The title of Jesse Eisenberg’s latest film (his second as director) carries a double meaning: first, it questions what truly constitutes “great pain” or “real pain,” weighed historically, individually, and collectively. The second refers to a real “pain in the ass” – mainly the explosive and uninhibited cousin Benji (Kieran Culkin), who, whether intentionally or not, constantly pushes the anxious David (played by Eisenberg) to the brink of despair. As the two Americans travel for a heritage tour through Poland, where their grandmother, a Holocaust survivor, once lived and fled from, A Real Pain wrestles with a hierarchy of suffering: collective trauma never fades into the background of the protagonists’ personal worries, yet the validity of their own anxieties is a constant source of internal conflict.

Dora Leu

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Graduated with a BA in film directing and a MA in film studies from UNATC; she's also studied history of art. Also collaborates with the Acoperisul de Sticla film magazine and is a former coordinator of FILM MENU. She's dedicated herself to '60-'70s Japanese cinema and Irish post-punk music bands. Still keeps a picture of Leslie Cheung in her wallet.

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