In mid-1980s Queens, New York, two brothers chase the promise of the American Dream through a business opportunity that seems too good to pass up, only to discover it comes with a terrifying price: entanglement with the Russian mafia. As the scheme unravels and violence and corruption close in around their family, the brothers' once-unshakeable bond is pushed to breaking point, betrayal becoming a real and present danger. Drawing on writer-director James Gray's own family history in a semi-fictionalised return to the Queens milieu of his earlier Armageddon Time, the film premiered in competition for the Palme d'Or at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival. A great-looking, bruising crime drama that finds real epic breadth within a tightly compact runtime, its dark, gritty textures and tense central performances carrying real conviction even where the plot occasionally favours atmosphere over strict plausibility.