The most acclaimed films from this past January’s Sundance Film Festival were “Didi,” “Love Lies Bleeding,” “I Saw the TV Glow,” “Good One” and “A Real Pain.”
Jesse Eisenberg won the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award for “A Real Pain,” which he also directed, and the film went on to be bought by Searchlight for a hearty sum of $10 million. It was one of, if not the, most critically acclaimed film of the festival.
This morning, Searchlight revealed a trailer for “A Real Pain,” which is set to open in limited release on November 1, and expand its theater count a few weeks after that.
Searchlight clearly has Oscar hopes for this film, which is a minimalist character study about two mismatched cousins, David (Eisenberg) and Benji (Kieran Culkin), who reunite for a tour of Poland to honor their grandmother. However, older tensions resurface against the backdrop of their family’s holocaust history.
The cast is rounded out by Will Sharpe, Jennifer Grey, Ellora Torchia, Kurt Egylawan, Liza Sadovy, and Daniel Oreskes. It’s not a showy film, at all. Eisenberg actually borrows heavily from Linklater’s “Before Sunset” in the way he gets his 84-minute film to be carried by characters walking and talking.
In terms of awards, Culkin will be a Supporting Actor contender, he’s great in the film, and Original Screenplay (Eisenberg) will definitely be in play. Best Picture is also doable, especially if more critics jump onboard the ‘Real Pain’ bandwagon come November — the film currently has an 84 on Metacritic.
“A Real Pain” might turn out to be Searchlight’s top priority this year. There’s also “A Complete Unknown,” which is still a major question mark. Their other big films of 2024 (“Kinds of Kindness,” “Nightbitch,” “In the Blink of an Eye”) didn’t seem to pan out in the awards race.