Armageddon Time: dir James Gray (2022)

James Gray’s deeply personal coming-of-age tale, set in 1980s New York, boasts fine performances from Anne Hathaway and Jeremy Strong as the parents and Anthony Hopkins dispensing twinkly grandfatherly wisdom – and, as a sixth-grader making his way through school and life, the impressive newcomer Banks Repeta. It’s an in-between world, on the brink of the hip-hop and Reaganism but also rooted in the past and especially in the family’s Jewish history. Gray’s film is beautifully imagined, shot with intimate naturalism by Darius Khondji and suffused in a period tobacco-coloured murkiness; it’s perceptive and humane, elevating the smallest moments into the greatest drama. Recommended.