‘A Real Pain’ Review: Kieran Culkin Leaves Roman Roy Behind In Jesse Eisenberg’s Intimate Road Movie – Sundance Film Festival
deadline.comPending Woody Allen’s final and absolute cancellation, few directors have emerged to take his place as an erudite and literary artist whose work combines snappy wordplay, base sex jokes and a philosophical willingness to stare into the abyss.
Jesse Eisenberg staked a tentative claim to that throne with his 2022 debut When You Finish Saving the World, an amiable but scrappy political satire about a left-wing mother and son, but his follow-up makes a stronger case, being much more adult, less broadly scripted, and as depressing as Woody Allen circa Stardust Memories (which his sophomore film as director obliquely resembles, with its talk of chance, fate and irony).
Key to its success is a career-high performance from Succession star Kieran Culkin, whose enigmatic presence bookends the movie.
In either case, he is sitting motionless at JFK airport, watching the world go by. He plays Benji, and he is waiting for his cousin David (Eisenberg) to join him on a tourist trip through Poland.
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