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Paper Tiger
James Gray has long been a master of brooding, morally complex American drama, and the newly released trailer for Paper Tiger confirms he is operating at the absolute peak of his powers. Set in 1980s New York, this first glimpse promises a suffocating, visceral crime thriller anchored by an extraordinary central trio.
The trailer opens with a deceptive sense of suburban quiet before rapidly descending into a pressure-cooker nightmare. Miles Teller stars as Irwin, an engineer aiming for middle-class stability, whose life unravels when his brother Gary, a disgraced former police officer played by a menacingly intense Adam Driver, drags him into a lucrative business venture. That scheme, involving illegal oil dumping alongside the Russian mafia, quickly spirals out of control, threatening Irwin’s wife, Hester, brought to life with quiet, steel-edged resilience by Scarlett Johansson.
Gray’s signature visual atmosphere is instantly recognizable. Shot on gorgeous 35mm, the brief footage oozes a gritty, textured authenticity, capturing shadowy diners, rain-slicked Queens streets, and tense family dinners where unspoken betrayal hangs thick in the air. The dynamic between Driver and Teller looks explosive, charting a volatile push-and-pull between sibling loyalty and self-preservation. Meanwhile, glimpses of brutal mob intimidation underscore the terrifying stakes for this ordinary family pushed to the brink.
The Paper Tiger trailer suggests a searing, deeply moving examination of ambition, guilt, and the toxic pursuit of the American Dream. With Gray directing a magnificent cast at their rawest, Paper Tiger shapes up to be an unmissable, powerful cinematic force.
Power Ballad
What has us incredibly excited about Power Ballad is the dynamic friction between its two leads. Paul Rudd seems perfectly cast as the rugged, everyday musician who just wanted a shot at the big time, acknowledging with a heavy heart that having his name on a song of that magnitude would have completely changed his life.
Dune: Part Three
Picking up roughly seventeen years after the seismic events of Part Two, the trailer immediately signals a shift in tone. While the first film was an act of world-building and the second a visceral war epic, Dune: Part Three—an adaptation of Frank Herbert’s Dune Messiah—looks to be a far more claustrophobic and tense affair.
