Paper Tiger
A maestro of intimate familial epics that mine the country’s past through personal New York stories, James Gray (MVFF45 Tribute) once again dismantles the notion of the American Dream, telling a harrowing tale of derailed ambitions in his finest film to date. The year is 1986, and true to the materialistic fixations of the Reagan era, Irwin Pearl (a towering Miles Teller) dreams of a better life for his perfectly content Queens family. But he and his wife Linda (a career-best Scarlett Johansson) get more than they’ve bargained for with the shady business prospect masterminded by Irwin’s over-confident ex-cop brother Gary (Adam Driver in impeccable, larger-than-life form). Enter the ruthless Russian mafia, the Gowanus Canal, and a haunting, flawlessly calibrated tragedy that clutches the middle-class Pearls. Rooted in both Gray’s own novelistic oeuvre (Armageddon Time and Little Odessa especially come to mind), and the crime-thriller masterworks of the ‘70s, the quietly devastating Paper Tiger feels like a new classic. —Tomris Laffly
Director/s
James Gray
James Gray made his directorial debut in 1994 at age 25 with Little Odessa, winning the Night (2007), Two Lovers (2008), and The Immigrant (2013), three of which starred longtime collaborator Joaquin Phoenix and all of which screened in Competition at Cannes. His later work includes The Lost City of Z (2016), starring Charlie Hunnam and Robert Pattinson, and Ad Astra (2019), starring Brad Pitt, which premiered in Competition at Venice. Armageddon Time (2022), drawn from his own 1980s Queens childhood, premiered at Cannes in 2022. His latest film, Paper Tiger, starring Scarlett Johansson, Miles Teller, and Adam Driver, premiered in Competition at Cannes. Gray was born in New York City and studied at USC's School of Cinema-Television.
Expected Guests
JAMES GRAY: Director
In Conversation With: RIAN JOHNSON
Tickets
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