This year’s cinematic accolades are due to be distributed amongst the most eclectic group of films in quite some time. Where the big ceremonies tend to favor serious dramas like the seeming frontrunner The Brutalist, there’s a wealth of genre creativity in the running as well, from The Substance, to Wicked, to Emilia Pérez.
Comedy is having a moment as well, with Jesse Eisenberg’s sophomore filmmaking effort A Real Pain having made leaps and bounds in the conversation as of late, with one Kieran Culkin having already picked up a Best ing Actor win at the 82nd Golden Globes; a win that’s bound to be just the first of many for the actor. For now, the buddy dramedy is enjoying the less-lucrative but equally-exciting honor of being the king of the Hulu castle.
Per FlixPatrol, A Real Pain continues to soar above the Hulu competition on both the film charts and the overall rankings, eclipsing such titles as Abbott Elementary, Hell’s Kitchen, and all five Twilight movies. Indeed, if you thought Edward’s eyes were the eyes of a killer, just wait until you see Culkin’s.
A Real Pain stars Eisenberg and Culkin as David and Benji Kaplan, two cousins who go on a heritage tour through Poland in honor of their late grandmother. During their trip, they navigate personal, interpersonal, and familial drama/trauma, bicker and reconcile, and come to with their pain against the backdrop of their Jewish ancestry.
A Real Pain‘s not-so-secret weapon is Benji, who imposes himself upon the world with an incomparable intensity. Whether that intensity takes the form of charming geniality or aggressive sensitivity depends on the moment you find him in. This contrasts with David, who’s much more reserved and anxious and wallflower-coded, often apologizing for the breakneck nature of his cousin.
In this way, Benji is the driving force of the film’s comedy. We know he’s always dialed up to much more extreme levels than anyone around him, but we never know which emotion — be it sarcasm, friendliness, or anger — he’s going to unleash from one minute to the next. This makes for a self-sufficient tension loop that allows his one-liners to land consistently (because we’re always waiting for him to do something), and this loop is given another element in the form of David, whose reactions to Benji’s behaviors are just as comedically and dramatically significant as Benji himself. In many ways, the audience lives vicariously through David.
The entirety of the film’s comedy, meanwhile, stands in balance with A Real Pain‘s emotional weight. In other words, this already well-constructed comedy framework is made even more potent by serving as the cheeky levity to the film’s gutting explorations of trauma, pain, envy, and mental health.
At just 90 minutes and sporting a rather simple narrative, A Real Pain seems like one of the humbler films populating the awards circuit this year. But beneath that unassuming front is one of the most intelligent screenplays to have come to life in the last few years, and coupled with Kieran Culkin’s domineeringly cutthroat performance, A Real Pain has more than earned its reputation as one of the foremost titans of this latest accolades race.
Published: Jan 21, 2025 12:30 pm