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A Real Pain is the second feature as writer/director from actor Jesse Eisenberg (The Squid and the Whale, The Social Network). It focuses on two mis-matched Jewish-American cousins, the uptight David (Eisenberg), and free spirit Benji, going on a tour to Poland to explore their family roots. 

Eisenberg originally intended to play Benji himself, but on the advice of his sister, who said “there is only one person on the planet who could play this part”, he instead cast Kieran Culkin: an actor whose work Eisenberg himself had seen little of at the time of casting, but is widely known to TV audiences for his Emmy-winning performance as Roman Roy in Succession. While Culkin’s bravura performance attracted the most attention, and swept the boards during awards season, the complex and often hilarious dynamic between the two main actors is at the heart of the film and its success.  

Eisenberg’s award-winning screenplay draws on a trip that he himself took with his wife in 2008 to explore his family’s Polish roots. The house shown in the film as the end destination of the cousins’ journey was the home of his great-aunt Doris, who fled the Nazis in 1938; after his 2008 trip Eisenberg took a photo of the house back to show to her. 

In recognition of his film Eisenberg was awarded Polish citizenship by President Andrzej Duda, and expressed the hope in his acceptance speech that this would be the first step of his family reconnecting to Poland, where they had lived so long, but to which they no longer felt any connection – a key theme explored in his film.

“A Real Pain is a sublime, Rolls-Royce version of that often mis-handled genre: the mis-matched buddy comedy … a brilliant portrayal of shifting family dynamics in all its complicated, relatable messiness.” Ian Freer, Empire Magazine

“Eisenberg’s accomplished direction makes it seem effortless.” Wendy Ide, Observer

Starring: Kieran Culkin, Jesse Eisenberg, Will Sharpe, Jennifer Grey, Kurt Egyiawan, Liza Sadovy, Daniel Oreskes.

Awards: Oscar Best Supporting Actor; BAFTA Best Original Screenplay.

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