32/24

David Kaplan: Yeah

Mismatched cousins ​​reunite for a road trip across Poland to honor their beloved grandmother. The adventure takes a different turn when old tensions between the odd couple surface over their family history. When Benji and David visit their grandmother's house in Poland, the place is where Jesse Eisenberg's real ancestors settled as immigrants. Benji Kaplan: We stay moving, we stay light, we stay agile. Benji Kaplan: The conductor comes, takes our tickets, we tell him we're going to the bathroom. David Kaplan: To the bathroom. Benji Kaplan: He gets to the back of the train, starts heading to the front, looking for stragglers.

Benji Kaplan: Yeah

David Kaplan: Excuse me, are we stragglers? By the time he gets to the front of the train, the train will be at the station and we'll be home free. David Kaplan: This is so fucking stupid. Tickets are probably about twelve bucks.Benji Kaplan: It's a matter of principle. We shouldn't have to pay for train tickets in Poland. This is our country.David Kaplan: No, it's not, it was our country. They kicked us out because they thought we were stingy..

Appeared on CBS News Sunday Morning: Episode #4644 (2024)

12 Etudes, Op. 25, No. 3 in F major Written by Frédéric Chopin Performed by Tzvi Erez. Jesse Eisenberg's second feature as writer-director is set to be something unconventional. There's something of Richard Linklater's BEFORE trilogy in the DNA of A REAL PAIN, with a certain recognizable legacy of Michael Winterbottom's TRIP series also evident. The shifting pace, the lazy cinematography that begs you to look beneath the surface of the tourist sights, the dialogue that meanders through an unpretentious and unstructured unpacking of the meaning of life, the total absence of any “bad guys,” the near absence of any overt conflict, the merest suggestion of any plot-driven purpose beyond completing a simple route… And The Real Pain shares all of these realistic qualities with those earlier, more lively, life-affirming films. Yet somehow… it doesn’t quite work.

everyone except the cousins ​​played by Eisenberg and Kieran Culkin)

I’m not sure what was wrong with why I never really got into this film. I think a lot of it has to do with all the supporting characters (i.e. Will Sharpe’s non-Jewish tour guide, the Rwandan convert, the older couple, the sexy divorcee… all of these characters are very basic, very conventional, very boring. The actors who play them are okay, but they don't have much to do, so they seem unnatural and lifeless, more like set decorations than people. I think Eisenberg knows how to direct the camera; he knows how to put the right cinematic elements in place. But maybe he doesn't know how to direct actors, or maybe he just doesn't know how to write characters. There's never anything to suggest that these people exist outside of the moments we see them, which could perhaps be fixed with more spontaneous improvisation on the part of the actors.

It's a decent indie film with some funny moments, some interesting ideas, a memorable tour of Poland, and a solid performance from Culkin

Eisenberg and especially Culkin are better in this regard, but there's still something rather artificial and "written" about a lot of the things they say and do. Eisenberg's "workaholic salesman with OCD" is largely one-dimensional, and the few moments where his character does transcend that facade feel more like forced acting than any genuine insight into something deeper. Culkin is wonderful — perhaps a take on his Succession character, if Roman Roy actually cared about people — but I think that's simply a credit to Culkin's talent; he somehow manages to transcend the framework he's working in.