Jesse Eisenberg’s sophomore go at directing, A Real Pain, gets trailer

Jesse Eisenberg’s sophomore directorial effort, A Real Pain, was anything but out of this year’s Sundance Film Festival. Not only did it earn Eisenberg the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award but it was also up for the Grand Jury Prize, a remarkable achievement considering he’s so fresh to that particular field. Now, ahead of the film’s fall release, Searchlight Pictures has released the official trailer.

As per Searchlight, A Real Pain has the following plot: “Mismatched cousins David (Jesse Eisenberg) and Benji (Kieran Culkin) 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.” OK, that might seem fairly heavy, but there is still some comedy – albeit plenty of it dark – to be found in the movie, marked through the chemistry between Eisenberg and Culkin.

On this matter, Eisenberg said, “I became interested in that topic and thinking about the privilege versus trauma and how people like me walk around feeling bad for themselves over petty things when I actually know for a fact that my family suffered existential trauma, and just trying to reconcile how to think about that. So I’ve been thinking about it and writing stuff around this topic for a long time. And then the movie came.”

Outside of Eisenberg, A Real Pain is garnering praise for co-star Culkin, landing his first major role since HBO’s Succession – which earned him an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor and a pair of nominations in the supporting category – went off the air last year. The supporting cast features Will Sharpe and Jennifer Grey.

A Real Pain is Jesse Eisenberg’s first directorial work since 2022’s When You Finish Saving the World, which our own Chris Bumbray gave a 7/10 out of that year’s Sundance Film Festival. But more to the point, you can read his 9/10 review of A Real Pain, a movie he ultimately named as one of the best of this year’s fest.

A Real Pain arrives in theaters on November 1st.

What did you think of the trailer for A Real Pain? What are your thoughts on Jesse Eisenberg as a director so far?