A Real Pain (2024)

IMDb plot summary: Mismatched cousins reunite for a tour through Poland to honor their beloved grandmother, but their old tensions resurface against the backdrop of their family history.

Directed by Jesse Eisenberg. Stars Kieran Culkin, Jesse Eisenberg, and Olha Bosova.

A Real Pain is directed by Jesse Eisenberg and stars Eisenberg and Kieran Culkin as cousins who go on a heritage tour to Poland, where their grandmother lived before escaping as a Jewish refugee. The two cousins are very different in personality and in how they absorb the  exploration of their family's history, with Eisenberg being solemn and restrained and Culkin being effusive and prone to emotional outbursts. This felt like the kind of movie that I haven't seen in a long time, although I'm sure I have and just can't bring anything to mind. It's such a simple setup for these characters to explore their identities and their relationship to pain and suffering. The dialogue is beautifully crafted, and the two lead actors in particular do a marvelous job bringing their characters to life. Watching them interact, or even watching them watch each other interact with others, is  so engrossing, and while I'm still processing the big overall ideas of the movie or what the ending means about the characters, I really loved getting to be a fly on the wall as these two characters work through their relationship. It's the kind of movie I compare in the most complimentary way to a really great piece of theater. Even with the big set pieces of touristy Poland, the stakes and the characters are small and intimate, and it pays off emotionally.

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 A Real Pain (2024)

📊 Ranked #563/4040 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 86

beat I and You (#2015 → #2019)

beat Child's Play (#1006 → #1095)

lost to VeggieTales: King George and the Ducky (#502 → #484)

beat 5 Centimeters per Second (#754 → #757)

beat GoodFellas (#627 → #632)

lost to Happy Death Day (held at #564)

beat L.A. Without a Map (#595 → #599)

beat Paddington 2 (#579 → #581)

lost to The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming! (#571 → #554)

beat Weird: The Al Yankovic Story (held at #575)

beat Anatomy of a Murder (held at #573)

beat The Bumblebee Flies Anyway (#572 → #653)