Paper Tiger - Review
LFF Special
Gray’s ode to the 1980s crime genre brilliantly captures the gritty New York feeling, whilst also exploring his roots to tell a story about family, trauma and religious upbringing.
Directed by James Gray, Running Time 115 mins, Distributed by Neon
Review by Mitch Bailey
When Gary Pearl (Adam Driver) arrives at the family home of his brother Irwin (Miles Teller), there’s an immediate sense of power imbalance and jealousy. Gary, former police officer and recent divorcee, holds himself with gravitas and purpose, dominating every space he enters. Irwin’s children look up to Gary in a way only he can only dream about. It’s the fundamentals of this sibling relationship that drive the film forward and send Irwin and his family into uncharted waters. Adam Driver understands the assignment here; he carries Paper Tiger with his utterly brilliant performance, as he and his brother dive into the criminal underbelly of 1980s New York.
James Gray uses Paper Tiger as another opportunity to tap into his own life experience; the director, hailing from Flushing, Queens, mirroring his own Russian-Jewish heritage within the central plot, pitting his own kind against each other in the name of organised crime. Teller’s character Irwin and his wife Hester (Scarlett Johansson) are both upstanding citizens, the latter being very much a maternal figure. Johansson’s performance gets lost within the weeds, mainly due to the focal point of the film remaining with the central conflict. Gray’s filmic influences are laid bare as the plot delves deeper into its core, movies such as The French Connection and Cronenberg’s Eastern Promises the obvious comparisons. In terms of cinematography Paper Tiger is a looker, shot in 35mm to really enhance the believability of the time period. Combined with the added film grain, the film is visually stunning and nails the seedy look Gray is aiming for.
But the aforementioned performance by Adam Driver is what really makes Paper Tiger a knockout. His bravado and ability to sweet talk even the shadiest of crooks makes for such an entertaining watch. At the beginning of the film, we see Gary (Driver) offering his brother a construction job so inviting and potentially life changing for him and his family, there’s no chance of turning away an opportunity of the like. What Gary fails to mention to his infatuated sibling is that said opportunity involves brushing shoulders with the Russian Mafia, a stipulation that leads Irwin and his sons unintentionally into grave danger. As the film progresses, we see Driver’s mask slip, his confidence dwindle, and his guilt taking him to desperate places. It’s a performance that stands out within Adam Driver’s filmography, one that shows an ability to command the screen quite unlike anything we’ve seen from the actor before. His crowning moment can be seen towards the end of the film, in what is one of the most tense and gripping shootouts in recent memory. It’s a scene that has to be seen and really taken in - words aren’t really fitting for just how breathtaking it is. If this year didn't have such a strong selection of Best Actor candidates, his appearance as a nominee really wouldn’t be out of place.
