ARMAGEDDON TIME AND INVENTORY - CAMBRIDGE FILM FESTIVAL
Has the ‘coming of age’ movie, come of age? It is an oft used phrase to describe so many films and surely has lost some of its mojo. In James Gray’s new movie our adult manqué is a New York grade sixer. That means that Paul is around 11 or 12 years old, on the cusp of adolescence and something of the proto adult he will shortly become. In what is a scarcely concealed autobiopic, Gray’s film is set in the Queens borough of NYC in 1980. Reagan is about to be elected for the first time, cars are still huge gas guzzlers, specs are large and jumpers striped. We encounter Paul dreamily drawing then distributing to his classmates a comical caricature of his teacher Mr Turkeltaub. Behind an angelically innocent face, the lad is strong-willed rebel who has the backbone to own up to being the artist.
There follows a movie in which it is clear that Paul (aka James Gray) has either already come of age or that goal will never be reached. The tensions faced by the young lad (superbly played by Bank Repeta) are not far removed from those many years older: the consequences we face by standing up to what we believe, the world of covert and not so covert racism - Paul’s best mate is Johnny, a poor black kid who is co-conspirator in a variety of capers. Played with extraordinary confidence by Jaylin Webb, Johnny is the dialectic opposite of Paul’s trajectory in life. Johnny has dreams that will never be fulfilled (astronaut at NASA) whilst Paul’s hopes to become an artist, against all family pressures, are likely to get there.
The movie is a complex web of relationships including a very warm (if slightly clichéd) one between Paul and his kindly granddad (nicely and deliberately underplayed by Anthony Hopkins). Parental ambitions (private school, ‘getting a good job’) clash with Paul’s boyish determination to find a world that makes sense to him. Only art does that. But who cares about art?
Shot in a very washed-out 80s hue with the very familiar cinematic trope of TV broadcasts showing us key historical moments (Reagan’s rise), Gray creates a highly believable world. We catch a glimpse of Donald Trump’s father and sister and we see a foretaste of populist politics not yet come of age. Above we see what colours mix in Gray’s own life palette, but surely an unfinished work?
This movie captures a time extremely convincingly and reminds us that ‘coming of age’ is a process that perhaps takes a whole life to achieve; if ever.
The Slovenian film, Inventory, is described as a ‘psychological thriller’. It certainly is psychological but offers few if any thrills. It is a slow-cooking stew of Kafkaesque darkness based around a seemingly simple narrative. Our middle-aged hero, Boris (it is not he) leads a rather dull and prosaic life with his wife Alenka. Dull that is until someone takes a pot shot at him through his kitchen window. There follows an attempt by the said Boris to circumvent the clueless cops and find for himself both the attempted killer and any possible motive for wanting to snuff out such a mundane and harmless life. Rados Bolcina has the perfectly creased face for a man increasingly tormented by two questions: who and why? Paranoia creeps and family tensions mount. The movie is mildly amusing and the long takes (innumerable close ups of Boris’ puzzled and troubled face) give the whole thing a rather elegiac feel. A promising debut feature by Darko Sinko, the tortoise pace of the film is not for everyone and if you are not expecting to be thrilled, the psychology makes the movie worthwhile.
www.cambridgefilmfestival.org.uk
