VIFF 2026 | Adam Driver and Miles Teller Sell 'Paper Tiger'

"Everyone is on the take all the time."

Neon / Elevation Pictures

VIFF 2026—Accomplished New York filmmaker and dramatist James Gray continues his vein of workmanlike but heartbreaking crime tragedies with his latest middle-class family drama, Paper Tiger. It stars Adam Driver and Miles Teller as troubled Jewish-American brothers in 1986 Queens, with a particularly emotional Scarlett Johansson as the latter's fierce (big-haired) wife.

Set in a time and place of upward mobility and strong immigrant communities, there's an undercurrent of aspiration and achievement that motivates the characters' actions to bite off more than they can chew. Gray excels in heightening the everyday drama and dangers of life while trying to provide for and protect your family. Things escalate quickly when Teller's family becomes targeted and terrorized by a ruthless Russian crime syndicate after Driver's ex-cop businessman gets entangled in their illegal dealings.

Gray's film is a series of moments and scenes of authentic family turmoil. Driver and Teller are excellent as contrasting but complementary siblings, with the latter raising two teenage brothers (Gavin Goudey and Roman Engel) of his own. However, Johansson's distracting sideplot feels like it's from an entirely different film with only the loosest of connections to the main criminal plot. Nonetheless, Paper Tiger pulls the right strings of its specific time and setting.

Paper Tiger screened at the 2026 Vancouver International Film Festival as part of the Special Presentations series at both the Vancouver Playhouse and Park Theatre.


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