![]() He tells Paul about his own mother, who was a teenager when Cossacks killed her parents because they were Jewish. A mensch always stands up for those who are being abused. Paul’s grandfather tells him that he must be “a mensch,” a person of integrity and character. On Paul’s first day, Fred Trump sits in the audience as then US Attorney Maryanne Trump ( Jessica Chastain) lectures the students on ambition and achievement. It's where Fred Trump sent his children, future judge Maryanne, and future President Donald. Paul’s parents switch him to a private school, the posh Kew-Forrest. The next week they escape a school field trip and have a blissful day in Manhattan. They bond over both getting in trouble on the first day, Paul for drawing a caricature of the teacher, Johnny for being disrespectful to the teacher who constantly belittles him. He is Johnny Davis ( Jaylin Webb), the only Black student in his class, bigger than the other kids because he is repeating the sixth grade. Paul overhears his parents say he is not as smart as his brother and will not have the same opportunities for what they most want for their sons, “a seat at the table.” But his grandfather encourages his dreams. But his grandfather gives him a set of grown-up paints. When Paul tells his parents he wants to be an artist, they tell him he has to do something less risky. They adore each other, and Paul considers him his greatest ally and wisest advisor. He spends a lot of time with his supportive grandfather ( Anthony Hopkins). Paul lives with his parents and older brother. As in another autobiographical memory movie about schoolboys, Louis Malle’s “Au Revoir Les Enfants,” “Armageddon Time” is the story of childhood innocence as remembered with regret and a sense of responsibility, with adult recognition of history’s vilest bigotries and injustices ![]() And like many other stories about 11 to 12-year-olds, from Dorothy in “A Wizard of Oz” and Riley in “ Outside In” to Harry Potter and Tom Sawyer, these last moments of childhood are opportunities to explore the ineffable tenderness of the time when the world seems filled with endless possibilities when we are just beginning to discover how much of it is also filled with complications, disappointment, and loss. Like “ Aftersun” this is a movie by an adult bringing a deeper understanding to memories of the past. These awakenings punctuate Paul’s other awakenings, some he recognizes at the time, some seen only in retrospect by writer/director James Gray, who based “Armageddon Time” on his own experiences.
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