A Real Pain is a subtle but powerful exploration of remembrance culture and personal trauma

By Barry Langford, Professor of Film Studies, Royal Holloway University of London

We are constantly confronted by history. The history of our cultures and traditions. Of our families. Of our own personal relationships. Can we – or should we seek to – ever escape the tightly woven net of our preoccupation with our past?

Jesse Eisenberg explores these questions with curiosity, humour and insight in the lightly plotted, semi-road movie A Real Pain. In his second feature as writer-director, he also shows a commendable diffidence when it comes to offering definitive answers.

David (Eisenberg) and Benji (Kieran Culkin) are 40-something cousins, nearly identical…

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