG Syndicate | Fresh | 7/10 | 2023-04-07T18:22:15Z | 2023-04-07 18:22:15 | Compassionately disillusioning & soulful, it's James Gray's melancholy, semi-autobiographical, coming-of-age drama - pivoting around the fact that - while we're free to make our own choices - we can't choose the consequences that accompany them. |
| 170191 | Audrey Fox | Looper.com | Fresh | 7/10 | 2023-03-03T15:45:45Z | 2023-03-03 15:45:45 | There are pockets of this film that touch upon something genuinely meaningful. But there are also plenty of stretches that feel ever-so-slightly muddled and directionless, preventing "Armageddon Time" from reaching its full potential. |
| 170192 | John Serba | Decider | Fresh | — | 2023-02-18T00:34:21Z | 2023-02-18 00:34:21 | Gray finds a lightly arc-less rhythm that feels like the texture of the time, a legit New York story – like many of his films – with grit, detail and humor. |
| 170193 | Carlos Bonfil | La Jornada | Fresh | — | 2023-01-30T20:03:33Z | 2023-01-30 20:03:33 | James Gray, always an appealing and chameleonic filmmaker, returns with a fine psychological observation in the intimate tone of his first films. [Full review in Spanish] |
| 170194 | Pablo Villaça | Cinema em Cena | Rotten | 1/5 | 2023-01-25T21:34:25Z | 2023-01-25 21:34:25 | Mediocre as narrative, juvenile as social message and tremendously middle class in its satisfaction with its own awareness of the evils of the world. [Full review in Portuguese] |
| 170195 | Sebastian Zavala Kahn | Cinencuentro | Fresh | 3/5 | 2023-01-25T15:32:14Z | 2023-01-25 15:32:14 | It's not that it's a terrible experience, but it never quite connects with the viewer, being too subtle at times, and quite depressing at others. Full review in Spanish. |
| 170196 | James Croot | The Post NZ | Fresh | 4/5 | 2023-01-12T20:28:07Z | 2023-01-12 20:28:07 | Reminiscent of both Woody Allen films like Radio Days and ‘80s Spielberg directed and produced tales like E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial and The Goonies, Armageddon Time is well worth seeking out. |
| 170197 | Michael Balderston | What To Watch | Fresh | 4/5 | 2023-01-06T21:18:57Z | 2023-01-06 21:18:57 | Gray's personal tale finds a great balance with its heavy themes and lovely, light moments that endear you to this family and movie as a whole. |
| 170198 | Jared Mobarak | Hey, Have You Seen ...? | Rotten | 5/10 | 2023-01-06T16:32:18Z | 2023-01-06 16:32:18 | Webb is thus the one true standout. It's a deeply tragic role that deserves more than being present to absolve everyone else's guilt by assuring them that they wouldn't be able to change his fate anyway. |
| 170199 | Samuel Leggett Jr. | JVS Media & Productions/Team JVS | Rotten | 4/10 | 2023-01-01T02:59:53Z | 2023-01-01 02:59:53 | The understanding of generational knowledge and the fight to make sure our kids learn from our mistakes is at the core of Anthony Hopkins role in this film & all his scenes I loved, outside of that a lot of characters I did not care for or connected with |
| 170200 | Sumner Forbes | Film Threat | Fresh | 9.5/10 | 2022-12-27T22:46:16Z | 2022-12-27 22:46:16 | Armageddon Time is executed flawlessly, with all of the cast at the top of their game. |
| 170201 | Edwin Arnaudin | Asheville Movies | Fresh | A | 2022-12-27T19:36:18Z | 2022-12-27 19:36:18 | Paul’s erratic behavior as he makes sense of the world and pursues his artistic dreams yields plenty of Holden Caulfield-like delights. |
