This week:
- Recovering from Halloween.
- My favorite Oscar contender of the year.
- Another stunning musical premieres in New York.
- Adele and Céline!
- Welcome to a new queen of Bravo.
One of the Best Movies of the Year
Way back in January, I saw what was, at that point, my favorite film of 2024 so far. (There wasn’t much for comparison.) Almost 11 months later, however, my answer hasn’t changed: A Real Pain is still my favorite film of the year.
Following its rapturous reception in January at the Sundance Film Festival , the movie has been a fixture on the festival circuit and Oscars campaign trail. Starting this weekend, it’s now in theaters.
A Real Pain is written and directed by Jesse Eisenberg, who also stars alongside Kieran Culkin. They play cousins who go on a historical group tour of Poland following their grandmother’s death, specifically to see the concentration camp she survived and the house she grew up in.
They’re a bit of an odd couple: Eisenberg’s David is a high-strung family man who is out of sorts being so far from his typical routine. Culkin’s Benji, however, is a walking id: at one moment spontaneous and euphoric to the point of unhinged, the next morose in a silent stupor, as if a light switch is turning his personality off and on, with extreme wattage.