Finally Friday - A Real Pain

By the time you read this review, A Real  Pain might be streaming. It's a small artsy film created and directed and acted in by Jesse Eisenberg.  I've always liked him - he plays an excellent nerdy, angsty dude with a good heart.   His close cousin in this film is played by Kieran Culkin - a rather eccentric actor with soulful  eyes. 

The two are off on  a special Poland tour with an emphasis on Jewish history and the Holocaust.  They leave the tour a day early to visit their grandmother's town to see where she grew  up.  Both men fondly remember the grandmother, but Benji (Culkin) talked to her weekly and took her death hard. He's a "lost boy/man" and even attempted suicide. David (Eisenberg) is married with a young boy, but worries about Benji and is trying  to understand his cousin.

Benji is the charmer and makes friends with all in the tour group. He's extra sensitive and seems to extract MORE from the whole experience. David just wants to not make waves in the world.  The movie is "small" and yet is filled with great acting, a lot to think about in regards to family and connection, and it respects history.  The Poland backdrop is a bonus. 

It's a very weird little thinking movie, and I liked it.  Not  for everyone, that's for sure.