James Gray's 'Paper Tiger' Opens 64th New York Film Festival on Sept. 25

Q: Adam Driver’s “career-best” performance is a corrupt ex-cop. What makes this tragic character so unforgettable?

What makes Adam Driver’s Gary unforgettable is that he is not played as a stock crooked cop, but as a man whose bravado, love and self-deception are inseparable. In James Gray’s deeply personal 1986 New York tragedy, Gary is a former NYPD officer who sells himself as a connected fixer, pulling his brother Irwin into a Russian mob scheme tied to oil dumping near the Gowanus Canal. Driver gives him swagger, charm and the easy confidence of someone who thinks he can manage any room. The performance lands because that confidence is clearly a mask. Critics at Cannes singled out Driver for showing Gary’s “competing layers of bluster and panic,” with the character projecting control even as the situation turns lethal. He is persuasive because he believes his own myth: that he can protect his family, outtalk gangsters and bend events back in his favor. That self-delusion is the engine of the tragedy. Gray has said the film is about love and the awful things done in its name, and that idea defines Gary. His corruption is not presented as simple greed. It is tied to a desperate wish to be the hero to his brother and to deliver the middle-class security the family craves. That makes his failure more painful. Driver’s achievement is in charting the collapse. As Gary realizes his old methods no longer work and that he has endangered the people he meant to save, the performance turns devastating. The result is a tragic character who is both culpable and heartbreakingly human.

3 articles · Updated · Deadline · Jul 16

Paper Tiger will make its North American premiere as the opening-night film of the 64th New York Film Festival on Sept. 25 at Alice Tully Hall.
Film at Lincoln Center said it chose James Gray's Cannes-premiering crime thriller for its emotional power, with artistic director Dennis Lim calling it a career-best achievement.
Adam Driver, Miles Teller and Scarlett Johansson lead the 1986-set New York story, which follows two brothers drawn into a Russian mafia oil-dumping scheme near the Gowanus Canal.
Neon plans a Nov. 13 theatrical release for the film, which marks Gray's fourth NYFF selection after The Immigrant, The Lost City of Z and Armageddon Time.
The 2026 festival runs from Sept. 25 to Oct. 12, continuing NYFF's role as a curated showcase of major international films from the year's festival circuit.