A Real Pain

Kieran Culkin proves why he was Succession’s MVP in Jesse Eisenberg’s latest.

...an endearing dramedy written and directed by Eisenberg.

Jesse Eisenberg’s empathetic comedy about facing the abyss.

Kieran Culkin is heartbreaking and hilarious in Jesse Eisenberg’s A Real Pain.

...a combustion of performance styles: Culkin and Eisenberg play extremely to their types.

At times wryly funny, in other moments profoundly sad, it’s a competent but occasionally sedate dramedy that demonstrates Eisenberg’s willingness to buck narrative convention and leave his characters still questing for deeper meaning.