Jesse Eisenberg’s A Real Pain is a gem of a movie that includes excellent performances from the director and Kieran Culkin.

PLOT: Estranged cousins David (Jesse Eisenberg) and Benji (Kieran Culkin) be a part of a holocaust tour in Poland to meet the dying request of their late grandmother.

REVIEW: A Real Pain is Jesse Eisenberg’s second movie as a director and marks a considerable leap in high quality since his nice – however minor – first effort, When You Finish Saving the World. With a good working time, evocative location capturing, and two terrific performances at its coronary heart, it’s no surprise this scored one in every of Sundance’s largest offers, with Searchlight shelling out a cool $10 million for it.

At its coronary heart, the movie is a personality research, permitting Jesse Eisenberg’s David and Kieran Culkin’s Benji to spar over eighty minutes with out making their vacation too earth-shattering an occasion, with characters ending the movie simply as damaged (or not) because the film started. It’s one of many few movies I’ve seen in latest reminiscence to get the vibe of a vacation excellent, as once you finish a visit – irrespective of how intense the journey has been – there’s a second once you arrive again dwelling and understand that you just’re the identical individual you had been once you left. This can both be a reassuring feeling or a melancholy one. 

Despite being previously shut cousins, David and Benji are a mismatched pair. While outwardly neurotic, Eisenberg’s David is way extra content material in his life, having a loving household and a secure job to go dwelling to. By distinction, Culkin’s Benji is out of types, together with his bluster and outgoing vibe masking a deep melancholy nobody journey will resolve. Religiously, they’re additionally totally different, with David being extra laissez-faire about his Judaism and solely agreeing to the journey as a result of he is aware of it will be a pleasant factor to do for his cousin. 

Both males give terrific performances. Eisenberg makes a speciality of enjoying neurotic varieties, and he casts himself to perfection. But, he additionally subverts the stereotype that somebody neurotic is all the time depressing, with him the alternative. He hits many refined grace notes right here, such because the grin on his face when he watches movies of his toddler on his telephone whereas his cousin is asleep.

In distinction, Culkin’s Benji has the charisma David lacks, however it comes at a value. He’s a wanderer, somebody who’s by no means content material together with his lot in life, and one who lashes out passive aggressively at whoever is closest to him, be it David or the group’s non-Jewish, English tour information, performed by The White Lotus star Will Sharpe. Culkin has been lengthy overdue for some recognition, and it’s good to see him getting roles outdoors of Succession that show what a first-class actor he’s. 

Notably, the movie was shot on location in Poland and shines an uncomfortable gentle on the nation’s Holocaust historical past, with one placing sequence illustrating how shut the focus camps had been to the town. In most films coping with the Holocaust, we solely see the focus camps as eliminated, virtually otherworldly hellscapes. A Real Pain takes the identical strategy as The Zone of Interest, exhibiting that essentially the most inhumane crimes in opposition to humanity occurred in plain website of all. 

Yet, whereas A Real Pain might have been a miserable historical past lesson, Eisenberg retains the vibe considerably gentle as the 2 cousins riff and get to know one another once more. The remainder of the holocaust tour is properly stuffed out, with Dirty Dancing star Jennifer Grey as a latest divorcee rediscovering her roots. Kurt Egyiawan is terrific as a Rwandan convert who discovered a kinship with the religion as a survivor of genocide in his own residence nation and the advantage of his household instantly being embraced by the Jewish group in Winnipeg. 

For one, one of many spectacular issues about A Real Pain is how Eisenberg doesn’t appear to be overreaching together with his narrative. He’s not attempting to interrupt your coronary heart or rivet you. He’s merely exhibiting you an clever, empathetic slice of life that claims so much while not having to say a lot in any respect. I wouldn’t be shocked if this movie turns into a pleasant little hit for Searchlight, with each Culkin and Eisenberg delivering excellent performances.