'A Real Pain' Review

A Real Pain screened at the 2024 Twin Cities Film Fest. Searchlight Pictures will release it in theaters on November 01.

Without having seen Jesse Eisenberg’s freshman feature as a writer/director, When You Finish Saving the World, I can already tell you that his sophomore work, A Real Pain, is a major improvement. You can just feel the extra confidence that Eisenberg has in every facet of his production, so much so that he even allowed himself the time and space to be in front of the camera this time around, sharing it with Kieran Culkin to create a wonderful buddy dramedy.

Joan Didion said it best when she told her readers: “I’m not telling you to make the world better, because I don’t think that progress is necessarily part of the package. I’m just telling you to live in it. Not just to endure it, not just to suffer it, not just to pass through it, but to live in it. To look at it. To try to get the picture. To live recklessly. To take chances. To make your own work and take pride in it. To seize the moment.” Although I’m fairly confident that Benji (Culkin) has never come across these words, it’s the mantra he lives by. “You meet the craziest people here,” he says as he explains to his cousin David (Eisenberg) why he arrived at the airport several hours earlier than he needed to. This was all while David frantically left several voicemails to him worrying about every detail about their flight and trip to Poland to discover exactly where their Holocaust-surviving grandmother came from. They’re yin and yang, although the poles they inhabit aren’t as separated as you would believe.

In actuality, when we first see Benji, he’s sitting alone in the airport with a dead look on his face. It’s only when David’s right in from him that he sports his trademarked charismatic humor. That cycle repeats again and again throughout their trip, with Benji lighting up the room every time he interacts with the few other people accompanying them on the tour. David just kind of floats on by, exchanging pleasantries all while keeping to himself.

For the most part, that opening shot in the airport is the only time we ever see Benji alone. For as much as this is a two-handed film (a major reason why Culkin running in the Best Supporting Actor category at this year’s Oscars is grounds for fraud), everything comes from David's perspective. Small details come to light, such as Benji having a much deeper relationship with their grandmother realized, and the fact that despite the two of them essentially being joined at the hip as kids, this is the first time they’ve interacted in months. Each discovery brings a new meaning to the smiles and nonchalance of Benji, who we incrementally see as a person of great contrasts.

As a writer, Eisenberg displays a deft touch in balancing the highs and lows of this journey. At its heart, this trip across the world is about reconciliation and grief, reaching its peak when, while smoking weed on the roof of their hotel, the cousins have nothing left to talk about except the elephant in the room. They’ve each grown up in different directions, running away from their problems and themselves. But this is also a very funny movie filled with American tourist antics and one-liners.

One would think that it would be near impossible for both Culkin and the audience to shed the image of Roman Roy so quickly after the conclusion of Succession. While Roman and Benji are cut from a similar cloth, Culkin does so much to keep this character honest and alive. It’s impossible to always love someone who operates at the heights that Benji does, never holding back his opinions and perpetually occupying the center stage. Even in its most loathsome moments, you still deeply care for him. Eisenberg also finds ways to break free from his straight-laced archetype, most notably during an extended monologue once Benji leaves the room.

The country of Poland and the overall Jewish experience become supporting characters in their own right. Eisenberg examines the past and present by showcasing how locations around the country have changed in the several decades since WWII, many of them drastically homogenized to try and make people forget. A walk through a well-preserved concentration camp is done with relative silence, with the stakes of this trip staring right back at Benji and David. They can do nothing but stare back, opening themselves up to pain, both in its most unpleasant and cathartic form. By the time the ninety minutes are up, A Real Pain has taken you on a journey with not just these characters, but also with yourself.