ARMAGEDDON TIME (James Gray 2022) - NYFF

[Chris Knipp]

The French critics liked ARMAGEDDON TIME (out in Paris cinemas today, Wed. Nov. 16, 2022) generally better than the American ones. The AlloCiné press rating is 4.4 (88%). Here, translated, are a few of the many raves excerpted in AlloCiné.

Les Fiches du Cinéma
by Nicolas Marcadé
James Gray takes a direct but uncompromising detour through autobiography to engage in a joint psychoanalysis of himself and society. A brilliant exercise in the interweaving of political theory and novelistic practice.

Le Figaro
by Eric Neuhoff
With Armageddon Time, James Gray has succeeded in making a cocktail of The 400 Blows and Au Revoir les Enfants. He is a Nouvelle Vague all by himself.

Ecran Large
by Antoine Desrues
Far from being a minor film in James Gray's career, Armageddon Time is a series of devastatingly effective portraits, a world-film whose limpidity hides its multiple levels of interpretation. A moving film.

Marie Claire
by Emily Barnett
A moving ode to the art of finding one's way, by a connoisseur of the human soul.

Le Dauphiné Libéré
by Nathalie Chifflet
James Gray films the end of childhood as the loss of innocence. He is not the first, but we believe in it thanks to Banks Repeta, a highly gifted young actor.

GQ
by Adam Sanchez
Although its title suggests otherwise, Armageddon Time is a modest film, sweeping aside the nostalgia of this genre to install a haunting emotion.