If you have first cousins that you grew up with and remain close, you will understand the dynamic of the film A Real Pain.

David and Benji are cousins whose grandmother has recently passed away, leaving them a trip to their Jewish ancestral homeland. This trip ends up being less about what they learn about their heritage and more about what they already know about each other…

Story: Written, directed and co-produced by Jesse Eisenberg, A Real Pain is very much a dynamic driven story. How David and Benji interact; how Benji interacts with the other characters on the tour; how the other characters respond to Benji as an overwhelming character. I wasn’t as taken with the story as I was with the characters. Let’s move on to the characters…

Performances: Benji is frenetic. Played by Kieran Culkin, the story tends to focus heavily on what Benji is doing, when Benji is doing it. He ends up commandeering the entire tour group by negotiating them into critical thinking. And not necessarily about the obvious subject matter – the Holocaust – but about their lives and how they approach it.

Kieran Culkin won an Oscar for best supporting actor for this role and it is well deserved. And while Jesse Eisenberg is the brains behind the project, his character, and I would guess his role as Director, were surely overwhelmed by Benji AND Kieran…

It is also notable to watch the other tour participants and the guide go from disdain for Benji to complete adoration. Some of that is the writing… but most of it is the delivery. Enter Oscar nomination and win…

This performance also meets my Oscar litmus test. It is difficult to separate Kieran Culkin from Benji. You will forget along the way that you are watching a performance…

Visual: Nothing about this film looks out of place or expectation. Each person in the tour group looks like their back story. The locations are authentic and all of the expected elements are represented. But as previously mentioned, this is not a story about what you see as much as about what the characters experience along the way and with each other.

Rating: I have no choice but to give A Real Pain an A. Why no choice? Because there is nothing about this film that is disingenuous. Independent films tend to touch reality just a bit closer anyway… some with quirky twists… there are no quirky twists here. This is relationships on full display, as-is.

Shout out to the tour couple from Shaker Heights, Ohio and to Jesse Eisenberg for keeping my hometown’s tv and movie career alive…

See this film. And if you like it, see another indie film called Sacramento. The dynamic between the two main characters is similar and the ah-ha at the end is the same; cherish your relationships…