Sundance 2024 Review: “A Real Pain” – Tender & Heartbreaking!

Popularly known for films like Zombieland, The Social Network, and Now You See Me, Jesse Eisenberg has made a successful career for himself as an actor. His directorial debut was in 2022 with When You’ve Finished Saving the World at the Sundance Film Festival, so it only makes sense his second film in the director’s chair would premiere at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival. Starring himself and Kieran Culkin, as cousins David and Benji, traveling to Poland to visit their grandmother’s old home, A Real Pain is a tender film with lots of laughs and heartache as two cousins discover more about their ancestors and themselves.

Related: Sundance 2024 Review – “Love Me” | A Frustrating Watch!

It becomes apparent early on David (Eisenberg) and Benji (Culkin) both deal with forms of depression, David’s being more internal while Benji is a manic depressant. Before David and Benji make a trip to their grandmother’s old home, they join a Holocaust tour across Poland where they meet a number of other people, all who face their own internal pain, all while against the backdrop of 1940s Holocaust landmarks.

Jesse Eisenberg’s script is a subtle yet impactful look at how pain moves through generations where severity and length is up for interpretation. Although victims of the Holocaust suffered a type of pain we could never imagine today, Eisenberg is able to paint two characters whose own struggles never feel invalid against its backdrop, just different to coincide with a modern time.

It is so easy to look at life as “there are people out there who have it worst” but Benji’s lack of a clear direction in life and David’s mapped out future make this trip for them a way to see each other in a new light, even if that is in a discomforting one. The balance of pain depicted in the film is perfectly executed.

For this critic, films mainly depend on script and direction in their successes or failures. Although acting is essential, it is not always the make or break of a film. However, Eisenberg’s casting, using himself and Kiernan Culkin, plays a major part in how A Real Pain is so compassionate without letting characters off the hook for for their own misguidedness. It is difficult to see the film succeeding without Kiernan Culkin’s excellent portrayal of Benji and his ability to “light up a room” when he enters, even if afterwards he “shits all over it later,” as David says.

Eisenberg and Culkin’s performances balance out the characters incredibly and their chemistry on screen makes it worthwhile. The movie does something incredible that others film often struggle with, authentically portraying some men’s inability to express their deepest anguish to others. Throughout the film, both David and Benji never come outright and tell each other what they deal with on a daily basis but there is this unspoken ability for them to acknowledge what they feel they can’t share being young men at different life stages.

There is no huge scene where their emotions come crashing down on each other, which feels realistic for two cousins who are not as close as they used to be but who have such intense love for one another that it is undeniable. A Real Pain is a true testament to Jesse Eisenberg’s talent in directing and writing and it will be exciting to see what his next film will be.

‘A Real Pain’ Rating – 4/5

Follow Steph (the Author) on IG – @cinemasteph_7