| 170202 | Siddhant Adlakha | JoySauce.com | Fresh | — | 2022-12-26T14:29:36Z | 2022-12-26 14:29:36 | Gray and cinematographer Darius Khondji paint the past with warm tones that turn even shadows into reflective statements on the passage of time. |
| 170203 | Eddie Harrison | film-authority.com | Fresh | 3/5 | 2022-12-26T10:29:17Z | 2022-12-26 10:29:17 | …Amageddeon Time might have seemed more prescient in pre-pandemic times; despite being reasonably clear-eyed and detailed, this eventually qualifies as self-indulgent nostalgia… |
| 170204 | Jackie K. Cooper | jackiekcooper.com | Rotten | 4/10 | 2022-12-25T01:30:36Z | 2022-12-25 01:30:36 | A full movie about people you just don't care about. |
| 170205 | Bruce R. Miller | Sioux City Journal | Fresh | 2.5/4 | 2022-12-20T03:52:46Z | 2022-12-20 03:52:46 | “Armageddon Time” may be a title that’s too explosive for the story it’s attached to. This is a coming-of-age drama that’s just as singular as Kenneth Branagh’s “Belfast” or Steven Spielberg’s “The Fabelmans.” |
| 170206 | Diego Batlle | Otroscines.com | Fresh | 4/5 | 2022-12-19T23:05:25Z | 2022-12-19 23:05:25 | If it falls slightly below expectations based on Gray's previous work, the film still delivers a story that goes from endearing to devastating and vice versa. [Full review in Spanish] |
| 170207 | Scott Tobias | The Reveal | Fresh | 4/5 | 2022-12-19T16:56:05Z | 2022-12-19 16:56:05 | Armageddon Time is the rare case where the bitterness overwhelms sweetness, and true enlightenment comes from rejecting nostalgia at every turn. |
| 170208 | Dorothy Woodend | The Tyee (British Columbia) | Rotten | — | 2022-12-16T00:39:30Z | 2022-12-16 00:39:30 | If it's redemption the filmmaker is after, maybe therapy is a better answer. |
| 170209 | Max Copeman | Radio Times | Fresh | 5/5 | 2022-12-09T19:39:02Z | 2022-12-09 19:39:02 | Despite the autobiographical story, Gray takes a tone that is more regretful than nostalgic, hammering home uncomfortable truths with intelligence and sensitivity. |
| 170210 | Louisa Moore | Screen Zealots | Fresh | — | 2022-12-09T08:40:23Z | 2022-12-09 08:40:23 | Based on his own childhood experiences, Gray writes the familiar. He doesn’t try to cram too much detail nor nostalgia into his screenplay, wisely choosing to keep things focused and uncomplicated. This gives a refreshing honesty to the film. |
| 170211 | J. Don Birnam | Below the Line | Fresh | B+ | 2022-12-08T13:28:26Z | 2022-12-08 13:28:26 | One of the most beautiful coming of age biopics in recent memory, it showcases Hollywood finally realizing that a lot of the trends that trouble the industry socio-politically began not in the 2020s but in the 1980s |
| 170212 | Tim Appelo | AARP Movies for Grownups | Fresh | 5/5 | 2022-12-02T02:18:57Z | 2022-12-02 02:18:57 | It’s a thoughtful meditation on class, race and national decline. |
| 170213 | Filipe Freitas | Always Good Movies | Fresh | 3/5 | 2022-12-01T20:11:17Z | 2022-12-01 20:11:17 | Gray put his passion into staging his painfully vivid memoirs, creating a nuanced, delicate film with a strong anti-racist message. |
| 170214 | Prairie Miller | WBAI Radio | Fresh | — | 2022-12-01T01:19:26Z | 2022-12-01 01:19:26 | Critical race and class theory cinema at its finest, and a meditative descent into that coming of age troubling time of life. Though the shining light in this tough love tale is it led to that bruised but determined class conscious filmmaker - James Gray. |
