PLOT: In 1987 New York City, two brothers (Adam Driver and Miles Teller) think they have stumbled upon a business opportunity that will change their lives, only to discover they’ve inadvertently gotten into bed with the Russian mob and are now saddled with a crushing debt they can never repay.
REVIEW: It’s been said before, but had James Gray been making films in the seventies, he would be considered on the same level as Martin Scorsese or William Friedkin. Among contemporary directors, he’s the only one who consistently makes movies that would stack up against the finest films of the “New Hollywood” generation, and Paper Tiger is perhaps his strongest film — which is high praise, as some of his films have been truly remarkable.
It feels very much in the mode of his first film, Little Odessa, as well as his studio-backed crime flick We Own the Night, with it once again examining the human toll entanglement with the mob takes — although Paper Tiger might be the most tragic yet. Adam Driver and Miles Teller play brothers, each of whom is doing well in their own way. Teller’s Irwin is an engineer living with his adoring wife, Hester (Scarlett Johansson), and two teenage sons. By contrast, Adam Driver’s Gary leads a more glamorous life.
A celebrated former NYPD detective, he’s parlayed his connections into a security firm that’s so successful he’s able to have Peter Luger cater a meal for Irwin’s family. Wanting to share the wealth, he thinks he’s stumbled upon a gold mine, with new Russian émigrés needing an experienced engineer to help them clean up Brooklyn’s Gowanus Canal so it can be gentrified. The movie takes place in 1987, at a time when the Russian mob was relatively new stateside, and Gary is willfully ignorant to the fact that their money is likely behind the whole scheme. One night, Irwin, who brings his two boys with him, decides to run a quick inspection on the canal, only to be noticed seeing something he shouldn’t — leading to the mob deciding he now owes them a huge sum of money he can’t possibly pay. But what they really want is to get their claws into Gary, who they know has the connections that can expand their reach.
The film then follows the brothers as they try to do whatever they can to get out of debt, with the mob growing increasingly violent as they threaten Irwin’s family. As if that weren’t enough, Hester, in the middle of all this chaos, discovers she’s terminally ill and likely only has months to live.
Paper Tiger is a truly affecting mix of family drama and crime thriller, with the tension ramped up so high at times I was digging my nails into the armrests of my seat. You become very invested in Irwin and Hester and don’t want anything bad to happen to them, and a sequence where thugs break into their house as they sleep is unnervingly shot in how quiet it is.
All involved deliver performances that rank among their career best. Teller vanishes into the role of Irwin, a nice-guy family man who means well but — as his brother says — “lacks street smarts.” He wants to prove to his family he can give them the lives they dream of, only to realize too late that “they already had it all.” Johansson, likewise, breaks your heart as the selfless Hester, who hides her diagnosis amid the family drama, not wanting to further upset her already traumatized family as she tries to find her own way to dig them out — only inadvertently getting them in even deeper.
But the best of all is Adam Driver, who brilliantly plays the kind of role someone like Al Pacino would have played in his prime. A swaggering gadfly of an ex-cop, he’s loved by everyone, and his charisma and connections are exactly what make him so attractive to the mob. But he’s so honest that being under the thumb of the mob is something he can’t fathom. At the same time, a generation of dealing with the Italian mafia has given him the mistaken impression that he knows how to deal with organized crime, only to realize too late how far their reach is and the depths they’ll go to.
While mostly a crime drama, Gray also peppers in a couple of cool action beats, all of which are shot in a matter-of-fact style similar to We Own the Night. It helps that Driver, at 6’3”, is an imposing guy, so when he lays a beating on some thugs with a leather belt, you buy it.
Gray truly is a master at this kind of movie, with it feeling very much like a darker sequel to his last film, Armageddon Time. I believe this was actually the intention, only for availability issues to prompt some recasting and a switch in direction, but seeing the performances of all involved here, one can’t help but think everything turned out for the best. The ‘80s milieu is recreated without being too over the top. It actually looks like a movie that might have been made in 1987, with perhaps the only period-dating detail being Irwin’s unfortunate preference for “Members Only” jackets.
Paper Tiger made its premiere here at Cannes and has already been snapped up for distribution by Neon. Hopefully the studio gives it an awards run, as Gray’s movies have been ignored for too long. They are consistently outstanding, and this might be his finest work yet. It’s excellent.
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