A Real Pain, Only in Cinemas Boxing Day

The holiday period is when a lot of family drama can spill out. This year, save it for the screen and catch this comedy-drama from Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network, Now You See Me), who acts in, writes and directs the flick.

A Real Pain tells the subtly funny story of mismatched cousins David (Eisenberg) and Benji (Succession’s Kieran Culkin) Kaplin as they trace their family history back to their grandmother’s childhood home in Poland. With polar opposite personalities, the resulting road trip is a comedic – and at times dramatic – romp with devastatingly resonant moments as the pair try to contextualise a great tragedy and its generational impact.

Also including Will Sharpe (from the second season of The White Lotus), the star cast members really lean into their individual strengths. As is Eisenberg’s preferred form, David is an anxious and perpetually uncomfortable New Yorker, while Culkin plays an impulsive man-child not unlike Roman Roy. Together, the chaotic cousins join a tour group in Poland led by the mild-tempered and slightly detached James (Sharpe). The pair peel away from the group to visit the childhood home of their grandmother Dory, who escaped the Holocaust and built a new life.

The production was also a homecoming of sorts for Eisenberg: the house used as Dory’s home in the film is the same one the actor-filmmaker’s family lived in until 1939. Krasnystaw, the town in his film, awarded Eisenberg honorary citizenship earlier this year.

While this time of year sees no shortage of blockbusters, A Real Pain has garnered critical acclaim following a limited theatrical release in the US and a run on the film festival circuit; the American Film Insitute named it a top 10 film of 2024, and it's received a number of nominations at the upcoming Golden Globes – including Best Motion Picture (Musical or Comedy), Best Screenplay and acting nods for the two leads.

A Real Pain lands in Australian cinemas on Boxing Day, Thursday December 26 – just in time to escape your own family-induced tears.

This article is produced by Broadsheet in partnership with Searchlight Pictures.