Armageddon Time – 7

A portrait of the (superhero) artist as a young man, set in 1980 Queens instead of 1914 Dublin. Our hero is likable but not commendable, and the one we feel sympathy for is his Black friend, Johnny Davis. Paul’s family, notably Anne Hathaway and Jeremy Strong don’t mesh, but maybe that’s the way Paul saw them. Anthony Hopkins, as his saintly grandfather, is a bit predictable. I feel a little sorry for this great actor who is now reduced to playing old men who are dying or have dementia. This movie is a snapshot in time, not quite a bildungsroman; and if there’s a moral, it’s that to get ahead in life, a) you shouldn’t be Black and b) it helps if Fred Trump is your father.