Just barely a month into 2025, and I’ve already given two movies 5-star ratings: We Live in Time and A Real Pain.
I knew next to nothing about A Real Pain before watching it. For some reason I got classic indie-movie family drama vibes from the poster, and it does, but with some fantastic writing and an unexpected setting.
A Real Pain is about two closely intertwined elements: One, it’s about two cousins with very different personalities. David (Jesse Eisenberg, who is also the director) is responsible, put-together, and family-oriented. Benji (Kieran Culkin, who is absolutely superb in this role) is a brutally honest wildcard who pushes people for better or worse. There’s a great line by David that describes Benji as someone who lights up every room he walks into…and then s**ts on everything in the room.
I’ll pause there for a minute, because the writing of these two characters is truly superb. Perhaps most crucially, Benji isn’t just a wildcard. He’s full of deep emotions that frequently surface, and many times the movie pairs his cringe-worthy moments with the truly hearttouching things he says.
The second intertwined element is the setting: The movie follows David, Benji, and a small tour group on a Jewish heritage tour across Poland. There are a number of great scenes during the journey (including one on a train, in a restaurant, and at their grandmother’s house), but the most powerful takes place when they tour a concentration camp. The gas chambers, the kilns, the ashes, and the bins upon bins of shoes…there really aren’t words to describe the depth of the trajedy and the horrors that happened here less than a century ago. The film takes its time with these scenes, lingering on images with very little acting or dialogue. I’m honestly tearing up thinking about this scene. Even if the rest of the movie isn’t for you, skip 80% of the way through to watch this part.
This is an amazing film, and I highly recommend it. I’d love to hear your thoughts if you have the chance to watch it (I saw it on Disney Plus).