“Armageddon Time” (M) **

THE dramatic thread of writer/director James Gray’s film doesn’t really bind its core themes of family, friendship’s complexity and the American Dream to its playing out between middle-class, white schoolboy on this hand, working class, indeed, neglected Afro-American schoolboy on the other.

In 1980, the Graff family has settled into the challenges of life in their new New York home. The youngest of the family, Paul (Banks Repeta) starting a new school year faces challenges to his artistic proclivities when he befriends apparently troubled Johnny (Jaylin Webb).

Paul finds comfort in Johnny’s free spirit and shares a bond with him like he’s never felt before. The pair dream big and plan adventures that result in unfortunate truths about life and its inequities.

The film’s emotional heart and soul resides in Paul’s grandfather Aaron (Anthony Hopkins) as much as his character does for the family. Inevitably, Aaron doesn’t have much time left. Yet, his presence doesn’t give the film much to say about privilege in the context of racial, economical and social differences.

That leaves it to Paul and Johnny to carry the film’s emotional and dramatic weight. At the time of filming, both had yet to enter the biological minefield of puberty. On first sighting Repeta, I thought: “This is a potentially attractive young woman”. I wait to see what changes time will bring as he negotiates the minefield of body and spirit that every boy at that age must face. Armageddon indeed.

At Dendy, Palace Electric