Staff Writer Teddy D’Ancona reviews Jesse Eisenberg’s second feature film, A Real Pain, highlighting the profound impact of art in shaping understanding.
In the slightly agonsing midst of award season, one film has stood out amongst all others as an exceptional hour and a half of a cinema. A film that we truly need at a self-destructive standstill in human history, which we can either come to terms with the past or taint our own future.
Alongside the always fantastic Kieran Culkin, Jesse Eisenberg writes, stars and directs his remarkable second feature film: A Real Pain. Culkin and Eisenberg portray Benji and David – two Jewish cousins who trek to Poland to pay tribute to their late grandmother. In an attempt to embrace their heritage, the pair journey from the capital city Warsaw to the town of Krasnystaw in a guided tour of the country. Over the course of three days, they travel further into the increasingly harrowing history of the Jewish people, contemplating their own existence due to their forebears’ survival during The Holocaust.
With that in mind, the film has been labelled as a “buddy comedy” – even receiving a nomination for “Best Comedy or Musical” at The Golden Globes. As artistically insane as it might seem to present the emotionally afflicting premise as a comedic road trip, Eisenberg and Co enact it perfectly. The grating aloofness of Benji in contrast to stilted awkwardness of David may at first make them seem like mismatched caricatures of the “buddy comedy” genre. However, these character archetypes are shrewdly deceptive, the story chipping away at their outward simplicity to reveal their suppressed familial conflict in truly moving sequences.
It comes as no surprise that Kieran Culkin’s performance is the highlight of the film, the child actor turned megastar now being the frontrunner for every award including the words “Best Supporting Actor”. In recent years, Culkin has absolutely ascended in mainstream popularity following his acclaimed portrayal of the equally loveable and detestable Roman Roy in HBO’s Succession. Yet during the film’s pre-production, Culkin was supposedly not the first choice to portray Benji. Eisenberg has stated that he initially planned to portray the character himself – feeling understandably conflicted on whether Benji should be played by a Jewish actor in a “personal story” to his family history. After having seen the film however, it’s difficult to imagine anyone else in the role, as Culkin embodies Benji perfectly as a resonantly human person – one that uses the facade of confidence to pass off any sign of their inner-turmoil,
This of course is not possible without Eisenberg’s striking screenplay and direction, A Real Pain quite possibly being the high point of his ongoing career. The past few years have marked an artistic resurgence for him, as for quite a while, Eisenberg’s filmography could best be described as “a mixed bag of mediocrity”. After his breakthrough in Zombieland and acclaimed portrayal of Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Network, Eisenberg would have a substandard stint as a blockbuster leading man. This would include such films as Now You See Me (and its sequel bewilderingly not titled “Now You Don’t”), in addition to a critically panned portrayal of the supervillain Lex Luther in DC Comics’ Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Eisenberg was definitely dealt a bad hand when it came to roles suitable to his talents, but in his ensuing transition into writer-director he’s proven himself to be much more than just a one trick pony of the 2010s.
Accompanied by the scenic covers of Frédéric Chopin’s symphonies, some of the most poignant sequences of the film are simple, yet heartbreaking, shots of barely surviving stores, breweries and synagogues as bygone remainders of Jewish life in Poland prior to Nazi occupation. The film doesn’t simplify confronting this inherited trauma, the characters ruminating on what responsibility they feel have to honour their family’s survival – in what David describes “the product a thousand f**king miracles”.
The praises of A Real Pain could be sung all day-long, but truthfully it is one you must see for yourself as one of the finest films of last year. From its screenplay, to its direction, to its performances – the film is simply a perfect comedy drama that will unfortunately remain ever relevant.
We’re in the midst of a time in which the richest man on the planet “accidentally” performed a nazi salute, the incumbent President referred to a mob of white supremacists as “fine people” and an artist considered as one of the greatest rappers of time professed on social media to “love Hitler” (in a supposed social experiment). As pieces of art like A Real Pain, the horrors of fascism should not be relegated to statistics of a history lesson. It is not only to be remembered, but to be universally understood as one of humanity’s most demonic acts. That is real pain we all must learn from.
