“A Real Pain” film is written and directed by Jesse Eisenberg is about two cousins with complete polar opposite personalities that come together to take a trip to Poland in memory of their grandmother who recently passed away. While they appear happy to reunite, the journey only rehashes their past conflicts with one another.

The movie beings with the melodramatic music, which sets the tone when we see Benji Kaplan (Kieran Culkin) sitting at the airport, with the look of no care of the world while waiting for his cousin David Kaplan ( Jesse Eisenberg) to show up. They seem excited to see each other and ready to get on the flight to Poland. However, Benji’s personality begins to emerge and so does the comedy. Benji uses flattery in such a hilarious way to manipulate David, and gets what he wants out of him. When they meet up with other people in their tour, Benji uses his dark raw sense of humor and becomes the popular one in the group. During their sightseeing of the city, Benji coerces David in to taking pictures for everyone on their cellphones and gets treated as the errand boy.

It gets more hysterical with Benji’s continuous satire and deflecting his actions onto David, and even becomes brazen to the tour guide James (Will Sharpe). Benji manages to get his way again, and strangely enough the group is mesmerized. There is a crucial moment where the group visits a concentration camp and are asked to remain silent out of respect… I gasped, along with others in the theater, hoping Benji doesn’t act out… In fact, the visit to the Holocaust allowed him to grieve. But nonetheless, Benji waited for the opportunity to get the group’s attention with his sobbing.

During a group dinner, David lashes out and “over shares” the deep personal family issues involving Benji that results in the group showing sympathy towards Benji – the vanity for more attention. In the hotel room, David finally confronts Benji and they vent out their differences. The point being, Benji needs to get over his emotional hurt and move on. David strikes a chord with Benji when he tells him how he can light up a room, but manages to ruin the moment.

At the end of the movie, the Kaplan cousins are back home at the airport. David politely invites Benji to stay with him in New York for dinner and to meet his family, but Benji kindly declines. Benji tells David he prefers to hang around the airport because, “You meet the craziest people here (airport).” The emotions hit you when you see Benji left sitting alone in a crowded airport. The look in his eyes says it all.

Kieran Culkin has an another outstanding performance portraying an emotionally disturbed young man, Benji, who is unable to overcome his personal complex issues. Culkin’s talent illuminates the screen with is incredible diverse acting that contributes to the story’s depth. He really brings the audience to laughter and leaves them feeling empathy for Benji’s pain.

Jesse Eisenberg did a magnificent job with directing this film. He turned a painful situation into a dramatic comedy in a lighthearted way focusing on the love hate between relatives, something the audience can relate to. In a particular scene, the Kaplan cousins take a car ride to visit the town their deceased grandmother found refuge from the camps, along the way they pass a sign similar to the Pisces in the zodiac. We see this sign again when they leave the town. I saw this as a symbolism of how opposite David and Benji’s characters are from each other. David is the responsible, and successful, family man. Benji is carefree, impulsive, snarky, and unstable. Could the fish also symbolize Benji fishing for attention to comfort his pain, as we see him people watching at the airport?

“A Real Pain“ is truly worthy of some Oscar nominations.

RED ONE is a Christmas movie with a Marvel superhero feel from another time, another place, another dimension. It starts off with a young Jack O’Malley finding Christmas presents hidden in a closet, proving that there is no Santa Claus. Jack is then mocked by his cousin telling him that if he can find the presents, then he can then find his estranged father. From this point on Jack becomes disgruntled with Christmas. Fast forward 30 years, adult Jack (Chris Evans) is a conceited grifter and still despises Christmas. He also has a son, Dylan (Wesley Kimmel) that he somewhat neglects. Jack’s cockiness resembles the personality of Johnny Storm – Human Torch from Fantastic Four.

Santa Claus (J. K. Simmons), aka Nick, code name RED ONE, has his personal bodyguard Callum “Cal” Drift (Dwayne Johnson), which serves more like a secret service agent. The movie picks up momentum when RED ONE is kidnapped by a witch named Gryla (Kieran Shipka), and Jack is hired to track him down with the help of Cal. In the quest to save Nick, our Christmas heroes Jack and Cal encounter Krampus (Kristofer Hivju) who happens to be Nick’s brother. There is a lot of hilarious action fight scenes and cool gadgets. Honorable mention to ELF Agent Garcia, the huge adorable polar bear. Do not mess with this bear!

RED ONE has a lot of entertaining similarities to the Marvel Cinematic Universe – Gryla looks like Storm from X-Men, Dylan’s resemblance to Bucky Barnes (The Winter Solider), Cal shrinking like Ant-Man, Nick’s jumping moves like Spider-Man, and a bridge very similar to Bifröst (Thor). There were even snowman creatures that look familiar to the Night King from Game of Thrones. Surely, Director Jake Kasdan and Writer Hiram Garcia had fun making this film.

In general, the movie is about making life choices, good and bad. Jack and Cal each come to a pivotal moment where they have the opportunity to make amends within their personal affairs. Due to some intense scenes and language, this Christmas movie is recommended for teens and adults, especially for the Marvel fans.

Academy Award winner Halle Berry and director Alexandre Aja are in Austin, TX for the annual Fantastic Fest Film Festival to premiere their new horror film Never Let go. Hear our thoughts on the film and be sure to check out the movie in theaters this weekend. Stay tuned, more from Fantastic Fest 2024 coming soon.

Star and executive producer Halle Berry, director Alexandre Aja, executive producer Holly Jeter, and screenwriter Ryan Grassby.