A Real Pain info:
Director: Jesse Eisenberg
Writer: Jesse Eisenberg
Starring: Jesse Eisenberg and Kieran Culkin
Hello and welcome to another week here at 1guysmindlessmoviereviews.com. We are officially right in the middle of the awards season. The Golden Globes have come and gone. Congrats to all the winners. If you want to know who won, you can view the complete list here on the Golden Globes website. The Academy Award nominees have also been announced, and you can see those on the Oscars website here if you are interested. That also means (like usual) that I’m playing catch-up to watch all these amazing movies I’m missing, so I’m up-to-date when March 2nd rolls around.
As part of my game of catch-up, I have been searching through the different available streaming services to see what is available and I was greeted with “A Real Pain” on Hulu. At this point, I can easily say that I made the correct decision by choosing to watch this. But, before I explain why, let me first do the painful step of telling you that there are spoilers ahead. If you don’t want to know what happens, then go back to my other reviews and see what else you may want to read about. For everyone else… join me in my recap of “A Real Pain” starting now.
Watching “A Real Pain” was actually a real pleasure. Coming entirely from the mind (and direction) of Jesse Eisenberg, this is a very heart-warming, funny, awkward, and emotional movie all rolled into one. “A Real Pain” tells the story of two cousins David (Eisenberg) and Benji (Culkin) as they travel to Poland to pay honor to their grandmother who recently passed away. As they meet at the airport, you can tell immediately that the two are entirely different people with entirely different lifestyles. David seems to have his life in order, a job, a family, and a stable home. Whereas Benji is more of a free spirit with no real job and living in his parents’ basement.
Part of their travel around Poland includes a multi-day guided tour with a guide, James (played by Will Sharpe), and transportation. The first big character reveal moment comes when David and Benji are meeting the rest of their tour group. Besides themselves and their guide James, they are also joined by Marica (Jennifer Grey…yes that Jennifer Grey), Eloge (Kurt Egyiawan), and married couple Mark (Daniel Oreskes) and Diane (Liza Sadovy). As David sits and quietly listens to what each person says, Benji is constantly jumping in and commenting on each person’s story which David is not-so-subtly bothered by.
Throughout the film and at each stop along the tour, David and Benji continue to bounce back and forth between loving cousins and mild annoyance at each other. The annoyance part is more in David’s court as Benji is a range of emotions as David struggles to contain his. David also struggles as he watches Benji befriend everyone in the tour group as he is constantly left out. It brings back lots of memories of their youth with David always trying to stay with Benji but never having the ability to do so.
I think this is a great time to talk about why Culkin is getting nominated for various awards due to his efforts as Benji in “A Real Pain”. This role may be the best acting to come out of a Culkin in a very long time… if not ever. I know that is a big statement, but I will stand behind it 100%. If you see this, you will understand what I’m talking about. Eisenberg is great as well, but he’s also not playing outside of his normal range whereas Culkin takes it to a whole other level.
Another thing that makes this enjoyable is it has some humor spread out amongst the sadness and awkwardness. David falling asleep on the train and then sneaking back on the train to get back is one of my favorite funnier moments, but there are several others as well. The face slap at the end is probably the funniest and both of their reactions are priceless. Even though they have many ups and downs throughout the movie, they are in a good place by the end which is an appropriate end for this duo.
As I said earlier, as good as this movie was for its story, characters, and humor, it’s Culkin that carries the workload here and makes this a must-see for any movie fan. Honestly, the worst part was that atrocious red hat that Eisenberg wore throughout (that’s for my IU fan friends). I am happy to say that I give this an 8 out of 10 and hope to watch more things by Eisenberg in the future.
So, have you seen “A Real Pain” yet? Are you a movie person who strives to go out and seek all of the Oscar movies before the big night? If you have seen it, what are your thoughts on Culkin’s acting this time around? Please let me know your thoughts in the comments below and remember, I will be back next week with another mindless move review of some sort. Until then keep on watching and reading. Thanks
