Paper Tiger had its premiere earlier this year at the Cannes Film Festival, where it competed for the coveted Palme d’Or. A crime epic, it seeks to capture the feel and tension found in so many iconic crime films. But does it stick the landing? Let’s find out.

The film stars Miles Teller as Irwin Pearl, an engineer who ends up teaming up with his brother Gary (Adam Driver), a former NYPD officer, in establishing a lucrative side business on the docks. Of course,  nothing goes to plan, and the family quickly find themselves on the wrong side of the Russian mafia. With his wife, Ester (Scarlet Johansson) and their two sons in danger, Irwin and Gary have to find a way to keep the family safe and keep the mob off their backs.

Paper Tigers is a solid crime thriller that’s well acted and well directed. Its main roadblock is that it doesn’t really feel like it’s breaking too far from the mould, which can result in some predictability. I’ve seen variations of this film before, about a family who has gotten in way too over their head with the criminal underworld, whether intentionally or not.

Paper Tigers does at least shine, that said, especially in the acting department. Teller and Driver do great work as brothers who find their bond tested as the threat of harm and violence becomes their new reality. But it’s Johansson who excels as Ester, a frightened mother of two teenage boys. She’s rightfully scared to death, and the unexpected proximity to danger coming from her unassuming husband only makes the situation that much more baffling. Irwin isn’t a bad guy; he has no connections to crime, so the Russian mob showing up in their lives was likely the last thing on her mind.

The film also excels at bringing 1980s Queens, New York, to life. The film feels run-down, dirty, and lived-in, from the suburban home that the Pearl family lives in to the busy streets in town. In fact, both the aesthetic and criminal elements reminded me in part of Grand Theft Auto IV and Niko’s early interactions with the Russian mob in that universe’s equivalent of Brooklyn and Queens.

In the end, Paper Tiger joins a lot of movies this year that can be labelled as good, but maybe not great. It’s worth a watch if you’re into crime dramas and want one with some top-notch acting, but I don’t think you’ll be wowed by much else due to the familiarity of the narrative beats and tropes.