By Angela Tricarico

Start 2025 with one of 2024’s best movies, now available to stream on-demand. A Real Pain was produced, written, and directed by Jesse Eisenberg, who also stars in the film’s lead role. It follows cousins David (Eisenberg) and Benji (an excellent Kieran Culkin) as they embark on a Holocaust tour trip to Poland to connect with their heritage and honor their late grandmother by visiting her childhood home. It’s a reunion of sorts, too, because the cousins, once close, drifted as life took them in different directions. David is a family man with a wife, a kid, and a steady 9-5 job; Benji is adrift and aimless especially in the wake of his grandmother’s death. The two, predictably, clash in a handful of scenes I haven’t been able to get out of my head, and while the film is mostly a two-hander, it features great supporting performances from Will Sharpe and Jennifer Grey. A Real Pain has been gaining well-deserved awards buzz, too, particularly for Culkin’s bold and devastating performance.

Photo: ©Searchlight Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection