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Jesse Eisenberg’s A Real Pain premiered at the Sundance Film Festival 2024 earlier this week. The comedy-drama follows mismatched cousins David (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 pair’s old tensions resurface against the backdrop of their family history.
Written and directed by star Jesse Eisenberg (When You Finish Saving the World), this is his second directorial feature. A Real Pain is somewhat based on Eisenberg’s family history with the movie being filmed in some locations linked to Eisenberg’s family origins in Poland. That gives it an added emotional layer.
Jesse Eisenberg’s (The Social Network) David plays his usual neurotic character. Being an anxious person myself, I find watching him makes me feel even more anxious. The character seems close to his real-life persona and thus is one that feels very real.
Although A Real Pain is written, directed, and starring Jesse Eisenberg, it feels very much like it’s all about Kieran Culkin (Succession). Benji is a livelier character, he has more highs and lows than David. He brings a lot of emotion to what is, understandably, a very somber holocaust tour. It’s not too far away from Culkin’s Roman in Succession, it’s a role he fills with aplomb.
A Real Pain is very much about the two cousins. The rest of the tour group isn’t given a lot to do within the tight 90-minute runtime. Will Sharpe’s (The White Lotus) tour guide James provides a lot of context for the audience as well as the tour group. He does well with what is essentially an exposition role.
The film is beautifully shot by Michal Dymek (EO), he shows the beauty of the architecture of Poland in a simple yet stylish way. The classical music that accompanies it is perfect for the tone of the film. It’s also not overplayed during some of the more emotional parts of the film, leaving the images to do the talking.
A Real Pain isn’t a 5-star film for me but it’s a strong effort. I didn’t get enough to explain the tension between the cousins, that seemed a little vague. The images of the concentration camp hit hard, they are perfectly shown without over explaining or lingering too long. The film sure has its emotional moments but as a whole it didn’t click perfectly.
The film was bought by Searchlight for $10 million, to be released later this year in theatres. I think A Real Pain is worth watching, it has some good moments and Culkin’s performance is great. Eisenberg has shown promise as a director in both of his features. His future efforts will be worth looking out for.
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Miikka Skaffari/Getty Images By Victoria Uwumarogie ·
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Scott Olson / Staff / Getty Images By Rayna Reid Rayford ·Updated March 1, 2024
In honor of Beyoncé releasing her next country album, ESSENCE is shining a light on the lesser-known history of the Black women of the wild, wild west.
In modern media, cowboys have stereotypically been depicted “as White men defending their ranch from Indigenous groups. [But i]n reality, Black and Native Americans comprised a notable percentage of these cowboy groups.”
During the 1890s in Montana, formerly enslaved Mary Fields, more widely known by her nickname Stagecoach Mary, was the first Black woman to carry mail. And “she stood out on the trail—and became a Wild West legend. Rumor had it that she’d fended off an angry pack of wolves with her rifle, had ‘the temperament of a grizzly bear.’”
“She met trains with mail, then drove her stagecoach over rocky, rough roads and through snow and inclement weather.” More importantly, “would-be mail thieves didn’t stand a chance against Stagecoach Mary.”
Another notable woman from that time was Henrietta Williams Foster, affectionately referred to as Aunt Rittie. Foster, a cowhand who resided in Refugio County in South Texas, “was considered a tenacious, tough-as-nails woman who would ride her horse sidesaddle in long skirts and could perform the same work as the men.”
A member of the Black Seminole community, Johanna “Chona” Phillips July Wilkes Lasley was an extremely skilled horse tamer during the late 1800s. As an interviewee of the Federal Writers’ Project, in an atypical move for women of the time, Lasley “became an expert horse breaker” and after her father’s death, she “continued his work.” Her method “She put on her clothes that needed washing and led the horse to the Rio Grande…pulled the horse into the deep water forcing it to swim. She stayed in the water until the horse tired and then she hopped on its back and rode out of the river. Her method of gentling the horse took advantage of the terrain and lessened her chore of cleaning her garments.”
Before Mulan, there was Cathay Williams, who is credited with being “the first African-American woman to enlist in the army and did so by disguising herself as a man. Though she was hospitalized five times, no one ever discovered her secret. She called herself William Cathay and was deemed fit for duty.” Following her time in combat, she moved out to Colorado and was married. But after her husband tried to steal her money and her horses, she had him arrested.
These were among just some of the women who lived and thrived in that era. According to Cowgirl Magazine, “African American women made enormous contributions to the advancement and culture of the West. They built towns, established charities, created schools, developed churches, and did dangerous jobs such as delivering the mail. They were real estate magnates, writers, celebrated chefs, investors, and trailblazers.”
TOPICS: beyoncé country music cowgirlThe post It’s Not Our First Rodeo: Black Women In The Wild, Wild West appeared first on Essence.