James Gray's Paper Tiger opens in select theaters November 13 through Neon, with a nationwide expansion on November 20. The film is set in 1986 Queens and follows two brothers whose lives unravel after a single bad decision.
Adam Driver plays Gary Pearl, a former NYPD detective with shady business connections. Miles Teller plays Irwin Pearl, Gary's brother, an engineer who takes a consulting job Gary arranges with some Russian businessmen near the Gowanus Canal. What starts as a favor pulls the family into something they cannot escape. Scarlett Johansson plays Hester, Irwin's wife.
Gray has cited Alfred Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956) as an influence, according to Den of Geek, which gave the film five out of five stars and called it "a waking nightmare about suburban folks who enter a world they can never hope to understand." Den of Geek also described Johansson's performance as "some of the finest acting in her career."
Paper Tiger premiered at Cannes this May, where it received a seven-minute standing ovation, according to The Playlist. It then opened the 64th New York Film Festival in September. The film currently holds 85 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. For Driver and Johansson, it marks their first collaboration since Noah Baumbach's Marriage Story in 2019.
Neon is positioning Paper Tiger as its central awards contender this fall. The 114-minute film opens in limited markets Friday before going wide November 20.