PAPER TIGER
(director/writer: James Gray; cinematographer: Joaquin Baca Asay; editor: Scott Morris; music: Christopher Spelman; cast: Miles Teller (Irwin Pearl), Adam Driver (Gary Pearl), Scarlett Johansson (Hester Pearl), Gavin Goudey (Scott Pearl), Roman Engel (Benjamin Pearl), Cindy Katz (Iris Belfer), Yavor Vesselinov (Alexi Yunov), Victor Ptak (Semion Bogoyavich), Dimiter D. Marinov (Marinov Daniil), Roman Blat (Konstatin), Patrick Murney (Bureau Chief Robert Bloom); Runtime: 115; MPAA Rating: R; producers: James Gray, Rodrigo Teixeira, Anthony Katagas, Raffaella Leone, Andrea Leone, Marco Perego, Leonardo Maria del Vecchio, Gary Farkas, Carlo Salem, Andrea Bucko; Neon; 2026)
“A crime drama about two brothers living out the American Dream in different ways.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
A crime drama about two brothers living out the American Dream in different ways. It’s set in Queens, NY, in 1986, and is written and directed by James Gray (“The Yards”/”Little Odessa”).
The mild-mannered, nervous, working-class engineer, Irwin Pearl (Miles Teller) and his bespectacled homemaker wife Hester (Scarlett Johansson) and their teenage sons, the 18-year-old Gavin Goudey) and the younger Ben (Roman Engel), live modestly in Queens but are looking to move to the wealthier community of Great Neck and are concerned about affording to send their kids to a good college.
The boys admire their fast-talking divorced Uncle Adam (Adam Driver), a charming but sleazy former NYC cop, with City Hall connections, who is now a business owner. He visits the family and offers his younger brother a risky business deal with shady Russian businessmen connected to the Russian mob, who he refers to as ‘paper tigers.’ He wants to use Irwin’s engineering skills on his consulting deal with the Russians over a project to clean-up the Gowanus Canal, and offers him $10,000 to get involved and more when the deal concludes. The Russian mob is led by the treacherous Bogoyavich (Victor Ptak), and things get testy when the mob and Adam clash when things turn sour.
The atmospheric film with good set pieces covers familiar ground and is a solid film that’s well-acted by a hyper Driver. The entertaining film is good but without reaching greatness because its storytelling falls short.
It played at the Cannes Film Festival.
REVIEWED ON 10/2/2026 GRADE: B
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