How a melancholy moment in ‘Armageddon Time’ signals things to come

“In some ways, it’s one of the sadder scenes,” writer-director James Gray says of a heavy sequence between Grandpa Aaron and his grandson Paul, who are attempting to launch a rocket in a New York City park. “Armageddon Time” is a personal story for Gray, an autobiographical melodrama exploring societal issues circa 1980s through the lens of an 11-year-old self. “We can tell the grandfather is not going to live very long, and maybe the boy doesn’t understand that, but we do,” Gray says. The boy is blind to the loss he will feel, but maybe that’s a good thing because it protects him in that moment.