| 170215 | Erick Estrada | Cinegarage | Fresh | — | 2022-11-29T19:07:18Z | 2022-11-29 19:07:18 | Gray, in a mature execution of his drama, centered and cold towards the end, transforms what could've been a conventional coming-of-age story into a bomb of disenchanted rebellion... [Full review in Spanish] |
| 170216 | Vadim Rizov | Filmmaker Magazine | Fresh | — | 2022-11-21T22:33:34Z | 2022-11-21 22:33:34 | Gray's first digitally shot film and, as it happens, the first time I’ve liked one of them... |
| 170217 | Randy Meeks | Espinof | Rotten | 2.5/5 | 2022-11-21T22:19:48Z | 2022-11-21 22:19:48 | Armageddon Time was a better idea than the script, and the script was better than the movie. [Full review in Spanish] |
| 170218 | Wendy Ide | Observer (UK) | Fresh | 4/5 | 2022-11-20T15:35:28Z | 2022-11-20 15:35:28 | Preteen drama is amplified by robust and fairly obvious musical choices, but more interesting is the sound design: the city is everywhere, grumbling and fractious, the sound of a short fuse burning out. |
| 170219 | Maria Lattila | WhyNow (UK) | Rotten | 2/5 | 2022-11-19T18:11:40Z | 2022-11-19 18:11:40 | Armageddon Time is frustratingly slow and sluggish. At the end, there’s very little reward to be found and the film crumbles under its own weight. |
| 170220 | Mattie Lucas | From the Front Row | Rotten | 2.5/4 | 2022-11-19T16:54:35Z | 2022-11-19 16:54:35 | There's a lot going on here, intersecting race and class and how those factors can determine the course of an entire life, but it doesn't quite have the courage to fully commit to exploring the questions in asks. |
| 170221 | John McDonald | Australian Financial Review | Fresh | — | 2022-11-19T07:25:59Z | 2022-11-19 07:25:59 | Almost imperceptibly the film paints a picture of an anxious society divided over issues of race and class. |
| 170222 | Saskia Baron | The Arts Desk | Fresh | 4/5 | 2022-11-18T23:57:30Z | 2022-11-18 23:57:30 | There’s much to love in Armageddon Time, from its subtle sound design and evocative score to cinematographer Darius Khondji’s ingenious rendering of the way New York looked in 1980. |
| 170223 | Paul Whitington | Irish Independent | Fresh | 4/5 | 2022-11-18T22:18:49Z | 2022-11-18 22:18:49 | Though loose in the middle, it’s moving and funny, and Anthony Hopkins grounds the piece as Paul’s wise grandfather. |
| 170224 | Clarisse Loughrey | Independent (UK) | Fresh | 3/5 | 2022-11-18T21:39:14Z | 2022-11-18 21:39:14 | Gray’s latest, Armageddon Time, is a flawed work. But it sees the filmmaker at his most vulnerable, as he twists the camera back on himself and asks: of all the paths that brought me here, how many were carved out by my own privilege? |
| 170225 | Sergi Sánchez | Fotogramas | Fresh | 4/5 | 2022-11-18T20:11:58Z | 2022-11-18 20:11:58 | The director doesn't shield himself behind the genre, instead, he shows himself with the vulnerability of someone who has chosen to share his diary, and has transcribed his memories without formal exuberance... [Full review in Spanish] |
| 170226 | Javier Ocaña | El Pais (Spain) | Fresh | — | 2022-11-18T19:07:31Z | 2022-11-18 19:07:31 | With Reagan's rise to the presidency as its backdrop, seen by the family as the beginning to the end, Armaggedon Time is both a refutation of the American Dream and its confirmation. [Full review in Spanish] |
| 170227 | Brett McCracken | The Gospel Coalition | Fresh | — | 2022-11-18T05:36:46Z | 2022-11-18 05:36:46 | Armageddon Time isn’t a straightforward celebration of family and generational advancement in America, but neither is it an arrogant dismissal of the goods we inherit from our forebears. |
