Among his contemporaries, James Gray is the American director who most delicately captures the American landscape and its emotional textures. Like his previous film, Armageddon Time (2022), his latest work draws on autobiographical material, but while the former took the form of a drama, Paper Tiger leans closer to noir. Is Gray seeking to explore the two faces of family? In 1980s New York, electrical engineer Irwin becomes entangled with the Russian mafia after joining a river cleanup project proposed by his brother Gary, a former police officer. The film portrays ordinary relationships and ordinary desires in utterly ordinary terms yet shapes them through words and gestures of extraordinary elegance, carrying forward the great tradition of American cinema. Watching the fractured play of light and shadow, the intersecting trajectories and inner lives of its characters, and above all the ensemble performances of Miles Teller, Adam Driver, and Scarlett Johansson – who move between restraint and eruption – one comes to realize that noir is, above all, a beautiful lyrical poem.
Born in New York City, USA. Gray graduated from the University of Southern California School of Cinema-Television. His feature debut, Little Odessa (1994), made at the age of 25, was critically acclaimed, winning the Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival and the Critics Award at the Deauville Film Festival, among other honors. He went on to direct The Yards (2000), We Own the Night (2007), Two Lovers (2008), The Immigrant (2013), and Armageddon Time (2022), all of which were invited to the Cannes Film Festival. His latest film, Paper Tiger, is also an official selection in the Competition section of the Cannes Film Festival.
From Busan International Film Festival 2026, No. 31
