James Gray’s Crime Drama Gets 7-Minute Standing Ovation
Director James Gray tried to call Scarlett Johansson on his cell phone so she could bask in the 7-minute standing ovation for Paper Tiger at the film’s Cannes premiere on Saturday night, May 16.
But the star, who couldn’t at the South of France because she is filming “The Exorcist” reboot, didn’t pick up his FaceTime.
Her two co-stars, Miles Teller and Adam Driver, who play brothers running afoul of the Russian mob in the tragic crime thriller, flanked a boisterous Gray. The director gestured each of his leading men so that they could get their own moment in the spotlight.
Set in 1986, the story follows two brothers, Irwin and Gary Pearl, whose get-rich scheme ends in disaster after Irwin (Teller), a nebbish family man, angers Russian mobsters when he unwittingly witnesses criminal activity. It falls to Gary (Driver), a former cop, to try to bail him out, but his efforts to make a deal only drag them deeper into a world of violence.
Gray is a Cannes regular: Paper Tiger is his sixth film to premiere on the Croisette following “Armageddon Time,” “The Immigrant,” “Two Lovers,” “We Own the Night” and “The Yards.”
He was also part of the competition jury in 2019, when Isabelle Huppert served as president.
“It’s not my first time here,” Gray said, “It’s actually number six. There’s much more gray now in the beard, not just the name, but the beard. And I have learned finally to appreciate it. It always moves me greatly to see you here in this theater where I have very many great memories and I love you all.”
Neon, which has won the Palme d’Or the past six years running, will release the film domestically.
