James Gray grew up in Queens, and his new film starts there. On Thursday, November 12, at 6:30 p.m., the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria will show a free sneak preview of Paper Tiger, with Gray there in person, a day before the film opens in select theaters.

The screening is the centerpiece of James Gray's New York, a series running at the museum from November 7 to November 22. Gray picked the films himself: New York stories, from well known classics to titles fewer people have seen, plus two of his own.

The film

Paper Tiger runs 115 minutes and is set in New York in the mid-1980s. Adam Driver plays Gary Pearl, a former New York City police officer who tries to help his brother Irving, a middle-class family man from Queens played by Miles Teller, earn extra money by bringing him into a deal with a group of Russians working along the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn. The plan goes wrong, and the film follows the consequences. Scarlett Johansson plays Irving's wife, Hester. Gavin Goudey and Roman Engel are also in the cast.

NEON is releasing the film. It opens in select theaters on November 13 and everywhere over Thanksgiving.

How to get a seat

The preview is free, courtesy of NEON. The museum says reservations will open soon, with priority for MoMI members, so anyone who wants to go should watch the event page. It plays in the Redstone Theater.

The rest of the series

Gray's own 2013 film The Immigrant, set on the Lower East Side at the start of the 20th century, is the other film of his in the lineup. The museum's schedule for the series:

  • Saturday, November 7, 6 p.m.: Midnight Cowboy
  • Sunday, November 8, 2:15 p.m.: The Immigrant
  • Sunday, November 8, 3 p.m.: Force of Evil
  • Sunday, November 8, 4:45 p.m.: Raging Bull
  • Thursday, November 12, 6:30 p.m.: Paper Tiger sneak preview, with James Gray in person
  • Saturday, November 14, 4 p.m.: The French Connection
  • Sunday, November 22, 1 p.m.: Side Street

Gray has been making films set across the boroughs for more than 30 years, from Little Odessa on the outskirts of Brooklyn to The Immigrant on the Lower East Side to Paper Tiger, which moves between Queens and Brooklyn. The museum describes the series as films about the city's character that Gray chose personally.

Tickets and getting there

Apart from the free preview, the series screenings are regular museum screenings. Standard screening tickets are $17.50 for adults, $12 for seniors 65 and over and for students, and $10 for ages 3 to 17, and members get free or discounted tickets. A screening ticket holder can add same-day gallery admission for $2.50. Online purchases carry a $1.50 fee per ticket.

The Museum of the Moving Image is at 36-01 35th Avenue, at 37th Street, in Astoria. The galleries are open Thursday from 2 to 6 p.m., Friday from 2 to 8 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., and gallery admission is free every Thursday from 2 to 6 p.m.

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