For his last film, American writer/director James Gray put Brad Pitt in space in 2019’s Ad Astra.

Having encountered a fair amount of chilliness from that experience, gray returns to terra firma for his latest, albeit with a little time travel thrown in for good measure, with his family drama set in the early eighties.

Setting off on his first day of sixth grade is Paul (Banks Repeta). He lives in Queens with his mom (Anne Hathaway) and dad (Jeremy Strong) and his older brother Ted (Ryan Sell), as well as have an extended family that often visits, including his grandpa Aaron (Anthony Hopkins).

He manages to make a friend on his first day, Johnny (Jaylin Webb), who also happens to be the only black kid in the class, and one of the few in the school as a whole.

It is a friendship that will make a long-lasting impression on Paul, as he begins his journey into his very formative years.

On the surface at least, this comes across as a homage to some of Woody Allen’s work centred around family, featuring as it does a Jewish family in NYC. Unfortunately it lacks the warmth and humour of Allen, so it’s no surprise it also attempts to dig a little deeper than that.

It’s not only a look at friendship, but also an examination of race. It also explores both the importance of family and heritage, especially through Hopkins' character. And if that wasn’t enough, Gray is also keen to put his film in context against the change in politics, with an actor turned politician making headway to the White House.

All this whilst still attempting to be a coming of age story.

And that’s the film’s main problem, in trying to be too many things at once. In doing so, Gray doesn’t really do any one element justice, with the film suffering overall because of it.

Which is a real shame as he has a solid cast here, that with stronger material, could have been onto something.

The film is also hindered by an underwhelming performance by its young lead Repeta; we’ve said time and again how difficult it must be to find such impressive talent for these type of films, and Repeta sadly illustrates that point perfectly, as he’s just ill equipped so early in his career to deal with the emotional weight of the role.

If Gray focused more on one or two elements, there was a chance that his film could have had some kind of impact, but as it stands, it’s certainly not a film you’d save in your collection for the end of the world.