A Real Pain

Holocaust humor is rare, but A Real Pain is a counterintuitive outlier: vivid, moving, funny and emotionally devastating.

(An) enormously satisfying, darkly-shaded road-trip comedy about family, faith and finding yourself.

The film has pain in its title. But it’s pleasure the viewer will feel once the credits roll at the end.

We’re taken on a trip with David and Benji, one that examines Jewish identity, generational trauma, siblinglike rivalry and the strangeness of being in a country you don’t recognize, but that’s nonetheless partly your own.

Kieran Culkin gives a career-best performance in taking a character who could have been a one-dimensional, shtick-reliant jerk and infusing him with a vulnerability and empathy.

These characters have become so dear; I longed for something more climactic, more cathartic for them. Still, for the time we have with them, they make terrific company.

The dialogue is fantastic and you're completely bought into this journey of these two cousins who are trying to reconnect and help each other in their own way.

At 90 minutes it is only so ambitious, but Eisenberg accomplishes what he sets out to do with the dramedy, aided by strong work by his co-star, Kieran Culkin.



The pronounced contrasts easily become much clearer during distinct segments of Culkin's dominating performance and the sincerely genuine script from writer/director Eisenberg.


Culkin and Eisenberg have great chemistry. “A Real Pain” is notable for depicting men being physically warm with each other. Despite the lack of family resemblance, the thought will never cross your mind that they are not biologically related.