A Real Pain

Smart, funny, and kind of exhausting. The motif here is Chopin (Polish composer), with the occasional curveball, “Hava Nagila,” or “Tea for Two” that jolts you back into the mess of reality.  The characters are split between manic extroversion and anxious introversion, Jekyll and Hyde. Both valid, both stuck needing each other. Cultural appropriation even gets addressed without feeling like a checkbox. You end up loving and hating them at the same time.  I probably relate to Benji more than most would guess, he feels too much and thinks too deeply, as if he doesn’t have a choice. By the end you laugh and recognize parts of yourself you’d rather not admit. That’s good cinema.