A Real Pain

Both Culkin and Eisenberg are excellent and this is such a pleasure.

A Real Pain is an easy watch, a buddy movie rooted in the existential fun of verbal sparring. Yet it has an emotional kick that sneaks up on you.

Though the film only provides a snapshot of a moment in time, Culkin’s performance is so spectacular that it makes it feel as though we have known Benji forever.

Together, [Culkin and Eisenberg] make for a winning pair, balancing each other in a variety of ways that speak to the material’s larger concerns about loss, grief, remembrance and regret.

A lot of emotional weight is packed into this seriocomic ramble if you know where to look.

This is a smart and accomplished work with a quick wit, a palpable sense of melancholy and genuine heart.

It’s thin and flat, the opposite of inventive, surprising, daring or insightful. Though it’s billed as a comedy-drama, nothing in it generates laughs, even of the cringe variety.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

Difficult to review. I do sometimes enjoy "slow" movies, but there's not much here to enjoy besides Kieran's acting. No character development, nothing. Rating it higher than it deserves because it did make me think about the ending a little. Meh.

It is quite funny in parts and touching in parts, a pretty good entry into the dramedy category. I also really appreciated that it was only 90 minutes long. I miss when movies were a much more digestible length. Kieran Culkin's performance is excellent, he deserved the Oscar. However, I found his character absolutely insufferable. I understand that is the whole point of the movie, but that doesn't make it any more bearable to watch.

Foltks -- this movie is NOT a comedy. It's primarily a very "angst-driven" film that was more annoying and frustrating to me than enjoyable. With that said, it certainly is decent for what it is. It's about twoJewish cousins who go on a trip to Poland to visit the house their grandmother lived in as a child. Along the way, the go to a concentration camp and tour it. The performances are good. Again, it aint a comedy.

Mediocre smarmy propoganda that from the beginning just doesnt land, no idea why so many awards... hmm