| 170228 | Taylor Baker | Drink in the Movies | Rotten | 45/100 | 2022-11-18T02:44:37Z | 2022-11-18 02:44:37 | Though it is focused on abuse, violence, and unfair treatment it rarely depicts or contains anything substantial and comprehensive, only when the film wanders in and out of conversations about the Holocaust with |
| 170229 | Hilary A White | Sunday Independent (Ireland) | Fresh | 4/5 | 2022-11-18T00:04:03Z | 2022-11-18 00:04:03 | An excellent cast (watch out for Jessica Chastain) and a keen sense of time and place make this an effective piece of nostalgia cinema about the immigrant experience. |
| 170230 | Leslie Felperin | Financial Times | Rotten | 2/5 | 2022-11-17T17:17:18Z | 2022-11-17 17:17:18 | Both young actors give strong performances, which is more than you can say for Jeremy Strong and Anne Hathaway, both laying it on too thick as Paul’s highly strung parents. |
| 170231 | Alex Godfrey | Empire Magazine | Fresh | 4/5 | 2022-11-17T13:41:43Z | 2022-11-17 13:41:43 | Both a coming of age and an exploration of an era, this self-biographical reminiscence feels both regretful and hopeful – a filmmaker trying to make peace. It’s not sugar-coated, but it’s full of love. |
| 170232 | Bennett Campbell Ferguson | Willamette Week | Fresh | — | 2022-11-16T23:54:30Z | 2022-11-16 23:54:30 | Gray speaks seemingly simple truths and asks you not only to hear them, but to feel them. That’s what great artists—and human beings—do. |
| 170233 | Alistair Harkness | Scotsman | Fresh | 4/5 | 2022-11-16T13:08:43Z | 2022-11-16 13:08:43 | It’s a smart, sensitive, unvarnished film, one that sees danger in nostalgia and thus refuses to indulge in it. |
| 170234 | Jeffrey M. Anderson | Combustible Celluloid | Fresh | 3.5/4 | 2022-11-15T04:19:05Z | 2022-11-15 04:19:05 | James Gray apparently dug into his childhood for this powerful drama, and came up with something somewhat devastating, rather than something cuddly and nostalgic. It's like Barry Levinson's 'Avalon' morphing into 'The 400 Blows.' |
| 170235 | Daniel de Partearroyo | Cinemanía (Spain) | Fresh | 4/5 | 2022-11-14T23:46:47Z | 2022-11-14 23:46:47 | All this apocalyptic context appears filtered with subtle brilliance. [Full review in Spanish] |
| 170236 | Vincent Mancini | FilmDrunk | Fresh | C | 2022-11-14T19:53:29Z | 2022-11-14 19:53:29 | Paul learns from his wise old grandpa that you should always confront racism, but 'Armageddon Time' never explores what that might look like. |
| 170237 | Sarah Ward | Concrete Playground | Fresh | — | 2022-11-12T02:47:24Z | 2022-11-12 02:47:24 | Painting in shades of brown is a straightforward, instantly evocative and significant choice; nothing in this powerful feature is ever rose-tinted. |
| 170238 | Max Weiss | Baltimore Magazine | Fresh | 3.5/4 | 2022-11-12T01:19:09Z | 2022-11-12 01:19:09 | The real nourishment comes from unflinching honesty, served with compassion, insight, and a bit of sadness. In that sense, Armageddon Time is a full meal. |
| 170239 | George Elkind | Metro Times (Detroit, MI) | Fresh | — | 2022-11-12T01:16:12Z | 2022-11-12 01:16:12 | Paul’s experience of this reality -- and the pressures imposed by the adults and peers around him -- is mediated in vivid, viscerally convincing terms, with Darius Khondji’s camerawork feeling almost firsthand in its grip on Paul’s perceptions. |
| 170240 | Dmitry Samarov | Chicago Reader | Rotten | — | 2022-11-11T21:28:55Z | 2022-11-11 21:28:55 | His coming of age feels more like something out of the Marvel Universe than the childhood of a real living boy. |
