Armageddon Time is about a young Jewish boy living in 1980 New York in which we navigates his family, his friends, and his school. He makes friends with a young black boy in his class and he learns lessons about who he and his family are and how institutions around him work.

There are themes running in and out of the film but it never really commits. I’d say mainly it’s about coming to grips with racism, both in terms of his family history and how that reflects in the present day. But I think it just kind of vaguely hovers around these themes without really committing. Maybe because it has so very little pep or life to it. It feels like these events should be more meaningful but mostly the movie just plods from event to event without much feeling.

I guess I can give credit to not over-dramatizing anything (and for kind of making the kid out to be a little jerk at times). But there’s a fine line between not glamorizing these events and showing too little passion that the movie just bogs down. I shouldn’t have shrugged with indifference at the end. Surely this was a passionate, meaningful story to the director… I just wish he showed it in the product.

The movie wasn’t dull or stupid though… I was semi-engaged, wondering where its loose story threads were going. And I kept wondering. The flick is well-made and well-cast. I like the actors even if I wish they were more active, engaging, or charismatic.

For some, maybe this is their childhood and/or reaches them on a soulful level. For me, I was looking for any kind of life and engagement… something to chew on and think about or something that was thrilling or sweet. Its coming-of-age understanding of racism seemed kind of disengaged. This flick just didn’t work for me.

Score: 72