Cannes 2026: Paper Tiger: the relative nuances of James Gray (review)
The American, a competitive convict, returns to his first love and signs a New York and mafia tragedy around two brothers. With Adam Driver and Miles Teller.
Agamemnon Time according to James Grec (!) The red-headed American’s new family drama begins under the aegis of a quote from Aeschylus and his Oresteia on the hero of the Trojan War. James Gray is right to place himself high from the start. “ For my life to be preserved from misfortune, it is enough for me to be wise. » The filmmaker, as we know, shapes his own mythology in the continuity of an American classicism which would go from Film Noir At Godfather irrigates a work that is worth rehashing. Little Odessa, The Yards, The Night belongs to us, Two Lovers, The Immigrant until Armageddon Timedraw a postcard of a cosmopolitan New York seen from its working-class neighborhoods.
Gray had left the Big Apple for the jungle (The Lost City of Z) and space (Ad Astra), without convincing him too much, sending him back to his navel (the autobio visibly) and therefore to his main obsession: blood ties. Our two paper tigers of the day are brothers. The eldest (Adam Driver) is a lone wolf, while the youngest (Miles Teller) lives quietly with his wife (Scarlett Johansson) and children. “Tranquilou” at least until Driver enters the fold and offers a deal that will blow everything up.
We are in mid-eighties New York. The Twin Towers still peek above the tall grass on the other side of the Hudson. The Russian mafia has its headquarters there. The two brothers too. Hence the troubles, the “ we know where you live », threats in the middle of the night in the family home where Scarlett J. reigns as mistress.
All these nuances of Gray create a suffocating chiaroscuro picture, where the shadows cast on the walls are threatening traces. The Gray’s digest side of this Tiger Paper sends Aeschylus and Coppola back to their business, the filmmaker ultimately only draws inspiration from himself, from his understanding of an evil that insinuates itself into the veins of humans despite the love they have for each other. The only female character (Scarlett therefore) has an almost autonomous trajectory and will carry the burden of the tragedy single-handedly. A beautiful sacrifice filmed with disarming simplicity.
We will ultimately find the tall grass for a finale which refers to that of The night belongs to ushimself torn from Weapon Demon by Joseph H. Lewis… Cinema, like families, often moves forward in a closed circuit.
USA. By James Gray. With: Adam Driver, Miles Teller, Scarlett Johanson… Duration: 1h55. Undetermined exit
