A Real Pain
20246.8movie
People
Mismatched cousins David and Benji reunite for a tour through Poland to honor their beloved grandmother. The adventure takes a turn when the pair's old tensions resurface against the backdrop of their family history.
Mismatched cousins David and Benji reunite for a tour through Poland to honor their beloved grandmother. The adventure takes a turn when the pair's old tensions resurface against the backdrop of their family history.
That tone meanwhile is adeptly balanced and fluctuates naturally between the light and the heavy with assuredness, at times simultaneously occupying the same space. As both writer and co-star, Eisenberg leans on his on-screen experience to deliver sharp quirky observational comedy and hilariously awkward interactions, plus blunt forthright dialogue and even some humour found in the emotional frailty and vulnerability of the characters.‘A Real Pain’ is out in US cinemas on the 1st of November, and on the 10th of January 2025 in the UK. Similar films you may like (Home Video).
‘A Real Pain’ Review: Jesse Eisenberg Becomes a Major Filmmaker — and Kieran Culkin a Movie Star — in a Funny, Knife-Sharp Odyssey.The film’s title, of course, is a pun. Culkin’s Benji is obnoxious enough to be “a real pain,” but the movie is also about what it takes, in a world conspiring to insulate us from reality and history, for people to experience real pain. Eisenberg has a gift for interweaving airy comedy and gravitas — the unbearable lightness of good screenwriting — that’s reminiscent of what Richard Linklater brought off in the “Before” films.
