A Real Pain Conversation Guide
The new film, A REAL PAIN, presented by Searchlight Pictures, follows mismatched cousins David (Jesse Eisenberg) and Benji (Kieran Culkin) as they reunite for a tour through Poland to honor their beloved grandmother. The adventure takes a turn when the odd-couple’s old tensions resurface against the backdrop of their family history. Find out here where to see the film and get information about group tickets here.
Reboot partnered with Searchlight Pictures to create a conversation guide for A Real Pain. Reboot’s guide examines the story of the film’s characters and contextualizes the themes and lessons for the modern experience. These free resources can be used individually or with your friends, family or larger community to foster meaningful conversation and Jewish learning and offer an opportunity to take lessons from this time in history (Just do it after you watch the film to avoid spoilers!).
Download the Guide Here Now!
Directed and written by Academy Award® nominee Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network, Zombieland), A REAL PAIN, stars Eisenberg alongside Emmy® and Golden Globe® winner Kieran Culkin (“Succession,” Scott Pilgrim vs. the World), with a cast rounded out by BAFTA winner and Emmy® nominee Will Sharpe (“The White Lotus”), Golden Globe® nominee Jennifer Grey (Dirty Dancing), Kurt Egyiawan (Beasts of No Nation), Liza Sadovy (“A Small Light”), and Daniel Oreskes (The Thomas Crown Affair, “Only Murders in the Building”).
It was during a trip to Poland, with his now-wife Anna Strout, that Eisenberg had what he calls a “strange revelation.” A two-week trip through the country landed him at the tiny house in the village of Kranystaw, where his aunt Doris had lived before the Holocaust displaced her entire family. “Had the war not happened, this is where I would be living,” Eisenberg remembers thinking. “What would my life be like? Who would I be?”
Twenty years later, Eisenberg found himself back at that house, this time as the director, writer, and co-star of A Real Pain. In the film Eisenberg plays David, a New Yorker and young father who goes on a tour of Polish Holocaust history accompanied by his cousin Benji, played by Kieran Culkin, thanks to money left by their recently deceased grandmother. Joining a tour group led by the affable James, played by Will Sharpe, David and Benji rekindle their childhood bonds as they grapple with the family tragedies of the past that still, in some ways, define them.
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