A Reel Joy | A Real Pain (2024) Movie Review | #OscarsHomework
For the benefit of younger readers, ‘reel’ is ancient filmmaking technology 📽️
I LiveSky film reviews over on BlueSky, and then piece them together with commentary to make my full reviews here on Medium before they go to Letterbox’d. Please subscribe anywhere/everywhere you can for more of my shenanigans…
I wrote in fellow #OscarsHomework classmate A Different Man’s review that some (very few) scripts are good in a very particular way: a way that makes me say, ‘Goddamnit, this is SO good. I wish I’d written this.’ I referred to it as a joyous sense of playful jealousy.
Well, then, you can call me Britney (bitch), because #OscarsHomework just hit me (baby) one more time(d).
Hm. That didn’t quite work.
Writing’s hard, isn’t it?
Being pithy is difficult. To be honest, it’s kind of impossible to do in the moment, certainly not with any consistency. It tends to come in the edit, in revision — the iterative writing-and-rewriting cycle that separates a first draft from its final draft.
I think seasoned writers can tell (and, by extension, I obviously consider myself a ‘seasoned writer’) when a ‘product,’ i.e. something that is released as complete or finished, is sufficiently or even pleasingly refined. It gives a sense of denseness and richness that bears up under repeated viewings/readings.
The A Real Pain script gives that feeling of dense, rich substance, and will reward you for digging deeper. I’m finding myself pausing to savor a funny moment, or run it back to watch it again (Kieran Culkin is fucking dynamite — it seems he always is, but this is a really terrific showcase for what he does best). I often do it with my favorite YouTube creators: I’ll experience a moment, and a part of me almost goes, ‘… you didn’t!’ And I have to re-experience it.
I found myself doing it with A Real Pain a lot. Moreover, because subtitles didn’t work (as far as I could tell) on the stealing/streaming platform I watched it on (hey fox searchlight, what up?), I went to Reddit and downloaded the typewritten screenplay from something called Document Cloud dot org.
I don’t endorse whatever enterprise that is, just like I don’t endorse whatever stealing platform I used to find and watch this film, but as far as I can tell, I downloaded the actual shooting (?) script, and I used it as basically my closed captioning for the back half of the film, and even spent a little time playing catch-up with some moments I knew I wanted to highlight later (see my notes on Insta) now that I had the screenplay in hand.
I mean, think about it. If you’ve read any of my reviews, I didn’t remotely do anything like that for, say, Mufasa: The Lion King or Sonic 3.
If you told me Sonic 3 was produced entirely within a writer’s strike and never had a script of any kind, I’d believe you. I certainly didn’t go look for the fucking thing.
But I paused my watch of A Real Pain until I could hunt down the script, because I could feel that I was missing stuff, that there was enough substance running through it and showing up on screen that, without some aid, I wasn’t going to get to fully appreciate it.
Again, imagine me saying or thinking that about… say, Kraven the Hunter or even Nosferatu (2024), a film by a guy whose other work (The Northman, The Lighthouse, The Witch) I think is peerless genius, but the review of which was 80% marveling at how bad Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s performance as Friedrich Harding was.
Le coeur écrit ce qu’il veut. Qu’est-ce que tu veux? Avoir la patate.
If I have a hot (I have the potato!) take about A Real Pain, aside from that I absolutely love it and it’s worth celebrating on every level, it’s that Jesse Eisenberg has perhaps been snubbed by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, (I know, who cares, but it’s the time of year when I have to care) being left out of the intimate Group-of-Five nominated for Best Director.
If we’re listing slights (or, speaking of my Nosferatu review, airing grievances in the tradition of Nosferastivus), I think A Different Man deserves consideration for its script, as well. A Different Man and A Real Pain are pretty hands-down the two best scripts I saw made into films this year, and maybe in a while.
A Real Pain, of course, was nominated (and, in my humble opinion, should win) for its script, but not for its direction.
Jesse Eisenberg wrote, directed and starred in this film, by the way, which I may have forgotten to mention. It’s, like, a Singular Vision.
Also, it does my absolute favorite thing in writing that a script (or any collaborative creative effort) can do, which is that this brainchild of Jesse Eisenberg — that’s essentially him, on the page and on the screen — has the grace and good sense to let Kieran Culkin shine.
Consider, if you will, the drama you’ve no doubt heard about (or at least experienced the consequences of) with the Fast & Furious Franchise, where some of the talent are reportedly such colossal, lawyered-up pricks that their contracts mandate (to the director, mind you) how their fight sequences must go, and how they can never be made to look bad or less-than.
Fuck that. That fucking sucks. The results of that fucking suck. Proof’s in the pudding.
The Odd-Couple dynamic between Eisenberg’s David and Culkin’s Benji is obviously at the heart of this film, and David is funny. Maybe my favorite line from the script is this joke about, ‘there, but for the grace of no god,’ but hilariously, Benji doesn’t even hear it and blows it off entirely.
The generosity of spirit in delivering the best line you’ve written to a character who doesn’t hear it and moves on immediately is inspiring. It's fearless writing, in the precise opposite way that The Rock is cowardly or craven in his creative demands.
Kieran Culkin gets to shine. I need to find out whether the part was written for him (I’ve watched a handful of interviews, like this one with The Daily Show’s Jordan Klepper, but it hasn’t come up yet), but I noted for myself how much he was bringing to the role versus what was on the page. And what was on the page was already incisive and profound and terrific.
I almost couldn’t believe what Culkin was doing, at moments. He's a little bit hosed by the editing (his business with his right hand and floppy hair is probably included 4–6 too many times), but I think he deserves Best Supporting hands-down, and he kept surprising and delighting me through the entire (perfectly-paced) 90 minutes.
