James Gray: Paper Tiger, a return to Brighton Beach

First time on the Croisette. James Gray leaves Brooklyn for Queens, the industrial machine of New York characterized by subway construction sites and warehouses. The Yards opens with the hope of a clean slate after prison, but systematically dismantles this promise through a dark underworld of bribery, murder, and corruption. Although the filmmaker changes sides, the subject matter of complex family dynamics remains the same. It is also the first time Joaquin Phoenix and Mark Wahlberg have worked together under his direction, a partnership that paves the way for an enduring alliance between James Gray and his actors.

1980s New York. A Russian nightclub in Brooklyn, two brothers — one a cop, the other a criminal. This film sees James Gray explore his recurring themes and hone his technical execution. We Own the Night is the most tense film of all his work, with the thriller genre used as a vehicle to explore a family drama. Once again starring Joaquin Phoenix.

Brighton Beach. Joaquin Phoenix is torn between Gwyneth Paltrow and Vinessa Shaw — two women, two possible lives, and the inability to choose. James Gray cites Dostoevsky’s White Nights as his inspiration, about a man who falls in love with an obsession rather than a person. The dilapidated storefronts of Coney Island and the cold light of Brooklyn are still present, but the narrative closes in on a single character. With Two Lovers and his third appearance at Cannes, the filmmaker departs from the classic thriller genre to tell a story about being in love.

James Gray returns to his roots to talk about New York. The Immigrant is set in 1921 in Ellis Island, a location virtually untouched by other filmmakers and a place his own grandparents passed through on their journey from Eastern Europe. Marion Cotillard plays Sonya, a young Polish immigrant forced into prostitution as soon as she lands on American soil. For the director’s fourth consecutive film, Joaquin Phoenix stars in the leading role as the mobster with a hold on her. The city is dark and rainy, much like its portrayal in The Yards and We Own the Night, but transposed to an earlier era.

Nine years since his last attendance at Cannes. James Gray has traveled a long way in the meantime — both to the Amazon with The Lost City of Z and into space with Ad Astra. In his next feature film he returns home, back to his childhood in 1980s Queens. Armageddon Time (Anne Hathaway, Anthony Hopkins, and Jeremy Strong) is his most personal film to date, centering on a young boy with big dreams and a grandfather as his only moral compass in a world teetering on the edge and a city that is nothing more than a memory.

Brighton Beach. Two brothers ensnared in the Russian mafia underworld, an American dream that turns into a nightmare. 30 years after Little Odessa, James Gray returns to his point of origin with the same community, the same geography, and the same themes of guilt and loyalty. Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson, who reunite on screen for the first time since Noah Baumbach’s Marriage Story, inhabit roles that Tim Roth could have played back in 1994. A reimagining — and perhaps even a reckoning — that brings the director full circle to the film where it all began.