A Real Pain (2024)
There is a particular kind of road trip film that has less to do with the road and everything to do with the people sitting uncomfortably close to one another in it. A Real Pain (2024) belongs firmly in that tradition, though it swaps the car for a guided Holocaust heritage tour through Poland, and the resulting friction is as much historical as it is personal. Written and directed by Jesse Eisenberg, the film follows two cousins, David and Benji, who reunite after their grandmother's death to visit her Polish homeland and the sites that shaped their family's past. It is a premise that carries considerable weight, threading together Jewish identity, generational trauma, and the particular awkwardness of reconnecting with someone you once knew very well and now barely recognise.
Eisenberg, best known on screen for roles in the Zombieland films and The Social Network, steps behind the camera here for only his second feature as director, following 2022's When You Finish Saving the World. A Real Pain is a co-production between several independent outfits, including Fruit Tree, Topic Studios, and Rego Park, alongside Polish partners, which gives it an international texture that feels genuinely earned rather than cosmetic. Shot largely on location in Warsaw and the surrounding region, the film benefits enormously from that authenticity, the weight of Polish history pressing quietly on every scene. The 90-minute runtime is lean and deliberate, a choice that keeps the film focused but also means it has to make every scene count. For the most part, it does. The film earned Kieran Culkin the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, which says something about how much one performance can carry a piece like this. Culkin brings a restless, unpredictable energy to Benji that makes him feel genuinely alive on screen, the sort of character who commandeers every room he enters and leaves people either charmed or exhausted. Eisenberg, opposite him, plays the quieter, more contained David, a pairing that works because both performers understand where to give ground. Will Sharpe brings his customary warmth to the role of the tour guide, and Jennifer Grey appears in a smaller part that rounds out the group dynamic nicely. Kurt Egyiawan, meanwhile, plays a fellow tour participant whose presence gives the film some of its most quietly affecting moments. For another example of grief and memory handled through a journey format, it is worth looking at Memoria, and for a different but thematically adjacent encounter with Polish history on film, Macca's review of The Pianist makes for useful reading alongside this one.
Jesse Eisenberg’s A Real Pain (2024), is a film he both directed and starred in alongside Kieran Culkin. It plays out almost like a coming-of-age story, but framed around two cousins in their late twenties or early thirties. That’s not a criticism, just an observation of the specific vibe it gives off. David and Benji were incredibly close as kids but drifted apart as adults, only reconnecting to mourn the passing of their beloved grandmother. To honour her memory, they embark on a Holocaust heritage tour to Poland to visit their ancestral home, setting the stage for a deeply personal, often awkward, and highly reflective trip.
At its heart, this is a film entirely about perspective, and Kieran Culkin absolutely steals the show as Benji. He’s the undeniable standout, playing an extroverted, happy-go-lucky wildcard who constantly tries to overcompensate to drag his cousin out of his shell. Opposite him, Eisenberg plays the socially anxious, tightly wound David, a role he could play in his sleep, feeling very much like a grounded, older version of his character Columbus from Zombieland.
The dynamic between them is brilliant: David secretly wishes he could be as fun and free as Benji, while Benji harbours a deep-seated jealousy that David has it "all figured out" with a stable job, a wife, and kids. When Benji’s hidden pain is finally laid bare, it’s handled in a genuinely touching way that completely recontextualises his manic energy.
Among the rest of the tour group, Kurt Egyiawan is a fantastic standout in a supporting role. His personal story and quiet dignity really resonated with me, and I honestly found myself wishing the script had delved a bit deeper into his background rather than keeping him on the periphery.
Ultimately, A Real Pain is a solid, above-average indie drama that captures the messy, unresolved nature of grief and family ties. It’s a highly enjoyable watch anchored by two good lead performances, even if it doesn't quite do anything groundbreaking enough to make it a true standout.
A Real Pain arrives at a moment when small, character-led films about Jewish identity and the long tail of the Holocaust are finding serious audiences, and it earns its place in that conversation without grandstanding. It is polished but unhurried, warm but not sentimental, and it rests its considerable emotional ambitions almost entirely on the chemistry between its two leads. Whether that is enough will depend on what you are looking for on a given evening. At ninety minutes, it asks relatively little of your time, and what it offers in return is honest, occasionally funny, and more considered than it might first appear. Some films leave you wanting more; some leave you satisfied with exactly what they gave you. This one, it seems, lands somewhere quietly between the two.
Rating: ★★★ | Year: 2024 | Watched: 2026-06-17
Trailer
▶ Watch the official trailer for A Real Pain (2024) on YouTube
Where to watch
Watch in the UK
Stream: Disney Plus
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Buy: Apple TV Store · Rakuten TV · Amazon Video · Google Play Movies
Physical: Amazon UK · Zavvi
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Buy: Amazon Video · Apple TV Store · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Physical: Amazon US
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