One of our favorite films of the 2022 Cannes Film Festival, writer/director James Gray’s new intimate drama, “Armageddon Time,” is getting dropped into awards season this year. Focus Features announced today that the film will open in limited release on October 28, 2022. The film will continue to expand domestically on November 4, 2022, and go nationwide on November 11, 2022.
“Armageddon Time” stars Anthony Hopkins, Jeremy Strong, Anne Hathaway, Banks Repeta, Jaylin Webb, Tovah Feldshuh, John Diehl, Andrew Polk, and Ryan Sell. The film is a coming of age film, or rather, perhaps a loss of innocence movie, about a young boy (Repeta) and his best friend (Webb), and how his move to a private school away from his friend opens his eyes to his privilege and the inherent unfairness of the world. Strong and Hathaway play his father and his mother, and Hopkins plays his wise and empathetic grandfather.
To paraphrase our review from Cannes, Gray ventured into deep space with “Ad Astra,” quested into the dark, mysterious jungles of the Amazon with “The Lost City Of Z,” only to reach the same conclusions about the dark heart of humanity. Perhaps with this awareness, with “Armageddon Time,” he returned to his New York City roots, and perhaps what we could call a return to the emotional scene of the crime to explore and excavate autobiographical elements of his own youth and moving to a private school in Queens, New York that was connected to the wealthy and affluent Trump family.
Here’s the official synopsis:
From acclaimed filmmaker James Gray, ARMAGEDDON TIME is a deeply personal coming-of-age story about the strength of family and the generational pursuit of the American Dream.
ARMAGEDDON TIME, written and directed by James Gray, stars Anthony Hopkins, Jeremy Strong, Anne Hathaway, Banks Repeta, Jaylin Webb, Tovah Feldshuh, John Diehl, Andrew Polk, and Ryan Sell. Producers on the project are Anthony Katagas via his Keep Your Head banner, Marc Butan via his MadRiver Pictures banner, and Rodrigo Teixeira via his RT Features banner. The film is executive produced by Lourenço Sant’anna, Alan Terpins, Marco Tulio Kehdi, Prodigo Films’ Francisco Civita and Beto Gauss, Gustavo Debs.
With a late October date, it’s very possible that “Armageddon Time” will also play at the Toronto International Film Festival and the New York Film Festival, both of which take place in September. There’s no trailer for the film yet, but with the date set and fall awards season trailers like “Amsterdam” already out, it may not be too far behind.