Paper Tiger's Full Trailer Traps Adam Driver and Miles Teller in a 1986 Crime Scheme

NEON’s full trailer for Paper Tiger turns James Gray’s family drama into a tightening crime story: Adam Driver plays former NYPD officer Gary Pearl, whose plan with Russian criminals pulls his engineer brother Irwin, played by Miles Teller, into danger. NEON currently lists the film in theaters on November 13, 2026.

What the full trailer adds

An earlier teaser established the brothers and the threat around them. The full trailer gives the scheme a clearer shape without revealing its outcome. Gary recruits Irwin into a plan connected to industrial dumping near Brooklyn’s Gowanus Canal. What is sold as an opportunity becomes a source of pressure from the criminals involved and a threat to Irwin’s home life.

The official New York Film Festival synopsis places the story in Queens and Brooklyn in 1986. Irwin is a family man and engineer pursuing middle-class security; Gary is a former police officer who believes the deal can make them money. The trailer’s escalation—from meetings and promises to weapons, threats and surveillance—shows the cost spreading beyond the brothers.

Those images do not settle who betrays whom or how the scheme ends. NEON’s marketing promises a family under pressure, not a confirmed account of every event shown in the trailer’s rapid cutting.

Scarlett Johansson’s Hester is central to the family conflict

Scarlett Johansson plays Hester Pearl, Irwin’s wife. Film at Lincoln Center describes Hester as experiencing a private crisis while Gary’s deal endangers Irwin, their sons and the wider family. That places her inside the movie’s central domestic conflict rather than outside the crime plot as a distant observer.

The two brothers’ roles are also now firmly identified. Cannes lists Driver as Gary Pearl and Teller as Irwin Pearl, while Johansson is Hester. The festival credits Gray as both writer and director and gives the film a 115-minute runtime.

Paper Tiger arrives after Cannes and before NYFF

Paper Tiger premiered in competition at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival. Its next major US festival stop is the 64th New York Film Festival, where it is the Opening Night selection and has its North American premiere on September 25.

That festival timeline matters because the full trailer arrives after the film has already screened publicly at Cannes, but before its North American premiere. It is still marketing for a theatrical release, not an announcement that the film is available to stream.

NEON’s site lists November 13 for the US theatrical opening, while the trailer itself uses the broader wording “In Theaters November.” Reports have described a later expansion, but NEON’s current public page is the safest source for the confirmed opening date. No streaming date is included in the official campaign.

The full trailer therefore clarifies the setup without changing the movie’s core: a 1986 New York family tragedy in which Gary’s shortcut collides with Irwin’s attempt to protect the life he has built.