ScarJo’s comedy crime wig

We are weeks away from the Venice Film Festival kicking off fall festival season, and one of the big question marks this year is “is it finally James Gray’s time?”. James Gray, an American filmmaker who is more appreciated in Europe than he is at home (two Cesar nominations to zero Oscar nods), has lately been coming on stronger in his home market. Ad Astra caught some notice in 2019, Armageddon Time looked like an Oscar contender for a hot minute in 2022. Now, he’s back with Paper Tiger, once again mining his childhood for drama, though this time his parental stand-in characters are played by Miles Teller and Scarlett Johansson.

Lainey thought ScarJo’s wig looked comedic, like out of the SNL wig closet, but the teaser for Paper Tiger dropped yesterday, and it is, in fact, a crime thriller/family drama, like many of Gray’s films. So I guess it’s more of a comedy crime wig, if you will. The teaser is giving strong Little Odessa vibes, and not just because someone is tangled up with the Russian mob. It’s the era (80s/90s), the troubled family at the center of the drama, the people caught in the crosshairs of old world vendettas that follow families to the new world.

I generally like James Gray’s work, though I never particularly look for him to crank out box office hits (because he consistently does not). I am lowkey amazed, though, that 32 years after Little Odessa put him on the map, Gray is still largely unappreciated by his more mainstream peers. The dude isn’t making abstract art, he works firmly in the Scorsesian vein of crime, guilt, and exquisite family tension.

Will the powerhouse trio of Adam Driver, ScarJo, and Miles Teller be enough to push James Gray into the Oscar conversation this year? I don’t know. Brad Pitt couldn’t do it for Ad Astra, Anne Hathaway, Jeremy Strong, and Anthony Hopkins couldn’t do it for Armageddon Time. I don’t know what the James Gray Oscar Formula is. I DO know he isn’t really trying to bag those nominations. He makes the kind of movies that LOOK like Oscar bait but obviously aren’t because the Academy is now in its fourth decade of studiously ignoring James Gray.

But Paper Tiger does look good. I love a crime thriller, I love a cinematic family meltdown. We know ScarJo and Adam Driver can deliver on those metrics, and Miles Teller is also there. Paper Tiger was well received at Cannes earlier this year (they love Gray, his films are automatic Palme d’Or entries), though Paper Tiger is, notably, skipping the fall festival trifecta of Venice, Telluride, and TIFF, in favor of opening the New York Film Festival later in September.

Given that Gray grew up in New York, and he’s in the midst of making films inspired by his childhood, it makes sense to go to NYFF, where there is a personal connection between art, artist, and city. But it is also a notable coup for NYFF, which has lately been challenging the Venice/Telluride/TIFF supremacy of fall festivals. As someone who programs a film festival, I feel for the programmers wrangling for exclusive premieres during the busiest period on the festival calendar, but as a gossip, I do love to watch the festival girlies fight.