Adam Driver and Miles Teller are playing brothers. That’s already a recipe for disaster, but James Gray decided to throw the Russian mafia into the mix. The first teaser trailer for Paper Tiger just dropped, and it’s exactly the kind of grimy, 1980s New York crime drama that makes you want to take a shower afterward. In a good way.
Paper Tiger is set in 1986 Queens, which means we’re getting bad suits, worse haircuts, and the specific kind of desperation that only Reagan-era economics can produce. Driver plays Gary Pearl, an ex-cop turned private security consultant who’s trying very hard to maintain a flashy lifestyle while everything around him crumbles. Teller is his brother Irwin, an engineer with a wife (Scarlett Johansson) and kids and a mortgage and all the boring responsibilities that make him the perfect mark for his brother’s terrible ideas.
Because here’s the thing about Gary: he’s confident. Dangerously confident. The kind of confident that leads to a scheme that looks “too good to be true,” which, spoiler alert, it absolutely is. Next thing you know, both brothers are tangled up with the Russian mob, and nobody’s coming out of this with clean hands.
Scarlett Johansson plays Hester, Irwin’s wife, and if you think she’s just going to stand around looking worried while her husband gets dragged into organized crime, you haven’t been paying attention to Scarlett Johansson’s career choices. The supporting cast also includes the kind of actors who don’t show up for paychecks — they show up because the script is worth it. James Gray wrote and directed Paper Tiger, which should tell you everything you need to know about the tone. This is the man behind The Lost City of Z and Ad Astra, so expect long silences, moral ambiguity, and at least one scene where someone stares out a window contemplating their life choices.
The teaser itself doesn’t give away too much plot — it’s more of a vibe check, and the vibe is “everyone here is about to make a catastrophic mistake.” Paper Tiger leans hard into the classic crime drama formula: two brothers, one bad decision, a criminal underworld that doesn’t forgive, and the slow realization that family loyalty is a trap. It’s the kind of setup that worked for The Godfather and every Scorsese film ever made, so Gray is playing in well-trodden territory. But with Driver and Teller as the leads and Johansson as the emotional anchor, Paper Tiger has enough star power to make even a familiar premise feel fresh.
No release date has been locked in yet, but based on the teaser’s moody lighting and the fact that NEON is distributing, expect this one to hit theaters sometime in late 2026 or early 2027. The awards-season buzz is already writing itself. Paper Tiger is coming, and it’s bringing the Russian mob with it.
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