PAPER TIGER (NYFF 2026) – Review by Diane Carson
Paper Tiger charts the shattering of a 1986 Queens, NY, family
In director James Gray’s Paper Tiger a get rich quick scheme tears a Jewish family apart in 1986 Queens, New York. Ex-NYPD cop Gary Pearl and his brother Irwin, an engineer, husband and father, become involved with Russian operatives. Quickly becoming a nightmare, it begins as a beneficial financial agreement to follow federal regulations in disposal of oil drums containing toxic waste at the Gowanus Canal. When the Russian criminals opt for illegal dumping, which they always intended, the entire Pearl family, including Irwin’s two sons, become a threat to be intimidated into capitulation or eliminated. Escalating tension comes not from the totally predictable, incremental descent into tragedy but from the fine performances by Adam Driver as Gary, Miles Teller as Irwin, and Scarlett Johansson as Irwin’s wife Hester.
In their pas-de-deux, Gary and Irwin interact with the abiding love and mutual exasperation of bonded but very different brothers, each with a distinctive personality. Gary is the well-dressed, somewhat mysterious, cool uncle, albeit tragically myopic. Irwin is the hard-working family man easily tempted by the somewhat overbearing, but to all appearances successful, Gary. Nicely particularized, each of the Pearls faces a challenge. For her part, Hester suffers from headaches and double vision, though, metaphorically, none of the Pearls really see clearly. Also ensnared in the monetary scheme, eighteen-year-old Scott (Gavin Goudey) and younger Ben (Roman Engel) become unexpectedly and accidentally endangered in the evolving crises. They must fight the total terror inflicted on them by Irwin’s naive questions and foolish actions. No spoilers here, but the first of those scenes, a nighttime visit to the Canal, is particularly unnerving, the dingy, dark and ugly Gowanus cleanup site a visual representation of the felonious undertaking. Other locations also speak volumes, particularly the mob boss’s luxurious living room and a spacious ballroom juxtaposed with the Pearls’ compact, and soon unsafe, home.
Technically, the contrasting, detailed Queens and South Brooklyn environments add authenticity to that mid-1980s period. Happy Massee’s production design for Irwin’s middle-class home invokes a nostalgia for anyone who remembers or idealizes those years and places. Emphasizing that, cinematographer Joaquin Baca-Asay’s low-key, warm tungsten lighting establishes a “home,” not just a house, intensifying the sense of profound violation as events develop. But missing an opportunity for more evocative, nuanced interaction, all the Russian mafia members telegraph their villainy. Elaboration of the Slavic Russian group would have more directly connected with and emphasized the title, as Gray explained at a press conference. Applying a 14th century Chinese idiom, in 1946 and again in 1956 Chinese Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong referred to the U.S. as a paper tiger, projecting itself as fierce but actually quite weak. Applying that idea, Gary disastrously dismisses the Russians as paper tigers. Gray says he meant it as particularly ironic, quite apt since in 1986 the Soviet Union was headed toward widespread collapse.
Gary’s myopic assessment will be the catalyst for catastrophe in the pursuit of easy money. Commenting at Cannes on the theme of greed and lost integrity, Gray said, “I don’t think the American dream is total nonsense, and every country needs a myth to drive it forward. But if it’s only about making money, it dissolves.” He added, “What happens to our souls?” For Paper Tiger, at the press conference, Adam Drive concurred, knowing that “every choice for Gary is based on his love for his brother.” And yet, considering the moral failure in that scenario, Gray warns of the existential danger when greed intrudes. Paper Tiger premiered at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival and the New York Film Festival chose Paper Tiger for its opening night film. Paper Tiger opens at cinemas November 13.
