22/45

David Kaplan: Yes

Discordant cousins ​​gathered on a tour of Poland in honor of their beloved grandmother. The adventure takes a turn when the odd couple’s old tensions resurface against the background of their family history. When Benji and David visit their grandmother's home in Poland, the place where Jesse Eisenberg' his actual ancestors settled in the diaspora.. Benji Kaplan: We stay on the move, we stay light, we stay agile. Benji Kaplan: The conductor will pass by, take the tickets, we tell him we’re going to the toilet. David Kaplan: Bathroom. Benji Kaplan: Gets to the back of the train, moves to the front looking for stragglers.

Benji Kaplan: Yes

David Kaplan: Excuse me, where are the stragglers? By the time he reaches the front, the train will be at the station and we are home free. David Kaplan: This is so fucking stupid. Tickets are probably like twelve bucks. Benji Kaplan: That’s the principle of the thing. We should not pay for train tickets in Poland. This is our country.

Featured on CBS News Sunday Morning: Episode #4644 (2024)

David Kaplan: No, it wasn’t, it was our country. They kicked us out because they thought we were cheap.. 12 Etudes, Op. 25, no. 3 in F major Written by Frederic Chopin Performed by Tzvi Erez. Jesse Eisenberg’s second attempt as a writer-director presents something unconventional. There’s something of Richard Linklater’s BEFORE trilogy in the DNA of TRUE PAIN, with some recognizable heritage from Michael Winterbottom’s TRIP series also present.

it doesn’t work exactly

obviously. The slow pacing, the sluggish cinematography that asks you to look below the surface of tourist attractions, the dialogue that meanders through an unpretentious and unstructured unpacking of the meaning of life, the complete absence of any "bad guys" the almost complete absence of any overt conflict, the slightest hint of any goal driving the plot, other than the completion of a simple travelogue… True Pain shares all these realistic features with those earlier, more vibrant, life-affirming films. Yet somehow… I never really got into this movie. I think a big part of it had to do with all the supporting characters (i.e. everyone except the cousins ​​ played by Eisenberg and Kieran Culkin). Will Sharpe’s non-Jewish guide, a Rwandan convert, an old couple, a sexy divorcee… all the characters are very basic, very conventional, very boring.

Eisenberg he knows how to direct the camera, I mean; he knows how to put the appropriate cinematic elements in place

The actors who play them are good, but they don’t have much to do, so they seem unnatural and lifeless, more like decorations than people. But maybe he doesn’t know how to direct actors, or maybe he just doesn’t know how to write characters. There is nothing to suggest that these people exist outside of the moments in which we see them, which could perhaps be improved by some more spontaneous improvisation from the actors. Eisenberg and especially Culkin are better in this regard, but there is still something quite choppy and "written" ; about a lot of what they say and do. Eisenberg’s “workaholic salesman with OCD” is mostly one-dimensional, and the few times his character expands beyond that facade feel more like forced acting than any kind of genuine insight into something deeper. Culkin is gorgeous–maybe a glimpse of his Succession character if Roman Roy really cared about people–but I think that’s just a credit to Culkin’s talent; he somehow manages to surpass what he’s given to work with. This is a decent indie film with a few good laughs, a few interesting ideas, a memorable tour of Poland, and a solid performance from Culkin.