Paper Tiger opens in theaters November 13.
With Paper Tiger, director James Gray returns to a milieu familiar from his first three movies – Little Odessa, The Yards, and We Own the Night – and delivers one of his strongest films in years.
At the heart of this slow burn crime drama – set in Queens, New York in 1986 – are two brothers, family man Irwin Pearl (Miles Teller) and his older brother Gary (Adam Driver), a swaggering former cop who comes to his younger sibling with a business proposition. Utilizing his ties to City Hall, Gary wants to launch a consulting firm offering their services to recently arrived Russian immigrants who have started a clean-up firm for the polluted Gowanus Canal.
Gary, the wheeler-dealer, would get the Russians hooked up with his connections while straight-shooter Irwin, an engineer, would advise them on how to keep the operation up to code. With Gary being bled dry in a divorce and Irwin considering his eldest son’s looming college tuition, this business venture seems like a win-win for both brothers. Unfortunately, these Russians are actually a mob front.
