A Real Pain (2024)★ 7.2/10

While Benji and David’s performances resonate emotionally with the audiences, the film fails to do so. The dinner table scene, where David reflects on his grandmother’s suicide, is poignant, but disjointed editing and uninspired music dampen the overall impact. The Holocaust segment, surprisingly, lacks the emotional depth it deserves.

Rather than delving into Jewish history, the film explores how modern individuals process pain and memory. It offers a thought-provoking take on the disconnection many feel toward their ancestors’ suffering, posing the question: How should we confront the weight of history?

Only when you deeply care for someone do your hugs hold such intensity. The film carries the weight of history but approaches it with a light touch, reflecting the modern individual’s struggles. The opening twenty minutes deftly sketch the characters’ backgrounds and personalities. “Real pain” feels painfully out of place amidst collective joy, making it all the more poignant.

There’s nothing groundbreaking in the screenplay—it’s a standard road film. The protagonists are emotionally distant from one another at first, before gradually reconciling through the trip, and reaching an emotional resolution. What sets this film apart is its technical excellence and precise emotional storytelling, making for an enjoyable experience.

A standard sense of American independent cinema ...... splits two personalities from Jesse Eisenberg, implanting them in historical contexts in search of painful resonance.

This film is a significant improvement over the director’s previous work, When You Finish Saving the World. Eisenberg and Culkin effectively embody the experience of contemporary American youth: sensitive, fragile, and cynical. Their emotional scars not only stem from past generational suffering but also from their own personal struggles. In their search for their identity and roots, both characters are aware that nothing will change because the pain they carry inside is something that cannot be healed.

Eisenberg's filmmaking style is starting to feel more and more like Woody Allen’s

The director blends loads of musings about life into this road movie, but ultimately, no problem was resolved. Benji sat at the airport, still uncertain about his future. Dave returns home to reunite with his wife and kids. Although their lives remained on separate paths, they now share a memory of the experience

I’ve always enjoyed watching Jesse Eisenberg’s performances. He usually adds a wiry nervousness and some smart fast dialogue to the roles he has. He has now won the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award at the Sundance Film Festival for the newly released A REAL PAIN. Eisenberg produced, wrote, and directed this “dramady” of a relationship study between estranged cousins David (Jesse Eisenberg) and Benji (Kieran Culkin). David is a high-strung billboard ad creator with a wife and kid. Benji is a sensitive, very emotionally aware person who is grieving the loss of his grandmother, who he was very close to. They go on a trip to Poland together, tagging along with a Jewish history tour group, which obviously brings up various and difficult feelings. This is a beautiful movie with fully developed characters that actually evolve as it goes on. It’s clear they’re both going through something, as is everybody in this. The screenplay is nicely paced with a perfect blend of emotional beats and comedy. This is actually Eisenberg’s second movie he’s written and directed, the first being WHEN YOU FINISH SAVING THE WORLD, which is now on my list to see. As I had watched SUCCESSION, I knew Kieran Culkin was amazing, and he’s even better in this. Saying that, I can’t overlook Eisenberg’s performance. In some ways it’s harder playing an understated role, which he is great at. The movie is about generational trauma, different kinds of pain, and the human condition. I hope A REAL PAIN is talked about during the awards season!

Compare this to “When You Finish Saving the World”, he proves he has gotten even better at directing. This movie feels emotional, sad, and depressing to watch. Jesse Eisenberg delivers his best performance since “The Social Network”, and is absolutely fantastic. Kieran Culkin is God damn incredible in this and continues his hot streak. This movie has great cinematography, great pacing, and brilliant chemistry between Jesse Eisenberg, and Kieran Culkin. The score is also great. Kieran Culkin has me dying of laughter at moments where I knew I shouldn’t have been laughing. I can't wait for all of you to see this. I would definitely recommend this to anyone.

The more I sit with A Real Pain, the more I love it. Chronicling a journey that is both about self-discovery but also reconciling the trauma of the past is an incredibly difficult thing to articulate in words, let alone on the silver screen— yet I think Eisenberg is able to capture so much honesty in that journey largely thanks to the titanic performance from Culkin. Not sure any other actor right now could make you laugh one second and then break you in the next, but Culkin does it effortlessly for 89 minutes. Felt like it went into hyper speed those last 25ish minutes, but overall it’s going to be one that sits with me for a bit.

The movie really mixes it up with road trips, Holocaust survivors, World War II, and brotherly love, showing how the brothers' genuine affection grows over time as they grapple with the twists and turns of history and life. The Chopin soundtrack hits all the right notes, blending the tour group's complex emotions with the Polish backdrop, while the airport scenes at the start and finish of the film create a neat full-circle effect.