A Real Pain. 2024. Written and directed by Jesse Eisenberg

Film

No upcoming events

Held on Fri, Nov 22, 7:00 p.m.

Followed by a conversation with Jesse Eisenberg

MoMA, Floor T2/T1, Theater 1

The Roy and Niuta Titus Theater 1

Tickets are available to members at the Explore category and above beginning two weeks before each screening date. Additional tickets will be released, to members as well as the general public, one week before each screening date. Please note that space is extremely limited and tickets will be in high demand. Tickets can be reserved at moma.org/contenders beginning at 10:30am ET.

A Real Pain. 2024. USA. Directed by Jesse Eisenberg. Courtesy Searchlight Pictures

A Real Pain. 2024. USA. Written and directed by Jesse Eisenberg. With Jesse Eisenberg, Kieran Culkin, Will Sharpey. DCP courtesy Searchlight Pictures. 90 min.

Family can mean many things—from reassurance to resentment, calm comfort to agitated anxiety—and inherited trauma often feels inescapable. With A Real Pain, actor/director Jesse Eisenberg sets out to discover whether nurturing familial bonds can form a bridge to a better future. Joined by a brilliant Kieran Culkin, Eisenberg lovingly tells the story of two cousins who return to Poland, the birthplace of their adored grandmother, a holocaust survivor. By turns sweet, self-absorbed, and completely unprepared for real life, these two young men search for a connection to each other and their shared history.

This film accompanies The Contenders 2024.

Licensing

If you would like to reproduce an image of a work of art in MoMA’s collection, or an image of a MoMA publication or archival material (including installation views, checklists, and press releases), please contact Art Resource (publication in North America) or Scala Archives (publication in all other geographic locations).

MoMA licenses archival audio and select out of copyright film clips from our film collection. At this time, MoMA produced video cannot be licensed by MoMA/Scala. All requests to license archival audio or out of copyright film clips should be addressed to Scala Archives at [email protected]. Motion picture film stills cannot be licensed by MoMA/Scala. For access to motion picture film stills for research purposes, please contact the Film Study Center at [email protected]. For more information about film loans and our Circulating Film and Video Library, please visit https://www.moma.org/research/circulating-film.

If you would like to reproduce text from a MoMA publication, please email [email protected]. If you would like to publish text from MoMA’s archival materials, please fill out this permission form and send to [email protected].