In 1986 Queens, upwardly aspirant Jewish families crowd country club pools as the Mets approach a World Series win. Irwin Pearl, a nebbishy engineer, does not yet know his golden age or that it may be his best. He believes greed is good and watches the income gap widen while economic mobility slows. His older brother Gary, a divorced ex-police officer, makes him feel smaller. Irwin’s mother-in-law wants the family moved to Great Neck, his teenage son wants an expensive 18th birthday party, and his wife Hester wants fewer worries. Suburban life begins to feel like a taunt, pushing him toward a desire for status.
"It's the final weekend of summer in 1986, upwardly aspirant Jewish families across Queens are still crowding around country club pools to make sure they get their annual money's worth, and - in a little less than two months - the Mets are going to win the World Series for what might be the last time in team history. But nebbishy engineer Irwin Pearl ( Miles Teller) doesn't know that yet. He doesn't know that this is his golden age. He doesn't know that this is as good as it's ever going to get."
"What Irwin knows is that greed is good. That the income gap is widening at an unprecedented rate, that economic mobility is slowing to a crawl, and that his giant older brother Gary ( Adam Driver) - a divorced ex-police officer who swans around the city like a majestic bird in a blue Mercedes - has started to make him feel even smaller than usual. What Irwin knows is that his mother-in-law wants him to move the family to Great Neck, that the older of his two bickering teenage sons wants an expensive party for his 18th birthday, and that his beautiful wife Hester (Scarlett Johansson) wants fewer things to worry about."
"Irwin isn't the overly ambitious sort, but a man can only live in the suburbs of Mt. Olympus for so long before it starts to feel like the gods are taunting him to claim a small piece of it for himself. And so the stage is set for James Gray's deft and devastating " Paper Tiger," a Jewish-American tragedy in a teapot that - like all of the writer/director's best films - is both sweepingly mythic and hauntingly personal all at once."
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