Paper Tiger review – Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson reunite for heavyweight James Gray saga

Cannes film festival: The Marriage Story stars team up with Miles Teller for this sombre and impressive story of shady dealings in 80s New York With this muscular, heartfelt and sombre new picture set in 1980s New York, James Gray again resurrects the spirit of Elia Kazan in a blue-collar tragedy of fraternal loyalty and betrayal; a movie about men and their horror of appearing weak and failing to protect their families. Paper Tiger has that distinctive Gray colour palette: a perpetual late-afternoon autumn of subdued ochres, reds and browns. And there are his keynote family supper scenes, the characteristic presence of the Russian community in New York, and the potent, tribal codes of the NYPD: part mob, part trade union, part masonic clan whose membership responsibilities and perks go on well after retirement. Adam Driver, Scarlett Johansson and Miles Teller give weighted, intelligent performances at the film’s centre: all three characters, in their different ways, have Springsteenian hungry hearts. Teller is Irwin Pearl, a modest, working-class guy who is a qualified engineer in Queens, doing well at his trade but still concerned about paying for his teen sons’ – Scott (Ga

May 17, 2026 → May 17, 2026