Paper Tiger
2026

Paper Tiger

Persuasive Gary talks his younger engineer brother Irwin into jointly bidding for an urban renewal project. Irwin’s naivety sparks a violent spiral from their Russian silent partners. Adam Driver, Scarlett Johansson and Miles Teller give great nuance to this thriller of a suburban family’s complicated aspirations to hit pay dirt.

Director

James Gray

Runtime

115 Minutes

Country

United States

Classification

Unclassified 15+

Running a modest engineering business, Irwin’s (Teller) only real worry is how to pay for his teenage sons’ college education. Irwin’s smooth older brother Gary (Driver) has been the family success story and is now turning his stellar police reputation into a career in private enterprise. Gary talks his young brother into combining their skills into a lucrative urban regenerative project. Initially reluctant, Irwin’s eventual enthusiasm to be part of something bigger sets off a chain of events with the potential to lead them all into ruin. Both supporting and challenging Irwin through all of this is his wife Hester (Johansson), a fierce Jewish mother destined to become a side story in her own crises. Reminiscent of the great American mid-century dramas, Paper Tiger pits a 1980s aspirational suburban New York family against the Russian mob. Stellar performances from Adam Driver, Scarlett Johansson and Miles Teller turns what could have been a too familiar confrontation into a gripping thriller centred on brotherhood – its comforts, its limitations and its time-honoured potential for betrayal.

“It’s a meaty drama with big scenes and big but carefully considered performances: a really substantial piece of work from Gray.”

The Guardian

“James Gray’s ninth feature finds him returning to the milieu of his early pictures, delivering a textured crime drama involving Russian mobsters and a dysfunctional Queens family.”

Screen Daily

Cannes

Sydney

New York

Film Credits

Director

James Gray

Year

2026

Country

United States

Language

English

Type

Feature Fiction

Program Strand

Special Presentations

Producer

Victoria Castelli

Writer

James Gray

Cinematographer

Joaquín Baca-Asay

Editor

Scott Morris

Cast

Adam DriverMiles Teller & Scarlett Johansson

Music

Christopher Spelman

Genre

CrimeDrama & Suspense

Purchase Tickets