James Gray Calls Two Lovers His First Truly Successful Feature — SkimNews
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- James Gray told a London Film Festival career Q&A audience that his fourth feature Two Lovers (2008) was the first time he successfully executed his artistic vision as a director.
- Gray said he "doesn't regard the films I made before this very highly" and doesn't think of them as "truly mine," even though he hopes people like them.
- Two Lovers starred Joaquin Phoenix and Gwyneth Paltrow, was co-written by Gray and Ric Menello, and cost roughly $9.5 million — Gray credited the film's "total freedom" and "creative control" for why it felt like his own.
- Gray is at LFF promoting Paper Tiger, which screened the night before and stars Adam Driver, Scarlett Johansson, and Miles Teller in a story set in 1986 Queens, NY involving the Russian mafia.
- Paper Tiger premiered at Cannes in May and will be released theatrically by Neon on November 13; the London Film Festival runs until October 18.
Why it matters: Gray is publicly downplaying his first three features — Little Odessa, The Yards, and We Own the Night — that helped establish his festival reputation, all while promoting a new film (Paper Tiger, releasing November 13) in which he presumably wants critics to view as a continuation of his mature voice starting from Two Lovers.
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