| 170241 | Isaac Feldberg | Above the Line | Fresh | 5/5 | 2022-11-11T20:06:07Z | 2022-11-11 20:06:07 | Gray’s latest film, and his most personal to date, returns to the ’80s Queens milieu where he was raised, excavating from the filmmaker’s past a powerfully observed and deceptively wide-reaching chronicle of the American moral crisis. |
| 170242 | Keith Garlington | Arkansas Democrat-Gazette | Rotten | — | 2022-11-11T15:32:02Z | 2022-11-11 15:32:02 | In the end, Gray simply has too much on his mind and gets trapped in between reflecting on his childhood and offering a politically charged critique. There's some material there for each, but not enough to juggle both. |
| 170243 | Angelo Muredda | Film Freak Central | Fresh | 3/4 | 2022-11-11T00:07:10Z | 2022-11-11 00:07:10 | Suffused with Gray's typical tragic grandeur and rich thematic preoccupation with the uniquely American compulsion to recreate oneself as a blank slate despite one's inescapable background... |
| 170244 | Cory Woodroof | 615 Film | Fresh | — | 2022-11-10T20:25:29Z | 2022-11-10 20:25:29 | Just bowled over we got an intellectual, mid-budget family drama with a murderer’s row of actors and a real sense of place and time. Focus is a real one for putting this and The Northman out this year. |
| 170245 | Matt Conway | Battle Royale With Cheese | Fresh | — | 2022-11-10T13:08:23Z | 2022-11-10 13:08:23 | Armageddon Time embeds itself in messy social dynamics with introspection and painful relevance. |
| 170246 | Tim Brayton | Alternate Ending | Fresh | 4/5 | 2022-11-10T03:00:25Z | 2022-11-10 03:00:25 | At times deeply humane despite its cynicism. |
| 170247 | Thomas Caldwell | ABC Radio Melbourne | Fresh | 4/5 | 2022-11-09T06:41:56Z | 2022-11-09 06:41:56 | The film is driven by an uneasy momentum into a new vision of America where inequality and prejudice are increasingly ingrained, and opposition to them is increasingly failing. |
| 170248 | tt stern-enzi | Fox19 (Cincinnati, OH) | Fresh | B | 2022-11-08T22:54:50Z | 2022-11-08 22:54:50 | A great, solid, intimate effort. |
| 170249 | Stephen Silver | Broad Street Review | Fresh | 3.5/5 | 2022-11-08T18:44:58Z | 2022-11-08 18:44:58 | I wasn't particularly wild about this film—that is, until it arrives at an ending that hits like a gut punch. |
| 170250 | Frank Swietek | One Guy's Opinion | Fresh | A | 2022-11-08T17:05:41Z | 2022-11-08 17:05:41 | This will resonate as one of the most piercingly honest coming-of-age films in years....The secret lies not just in the toughness of the message itself, but the layered fashion in which Gray dramatizes it. |
| 170251 | Oscar Goff | Boston Hassle | Rotten | — | 2022-11-08T14:35:18Z | 2022-11-08 14:35:18 | The resulting film, while visually gorgeous and clearly very personal, is oddly airless, and can’t quite seem to grapple with the story it sets out to tell. |
| 170252 | Weiting Liu | Mediaversity Reviews | Rotten | C- | 2022-11-07T20:36:05Z | 2022-11-07 20:36:05 | Armageddon Time’s autobiographical nature should not be a pass for crafting hollow Black and female characters. |
| 170253 | Collier Jennings | But Why Tho? | Fresh | 8/10 | 2022-11-07T20:17:16Z | 2022-11-07 20:17:16 | The beauty of movies, like any art form, is that they can be a vehicle for viewers to connect with or for creators to speak their truth. It’s a testament to Gray’s talent that he can do both. |
