Neon's 'Paper Tiger' Gets November Awards-Season
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- Neon set "Paper Tiger" for a wide release on Nov. 20, with select theaters getting it a week earlier on Nov. 13, positioning the drama for the kickoff of awards season.
- "Paper Tiger" stars Adam Driver, Scarlett Johansson, and Miles Teller as two brothers—Irwin (Teller) and Gary Pearl (Driver)—in a 1986-set story in which Irwin's get-rich-quick scheme to clean up the Gowanus Canal entangles him with the Russian mob.
- James Gray premiered the film at this year's Cannes Film Festival, where it received a seven-minute standing ovation; Gray told the Croisette crowd it was his sixth time at the festival.
- "Paper Tiger" marks Gray's first film since 2022's "Armageddon Time."
- Variety's Owen Gleiberman delivered a mixed review, writing that Gray is "an ace director who's still being undercut by the holes in his screenplays," even as he predicted Gray would get "some of his best reviews for it."
Why it matters: A Nov. 20 wide bow plants Neon squarely in the fall awards corridor with a star-driven auteur drama before the December crush, giving the distributor a prestige bid to anchor its season. The tension between the seven-minute Cannes ovation and Gleiberman's mixed verdict is the variable that will decide whether "Paper Tiger" becomes a real awards player or settles as a specialty release.
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