A Real Pain

[Keiran Culkin] is remarkable from the opening scene to the final moment.

Eisenberg tenderly and firmly directs the movie, entering the Holocaust experience through a comic road trip, speaking of modern life and several unmined feelings that continue to haunt third generation Americans.

... it is also distinctly a film about the boundaries and limits of love.

It may be formally unadventurous but A Real Pain is a real treat, a tender, funny treatise on family jealousies and our relationship to the past. Simultaneously light and heavy, it soars on the stellar pairing of Eisenberg and Culkin.

Inseparable as kids, our two heroes now make a classic odd couple, even if that comic staple seems a strange fit indeed for the gravity ahead.

Lovely use of [Frédéric] Chopin.

a serio-comic film of genuine depth, nuance, and humanity that asks hard questions in a meaningful way

These nice boys in their nice movie made me miss Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon, and Wallace Shawn and Andre Gregory, in their talky two-handers.

Eisenberg, especially as a screenwriter, shines here. A Real Pain is impressively balanced as it changes tone, style, and necessary reveals effortlessly.

[Eisenberg] keeps crafting deeply felt features that resound with raw emotion, and that leave viewers feeling like they could walk right into them.