| 170254 | Pat Mullen | That Shelf | Fresh | — | 2022-11-07T14:01:55Z | 2022-11-07 14:01:55 | What [director James Gray] sees in this potent trip to Reagan-era USA, like his glimpse into 1920’s New York in The Immigrant, is not pretty. It’s authentic, though, and it’s honest. America: it is what it is. |
| 170255 | Jonathan W. Hickman | The Newnan Times-Herald | Fresh | 7/10 | 2022-11-06T15:25:49Z | 2022-11-06 15:25:49 | Gray has laid himself bare with “Armageddon Time.” And this very personal story doesn’t betray him. But by intimately and incrementally exploring this period in a young person’s life, the film can get a little tedious, and the tone is a bit oppressive. |
| 170256 | Patrick McDonald | WBGR-FM (93.7 FM - Monroe, WI) | Fresh | 4.5/5 | 2022-11-05T23:37:23Z | 2022-11-05 23:37:23 | The slow moving story thrives on its performances – especially Jeremy Strong – its surprises and effective use of Trumpism, despite being set in 1980. Even Anne Hathaway pulls off a pretty effective Jewish mother. It's the beginning of the end. Whoopee! |
| 170257 | John Urbancich | JMuvies | Rotten | 2/5 | 2022-11-05T14:57:35Z | 2022-11-05 14:57:35 | If not for the performance of Anthony Hopkins, as a smart and loving grandfather, this '80s-era memoir from writer/director James Gray would disgrace parents, teachers and just about every adult surrounding the major brat it centers upon. (mini review) |
| 170258 | Elias Savada | Film International | Fresh | 4/5 | 2022-11-05T14:55:18Z | 2022-11-05 14:55:18 | Armageddon Time takes a lot of effort to make a memorable, brooding statement; the solutions offered aren’t as satisfying as you might hope. The taste may be somewhat off-putting. |
| 170259 | Wenlei Ma | News.com.au | Fresh | 3/5 | 2022-11-05T14:00:44Z | 2022-11-05 14:00:44 | Armageddon Time is emotionally honest storytelling. |
| 170260 | Ty Burr | Ty Burr's Watch List (Substack) | Rotten | 1.5/4 | 2022-11-05T13:55:02Z | 2022-11-05 13:55:02 | Am I bringing something to the table that keeps me from bonding with writer-director James Gray’s achingly personal – yet, to me, painfully pat – memory film? Or, to quote the Simpsons meme, is it the children who are wrong? |
| 170261 | Lynn Venhaus | Webster-Kirkwood Times | Rotten | C- | 2022-11-05T12:36:01Z | 2022-11-05 12:36:01 | “Armageddon Time” wanted to say something relevant through its rearview mirror, but wound up preachy and muddled. |
| 170262 | Jeff York | The Establishing Shot | Rotten | 2/4 | 2022-11-05T02:16:26Z | 2022-11-05 02:16:26 | Gray has made a very personal, biographical film about his childhood, but it’s not nearly as clever, moving, or fascinating as he thinks it is. And in his stand-in, he’s created one of the more frustrating lead characters in such a film in some time. |
| 170263 | Stephen A. Russell | Flicks (AU, NZ, UK) | Rotten | — | 2022-11-05T01:15:16Z | 2022-11-05 01:15:16 | Slouching towards the two-hour mark, [James Gray’s] film is staggeringly disconnected for one so obviously personal. |
| 170264 | Asher Luberto | L.A. Weekly | Fresh | — | 2022-11-05T00:29:34Z | 2022-11-05 00:29:34 | Movies about childhood are usually as colorful as the puffballs on Amarcord, as catchy as the songs in Almost Famous and as sentimental as the bedtime stories in Boyhood. In the new film from James Gray...childhood is not the vibe you may be expecting. |
| 170265 | Wade Major | FilmWeek (LAist) | Fresh | — | 2022-11-04T23:12:30Z | 2022-11-04 23:12:30 | Jeremy Strong is astonishing here... [One particular] scene alone should get Strong serious consideration for an Oscar nomination. |
