Queens, 1986. Irwin (Miles Teller), an engineer and devoted family man, is trying to secure a modest piece of the American dream. His brother Gary (Adam Driver), a former cop with bigger appetites and fewer scruples, arrives with an opportunity that sounds almost too good to refuse: a lucrative scheme involving Russian mobsters and the industrial waterways of Brooklyn. What begins as a shortcut to prosperity soon threatens everything Irwin has built, including his marriage to Hester (Scarlett Johansson).

Returning to the New York neighbourhoods that have shaped so much of his cinema, James Gray turns the machinery of a crime thriller into an intimate study of family obligation and moral compromise. The tension grows not only from the danger outside the home, but from the choices made inside it, where loyalty can be both a refuge and a trap. Atmospheric, intimate and quietly devastating, Paper Tiger asks how far ordinary people will go to protect a better future — and what they are willing to sacrifice along the way.

Film information

Year: 2026
Country: United States
Runtime: 115 minutes
Language: English

Cast & Crew

Director: James Gray
Screenplay: James Gray
Producer: James Gray, Rodrigo Teixeira, Anthony Katagas, Raffaella Leone, Andrea Leone, Marco Perego, Leonardo Maria Del Vecchio, Gary Farkas, Carlo Salem, Andrea Bucko
Executive Producer: Lee Broda, Jeff Rice, Riccardo Maddalosso, Emily Hunter Salveson
Cast: Adam Driver, Scarlett Johansson, Miles Teller
Cinematography: Joaquín Baca-Asay
Editing: Scott Morris
Production Designer: Happy Massee
Costume Designer: Amy Roth
Sound: Dane Lonsdale, Robert Hein, Josh Berger
Original Score: Christopher Spelman
Production Company: RT Features, Leone Film Group