Scarlett Johansson, Adam Driver, and Miles Teller Deliver a Tender Thriller in Paper Tiger

Set in 1986 Queens, Paper Tiger opens on what is simultaneously the saddest and most jubilant holiday of the American year, Labor Day Weekend: The kids are bummed about going back to school. The parents are happy for the same reason. Mom and dad Hester and Irwin Pearl, played by Scarlett Johansson and Miles Teller, are getting ready to ease their two sons, 17-year-old Scott and young teenager Benjamin (Gavin Goudey and Roman Engel), into the new school year when Irwin gets a call from his older brother whom, it seems, he doesn’t hear from often. Gary (Adam Driver), a retired cop who’s made good money for himself since he left the force, is going through a messy divorce and needs extra dough, fast. He has an idea for a consulting business and wants to get Irwin, an engineer, in on the action. Brooklyn’s Gowanus Canal, long a disaster of sludge and sewage, is ripe for renewal and development, and groups of Russian businessmen—if you want to call them that—are moving in to take advantage. Gary explains that they’re clueless about regulations, the ins and outs of doing business in the States. Gary and Irwin can advise them, and it doesn’t matter whether they listen or not. As Gary presents it, it sounds like easy money. Irwin is in.