| 170266 | Claudia Puig | FilmWeek (LAist) | Fresh | — | 2022-11-04T23:10:53Z | 2022-11-04 23:10:53 | Sometimes it simplifies huge societal problems, but what makes it really great are the performances by Jeremy Strong, Anne Hathaway, and Anthony Hopkins. |
| 170267 | Robert Denerstein | Denerstein Unleashed | Fresh | — | 2022-11-04T23:06:28Z | 2022-11-04 23:06:28 | Gray bravely tackles the inadequacies and limitations of his characters but the resultant film also feels somewhat limited, a narrow gauged personal tale. |
| 170268 | Kevin Carr | Fat Guys at the Movies | Rotten | 2/4 | 2022-11-04T23:03:19Z | 2022-11-04 23:03:19 | The story stumbles around too much, and while it makes some great points, it shambles too much getting there. |
| 170269 | Radheyan Simonpillai | CTV's Your Morning | Fresh | 3/5 | 2022-11-04T22:46:20Z | 2022-11-04 22:46:20 | The movie still uses its young Black character as a prop to process white guilt. |
| 170270 | Steven Prokopy | Third Coast Review | Rotten | 1.5/4 | 2022-11-04T20:57:28Z | 2022-11-04 20:57:28 | When one of your best sequences involves Maryanne Trump giving a speech putting down government handouts, with her proud father standing to the side watching her, I think you have to assume something is broken within the inner-workings of your film. |
| 170271 | Chris Knight | National Post | Fresh | 3/5 | 2022-11-04T20:50:22Z | 2022-11-04 20:50:22 | It’s an imperfect movie, but such is life. |
| 170272 | Kristian M. Lin | Fort Worth Weekly | Fresh | — | 2022-11-04T20:49:20Z | 2022-11-04 20:49:20 | Drawn heavily from Gray’s autobiography, this is still lacking in complexity and much in the way of excitement, but it does have the feel of a childhood dilemma that ends up haunting the child well into adulthood. |
| 170273 | Luke Goodsell | ABC News (Australia) | Fresh | — | 2022-11-04T20:34:57Z | 2022-11-04 20:34:57 | At times, Gray's screenplay can map the sociopolitical element a little too neatly... but these moments are imbued with a deep sense of the personal, of details and emotions that can only be drawn from the filmmaker's lived experience. |
| 170274 | Leo Brady | AMovieGuy.com | Fresh | 2.5/4 | 2022-11-04T17:28:41Z | 2022-11-04 17:28:41 | How it is laid out by James Gray is an uneven but well intentioned drama. |
| 170275 | Linda and Al Lerner | Movies and Shakers | Fresh | — | 2022-11-04T16:55:28Z | 2022-11-04 16:55:28 | Gray’s Armageddon Time is less a battle between good and evil as the title suggests, but more the memories of a man looking back on his childhood through a smoky, dark lens. |
| 170276 | Jim Judy | Screen It! | Fresh | 7/10 | 2022-11-04T15:08:17Z | 2022-11-04 15:08:17 | Strong performances across the board. |
| 170277 | Adam Kempenaar | Filmspotting | Fresh | 3.5/5 | 2022-11-04T13:37:37Z | 2022-11-04 13:37:37 | Gray isn’t just well-intentioned... while the world around Paul may want to move on from Johnny, we can’t. |
| 170278 | Sean Collier | Pittsburgh Magazine | Rotten | 5/10 | 2022-11-04T12:30:15Z | 2022-11-04 12:30:15 | Do its performers carry the weight? Absolutely. But is it worth seeing, and is there any explanation for why these shambling stories keep getting made? Nope. |
| 170279 | James Berardinelli | ReelViews | Rotten | 2.5/4 | 2022-11-04T11:16:45Z | 2022-11-04 11:16:45 | Some of the individual moments are impactful or effective at evoking nostalgia. But, as they say, the whole is less than the sum of the parts. |
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