TSPDT

Key Production Country: USA
Key Genres: Drama, Crime Drama, Period Film, Psychological Drama, Adventure, Crime
Key Collaborators: John Axelrad (Editor), Joaquin Phoenix (Leading Actor), Anthony Katagas (Producer), Kevin Thompson (Production Designer), Elena Solovey (Character Actress), Mark Wahlberg (Leading Actor), Paul Webster (Producer), Nick Wechsler (Producer), Jeremy Kleiner (Producer), Dede Gardner (Producer), Darius Khondji (Cinematographer), Joaquin Baca-Asay (Cinematographer)

"Gray makes a type of movie that barely exists anymore. His films are serious, literate, medium-budget dramas — a vanishing middle ground in an industry increasingly polarized between ginormous tentpoles and micro-budget indies. Many filmmakers in that range have migrated to TV, but that’s not where Gray’s passion lies. His films yearn for the big screen; alongside their carefully constructed stories, they also have old-school stylistic virtues like lush production design (on a budget), expressive camerawork, and intimate close-ups that demand to be seen on a 30-foot screen." - Bilge Ebiri (Vulture, 2014)

"When people talk about how there are no more mid-budget, adult-oriented movies, they’re also talking, whether they realize it or not, about James Gray. Gray has been making films since 1994, when, at the tender age of 25, he wrote and directed Little Odessa, a gorgeous and affecting crime drama set in New York’s Brighton Beach. The film came out the same year as Pulp Fiction, but the two films couldn’t have been more different. Where Pulp Fiction practically bursts with Quentin Tarantino’s endless appetite for pop-culture history, Little Odessa is mature and existential, much in the tradition of serious European masters like Jean-Pierre Melville and Bernardo Bertolucci." - Kevin Lincoln (Vulture, 2017)

"Every day a director goes to work they put their all into making the best film they can, a film that says something. But none, it seems, more so than James Gray; within his short filmography (only six feature films to date), his attempts to combine his stories with a layer of meaning that speaks to the world we live in have created fascinating, albeit smaller, films." - Jessica Mansfield & James Mottram (FilmInk, 2017)

"From film school at the University of Southern California, James Gray made a terrific noir debut with Little Odessa. Far more than his English name, the film exposed Gray’s Russian origins (his parents were immigrants) and his steady subject—that of fraternal and familial ties put to the test by a life of crime and law enforcement… In short, Gray is very accomplished, amply determined, and probably capable of much better work." - David Thomson (The New Biographical Dictionary of Film, 2010)

"Screenwriter-director James Gray burst onto the American indie scene at the age of 25 with his feature film debut, Little Odessa. Despite earning lavish praise for the Brooklyn-set crime drama, Gray eschewed the call to churn out high-concept scripts for other directors or secure a first-look studio deal. Instead, the USC film school graduate spent six years writing and developing his follow-up project, The Yards, which boasted a cast of eventual A-list stars including Mark Wahlberg, Charlize Theron and Joaquin Phoenix." - Tatiana Siegel (The Hollywood Reporter, 2007)

"Gray’s movies are deeply personal and have received sharply divided reviews. For some, his movies represent the portrayals of characters whose stories achieve tragic proportions insofar as they are condemned to lives not of their own choosing; to others, his movies are inflated, melodramatic tales focused on men and in which women are one-dimensional stereotypes." - Robert Alpert (Senses of Cinema, 2012)