PAPER TIGER Trailer: James Gray’s Stunning Crime Thriller Arrives in November
After diving into his childhood in his 2022 coming-of-age drama Armageddon Time, writer-director James Gray isn’t done going back in time to his NYC roots. Having premiered at this year’s Cannes and set as the Opening Night film for this year’s NYFF, his newest crime thriller Paper Tiger took critics and audiences by storm with a tragic tale of two brothers (Adam Driver and Miles Teller) in 1980s Brooklyn and Queens trying to achieve the “American Dream”, but soon end up getting involved in a Russian mafia scheme. Scarlett Johansson also stars as Teller’s wife, who gets caught in the crossfire along with their kids. Gray also reunites with his We Own the Night and Two Lovers cinematographer Joaquín Baca-Asay, who shot the film in vintage 35mm. With a November 13 release set, NEON has released the new official trailer.
Here is NYFF’s official synopsis of the film:
The gripping, exquisitely foreboding dramas of James Gray reside in the dark space between the American dream and gutting reality. His brilliant new thriller, set in 1986 Queens and Brooklyn, is an authentically drawn New York story and a master class in escalating tension, charting the tragic domestic fallout after family man and engineer Irwin (Miles Teller), who aspires to middle-class comforts, is pulled into a shady deal by his brother, Gary (Adam Driver), a former NYPD cop. Gary thinks he can make a killing on a scheme with Russian criminals dumping oil down by the Gowanus Canal, assisting them to work around regulations; instead Gary ends up endangering his brother, as well as Irwin’s sons (Gavin Goudey and Roman Engel) and wife Hester (Scarlett Johansson), who is going through her own private crisis. Torn between brotherly love and marital loyalty, Irwin discovers he’s ensnared in forces far beyond his control. With its vivid period detail and marvelous, deeply moving trio of lead performances, Paper Tiger is a frightening portrait of pollution in all forms—and the human bonds that can save us from the brink of despair.
See the trailer and poster below.