It’s why I had to keep pausing and rewinding. It’s why I needed the screenplay in another, visible tab for the back half of my watch. And — improbably — the more I invested in this film, the more it yielded back.
It’s part of a virtuous cycle that doesn’t always crescendo into unmitigated, no-notes success (see: the film I can’t let go, that apparently disappointed me personally on some level, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent). That script was doing some things early on that were similarly exciting, and signaled that it might be the kind of story and script that could be special.
Nope.
I mean, it’s fine. Watch it, or don’t.
But you’ve got to watch A Real Pain. And if/when you do, watch for moments like this one:
As James (a hilarious character, and an inspired bit of writing just as a narrative device — a decidedly not-Jewish, British tour guide on Jewish heritage tours) delivers this monologue, he slips from diagetic speech delivered to a group onscreen by a character onscreen to VO delivered nondiagetically, straight to us, the audience.
It happens as the group passes through a tunnel, and it’s like the moving pictures and sounds that film is comprised of combined in an exciting, didn’t-know-you-could-do-that way.
It’s really cool. It’s a really fun, cool moment, and even if you didn’t know exactly what the script was doing (this was definitely one of those moments where I had to glance over to confirm what I sensed was happening), your brain and your body probably felt it anyway.
I knew in the first 10 minutes the script was excellent, but the quality of the direction really only became apparent as the film progressed. This film doesn’t feel like Eisenberg's directorial debut. It has a confidence and polish that bespeak experience.
The cinematography and performances (and all the various elements that are a director’s job) were of such a consistent, startlingly-strong quality, I started to wonder over the course of the film whether AMPAS has some kind of unwritten-rules bias against first-time directors.
Why wasn’t Eisenberg nominated for this film's direction? That’s how well-directed it is, for my money; so good that it’s kind of crazy he wasn’t nominated at all.
Let’s examine the data, courtesy of Reddit user e8odie:
I primarily wondering how common it is or isn’t for debut films to get their directors nominated, and it’s not at all uncommon.
Also, bit of an aside, but holy shit was American Beauty in 1999 a misfire, especially with fellow directorial-debut Being John Malkovich right there. I don’t think either should have won; almost certainly, The Sixth Sense should have, no matter what your philosophy about awards-giving.
But I’m not here to relitigate Oscars of old. What am I here for? I guess I’m here to advocate for worthy creative endeavors and celebrate substantive works of art.
That’s what A Real Pain is. It’s special in the way that I hope every movie I sit down to watch is special.
These characters aren’t real; they’re better than real. They’re lived-in, authentic beings who — unlike the rest of us unpithy assholes — have the benefit of Eisenberg’s long hours at the… drafting table (why do I think other writers use drafting tables?).
These characters are wiser, smarter, wittier, more cutting and more profound than any of us could hope to be more than a few times here and there in our lifetimes.
If it were up to me, I’d award A Real Pain Best Original Screenplay (with A Different Man — again, not nominated — a pretty-close second-place/honorable mention), Best Supporting Actor (for Kieran Culkin’s performance alone) and Best Director for Jesse Eisenberg.
This film is the complete package. It’s billed as a dramedy or comedy-drama, which is damning with faint categorization. A Real Pain is the sort of artistic statement that defies characterization or categorization. But no matter what in cinema you value — the cinematography, sound design, good set dec, award-worthy performances, stylish and competent direction — A Real Pain is best-in-class and worthwhile.
Somehow, it’s truly more than the sum of all its high-value parts. It’s the magic of cinema. It’s real art.
And goddamnit, it’s so good. I wish I’d written it.
#OscarsHomework
My #OscarsHomework watch progress!
Best Pic 🟩⬛🟩🟩⬛⬛⬛🟩⬛🟩
Best Actress ⬛⬛⬛⬛🟩
Best Actor 🟩🟩⬛⬛🟩
Sup. Actress 🟩🟩⬛🟩🟩
Sup. Actor 🟩🟩⬛⬛🟩
Best Animated ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛
Best Int’l ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛
Directing 🟩⬛⬛🟩⬛
#oscaround
You never know with AMPAS. My contention is that they’re skittish, front-running, trend-chasing Followers by nature, prepossessed of a set of baseball-like Unwritten Rules, and so divining which way the Academy will lean is, to an extent, impossible; but also, they’ll probably do the least-brave of the things they could do, and the most in line with precedent.
For my money, having seen all films in this category now, Wicked has inarguably the best case. Hands-down, if you’re looking with your eyeballs at what’s on the screen, Wicked (Crowley & Sandales) is your winner.
However, AMPAS traditionally doesn’t acknowledge sci-fi as ‘real’ film, so this is one of the makeup award categories, and I can see giving Dune: Part Two a win for that reason. Also, Conclave is awards-bait with pretty impeccable set dec, but I think it’s going to get the Costume Design award, so Wicked is your winner for Production Design in 8 or 9 of the 10ish different ways I could see this (two-category parlay) going.
This one is a free-for-all. Nosferatu’s costuming is impeccable (that movie is profoundly tainted by Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s baffling performance, but it’s not like better costuming would have fixed that), and Gladiator II is an Oscars-legacy only nominated for one award (always something to keep an eye on).
To be honest, A Complete Unknown was gorgeously costumed and is precisely the sort of film AMPAS loves to be seen to show favor to.
But if you’re handicapping (and don’t — I’m a notoriously bad bet-placer, which is one reason I don’t do it much), Wicked ‘deserves’ the award, for my money, but could lose to literally any other film here, and AMPAS would feel they’d have made it right with Best Production Design.
So anything could happen with this one, but I’d ideally like to see Wicked take home the little gold man. Plus Eisenberg and Culkin, for Original Screenplay and Supporting Actor, respectively.
