Miles Teller had no trouble getting into character for James Gray’s new film “Paper Tiger.” In the crime drama, he plays a family man who idolizes his older brother, played by Adam Driver — something that came easily when the two actors met.
“Adam’s taller,” Teller joked. “I mean, I’m pretty good size. I’m like 6’1”, 190. Usually, I’m the biggest person on set, but my hands felt very small when Adam shook them.”
“Fitting in doorways is a challenge. Shoes are a challenge,” Driver replied, deadpanned.
That light, easygoing tone carried through the film’s Cannes press conference on Sunday, with the two actors trading quips and undercutting the film’s more intense subject matter. It was especially evident when Driver offered a dry non-answer about his portrayal in Lena Dunham’s recent memoir.
“I have no comment on any of that,” he said, drawing laughs. “I’m saving it all for my book!”
Echoing that upbeat mood, director James Gray described his tense thriller — about two brothers entangled with the Russian mob — as a kind of “love story,” and a valentine to New York.
“[New York City] is obviously in the United States, but culturally it sits somewhere between the U.S. and Europe,” Gray said. “You feel the undercurrents of the immigrant influx at Ellis Island. Something like 40% of the American population has an ancestor who came through there — and it was only open for about 23 years. You feel the layers of that history.”
Gray was more ambivalent about the American Dream, however — a theme he explores in the film.
“Every nation needs a kind of collective myth,” he said. “But if that dream is reduced to money alone, without any sense of spiritual uplift or freedom, it ultimately dissolves.”
“Now, I’m not advocating for socialist dictatorships,” Gray continued, equally wary of a purely transactional system. “I’m only saying that when the market is the only thing that matters, it’s devastating… and the current American president is a symptom of that.”
Unable to make it to Cannes, star Scarlett Johansson sent a note that Gray read aloud.
“Collective empathy is something we could certainly use more of right now,” Johansson wrote. “And my hope is that by making movies like this one, we can feel — even for a couple of hours in the dark — part of a shared human experience.”
“Paper Tiger” premiered to strong reviews on Saturday, with The Wrap’s Steve Pond praising the film’s “rigor and humanity.”
“[The film] is a taut exercise in suspense, with a couple of bravura sequences that stretch the tension to the breaking point as hubris and wishful thinking lead a family into dangers they didn’t know existed,” he wrote. “Rarely do you find a thriller with this much heart.”
Neon will release “Paper Tiger” later this year.
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