Paper Tiger: A Brutal Ballet of Family and Crime

James Gray’s Cannes competition entry Paper Tiger fuses a bruising, operatic crime thriller with a sharp domestic drama set in 1980s Queens. Led by Adam Driver’s magnetic Uncle Gary, who pulls his brother Irwin and his family into a dangerous Russian mob scheme, the film pairs Johansson’s fierce, fear-haunted performance with Miles Teller’s conflicted portrayal of a man drawn toward peril. The story’s momentum crescendos from a tense family ruse to a chilling confrontation with violence, underpinned by a haunting score and precise craft, and grounded by a sobering meditation on wealth, power, and the costs of chasing the American Dream.