James Gray's Paper Tiger made its North American premiere Friday evening as the Opening Night selection of the New York Film Festival, screening on a 35mm print at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall to a warm reception, with the core cast in attendance.
Artistic Director Dennis Lim introduced Gray by calling him 'one of the great living American filmmakers' before the director took the stage. Gray has a long history with NYFF, having previously closed the festival with The Lost City of Z and marked its anniversary with a special screening of Armageddon Time. In his introductory remarks, Gray reflected on growing up a few miles from the Upper West Side and recalled telling his parents he wanted to become a movie director, to which they skeptically replied, 'How are you ever going to do that?' Looking out at the full house, Gray responded, 'Well, here I am.'
Paper Tiger had not screened publicly since its world premiere in Cannes, where it was widely acclaimed even though the jury passed it over — something Gray's films have reportedly encountered repeatedly at the festival over the years. Distributor Neon is now positioning the film for a fall push. Earlier this month, Lim described the film as 'miraculous' in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, citing how difficult it has become to make personal, independent American films.
The film stars Miles Teller and Adam Driver as brothers Irwin and Gary Pearl in 1986 Queens, whose family becomes entangled in a dangerous scheme. The story turns on Irwin's wife, Hester, played by Scarlett Johansson, as she navigates how to protect her sons' future while facing her own personal crisis.
As The Hollywood Reporter reported last week, Teller will campaign in the lead-actor category since Irwin's perspective bookends the film, while Driver and Johansson — both past Oscar nominees — will campaign in supporting categories.
During the post-screening Q&A, Johansson spoke about the intimacy of the shoot: 'We were on such a small set…and also it was extremely hot, and when you have a group of actors hanging around with everybody on top of each other — honestly, that's a labor of love. You do it because you love to do it. You end up hanging out and talking and sharing stories and feeling closer…. You have to survive the day, and it's hard making movies, and it's very hard making movies [like this].'
Photo: Chris McAndrew, CC BY 3.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
