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A Real Pain
Jesse Eisenberg impresses as the director, screenwriter, and star of 2024's A Real Pain, an edgy and often emotional look at a broken relationship attempting to heal against an unusual and haunting backdrop.
David (Eisenberg) and Benji (Kieran Culkin) are cousins who have been brought together for the first time in six months by the death of their grandmother. Grandma left them money for the specific purpose of traveling to Poland, her birthplace, as part of a tour group honoring the Jews who survived the holocaust and those who didn't, a tour which includes a visit to an actual concentration camp.
A co-production of the United States and Poland and what felt like a real passion project for Eisenberg, there's a lot of care and sensitivity utilized in the crafting of this story, almost to the point of over complexity but at the heart of this story is a compelling and completely believable family tension that bubbles beneath from the beginning of the film that takes longer to come to the surface than it should have, but we still want to know what exactly is going on with these cousins who are clearly avoiding something from their past or trying to forget it but just can't.
While we wait to find out exactly what is going between David and Benji, we are treated tp a glorious postcard dedicated to a rare setting for a film. Pretty sure this was my first exposure to a film shot entirely on location in Poland, but it actually made for an attractive and historical backdrop for this story. Even though Benji found it annoying, the constant information provided by the tour guide (Will Sharpe) was fascinating and I found a genuine chill coming over me as the tour group entered an actual deserted concentration camp.
Once the family secrets begin to unfold between Benji and David, I found myself wishing that Eisenberg gotten to it a little sooner because there was such an air of familiarity to it. Looking at it from David's POV, I think everyone has a Benji in their life...someone they love and hate and worry about and envy and want to punch in the mouth.
The performances by Eisenberg and Culkin light up the screen. Culkin won a Best Supporting Actor Golden Globe for his flashy Benji but Eisenberg's quietly angry David is equally as effective. He nails that scene at about the halfway point where he finally breaks down about Benji. It takes a little longer to get where it's going and the ambiguity of the ending is a bit of a heartbreaker, but this is compelling entertainment.
Jesse Eisenberg impresses as the director, screenwriter, and star of 2024's A Real Pain, an edgy and often emotional look at a broken relationship attempting to heal against an unusual and haunting backdrop.
David (Eisenberg) and Benji (Kieran Culkin) are cousins who have been brought together for the first time in six months by the death of their grandmother. Grandma left them money for the specific purpose of traveling to Poland, her birthplace, as part of a tour group honoring the Jews who survived the holocaust and those who didn't, a tour which includes a visit to an actual concentration camp.
A co-production of the United States and Poland and what felt like a real passion project for Eisenberg, there's a lot of care and sensitivity utilized in the crafting of this story, almost to the point of over complexity but at the heart of this story is a compelling and completely believable family tension that bubbles beneath from the beginning of the film that takes longer to come to the surface than it should have, but we still want to know what exactly is going on with these cousins who are clearly avoiding something from their past or trying to forget it but just can't.
While we wait to find out exactly what is going between David and Benji, we are treated tp a glorious postcard dedicated to a rare setting for a film. Pretty sure this was my first exposure to a film shot entirely on location in Poland, but it actually made for an attractive and historical backdrop for this story. Even though Benji found it annoying, the constant information provided by the tour guide (Will Sharpe) was fascinating and I found a genuine chill coming over me as the tour group entered an actual deserted concentration camp.
Once the family secrets begin to unfold between Benji and David, I found myself wishing that Eisenberg gotten to it a little sooner because there was such an air of familiarity to it. Looking at it from David's POV, I think everyone has a Benji in their life...someone they love and hate and worry about and envy and want to punch in the mouth.
The performances by Eisenberg and Culkin light up the screen. Culkin won a Best Supporting Actor Golden Globe for his flashy Benji but Eisenberg's quietly angry David is equally as effective. He nails that scene at about the halfway point where he finally breaks down about Benji. It takes a little longer to get where it's going and the ambiguity of the ending is a bit of a heartbreaker, but this is compelling entertainment.