Kieran Culkin Is a Mercurial Pleasure in A Real Pain

This review was originally published on January 26, 2024 out of the Sundance Film Festival. We are recirculating it now timed to A Real Pain’s streaming debut on Hulu.

A touching character study anchored by a lively Kieran Culkin performance, Jesse Eisenberg’s A Real Pain moves gently and smoothly but hints at an all-consuming darkness underneath. The film, one of the breakout titles in the early days of this year’s Sundance, was bought by Fox Searchlight immediately after its world premiere...