"It's an elegant and elegiac offering from Eisenberg."
— Esther Zuckerman, GQ
"Kieran Culkin gives what is among his absolute best performances to date."
— Chase Hutchinson, TheWrap
"This is a story that is perfectly weighted between bleak and warm, poignant and irreverent."
— Ed Potton, Times (UK)
"It’s a delight and a revelation — a deft, funny, heady, beautifully staged ramble of a road movie."
— Owen Gleiberman, Variety
"A frequently laugh-out-loud funny odd couple road trip movie whose emotional wallop sneaks up and floors you."
— David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter
"The result is a Holocaust film that’s both hilarious and devastatingly real, anchored by Culkin’s unforgettable performance."
— Devan Coggan, Entertainment Weekly
"It’s quite a journey for one film. All credit to Eisenberg, and his superb co-star, for making the road trip so thought-provoking."
— Jocelyn Noveck, Associated Press
"Eisenberg furthers himself here as a distinctive voice, one with a keen visual sense, a masterful ability to juggle tones and an innate feel for timing and pacing."
— Gary Goldstein, Los Angeles Times
"Together, [Culkin and Eisenberg] make for a winning pair, balancing each other in a variety of ways that speak to the material’s larger concerns about loss, grief, remembrance and regret."
— Nick Schager, The Daily Beast
"Eisenberg doesn’t force the laughs as he subtly explores the double meaning of the title. He’s developing a humanistic style in the vein of Hal Ashby and Alexander Payne and it’s a joy to watch."
— Peter Howell, Toronto Star
"Understated, funny, and gradually heart-swelling, writer-director Jesse Eisenberg’s Chopin-kissed sophomore feature is as graceful as movies come. Expect to hear about this one in the next awards season."
— Tomris Laffly, Harper's Bazaar
"Eisenberg’s rich script for 'A Real Pain' is the kind of nuanced character study that I could talk about for hours, but the main draw of this film is going to be the phenomenal performance from Kieran Culkin."
— Brian Tallerico, RogerEbert.com
"A comedy-drama that can be uproariously funny but also possesses melancholy, the film explores the long, terrible shadow of the Holocaust while investigating modern-day guilt and the delicacy of familial bonds."
— Tim Grierson, Screen International
"What’s most wonderful about the movie is its radiant generosity. Eisenberg’s performance is terrific, muted and hyperkinetic in all the right ways. But most often, he’s subtly directing attention to his co-star. Culkin is extraordinary."
— Stephanie Zacharek, TIME Magazine
"Eisenberg uses this cockeyed version of a road movie to tell a funny, moving, casually profound story about family, friendship, the weight of the Jewish past, the weight of everyone’s past and the different ways one deals with suffering."
— John Powers, NPR
"'A Real Pain' manages to get laughs out of the characters’ interactions while deepening emotionally at every turn, a tribute to Eisenberg’s confidence with tone and compassion for the victims of history – both family history and the world’s."
— Ty Burr, Ty Burr's Watch List (Substack)
"Eisenberg has generously gifted his costar with the sort of raging-id role that most actors could only dream of, and Culkin rewards his director/castmate with the single greatest, funniest, most cringe-comic and heartbreaking performance of his career."
— David Fear, Rolling Stone
"Take in the pleasure of real teamwork as gifted writer-director-actor Jesse Eisenberg joins an Oscar worthy Kieran Culkin for a tale of New York cousins on a tour of Poland where their late grandma survived a Nazi death camp. You’ll laugh till it hurts."
— Peter Travers, ABC News
