By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3 cats
Director: James Gray
Starring: Anne Hathaway | Anthony Hopkins | Banks Repeta | Jaylin Webb | Jeremy Strong
Country: brazil, united_states
Year: 2022
Running time: 114
IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10343028/reference/
Chris says: “The latest from writer/director James Gray is almost nakedly autobiographical. His 11-year-old alter ego, Paul (Banks Repeta) lives in Queens, 1980 (as Gray did), the younger son of a middle-class Jewish-American family whose grandfather (Anthony Hopkins) arrived at Ellis Island near the turn of the 20th century. A would-be artist prone to daydreaming with little traditional work ethic in him, Paul befriends Johnny (Jaylin Webb), an African-American classmate who was left back the previous year and is barely tolerated by their public-school teacher. His friendship with Johnny doesn’t so much open up a new world for Paul as it gradually puts into perspective his own place in the world and how his race and class afford him privilege; meanwhile, his grandfather helps him to understand the complexities of bearing such privilege along with the moral and ethical implications at risk as a result.
“Gray gets the period look and feel exactly right but sometimes struggles with other details. Apart from Hopkins, Paul’s family can come off as stereotypical-verging-on-cartoonish (despite good work from Anne Hathaway and Jeremy Strong as his parents); the insertion of two real-life figures related to a former president also feels a little clumsy, reiterating the overall point by practically banging it into the ground. On the other hand, the film would fall apart without Repeta’s naturalistic performance; he’s certainly one of the more plausible 11-year-old film protagonists, itself a tough age to depict in that Paul is still an innocent child to a degree but also easily corruptible. Of the few Gray films I’ve seen (AD ASTRA, THE IMMIGRANT) this is somehow the most satisfying but also the most flawed; I repeatedly sensed that he’s just too close to the material even though it’s undeniably his story to tell. 3 cats