Kieran Culkin is amazing in ‘A Real Pain’ at Sundance

In the ‘80s, everyone was scared of Satanists. You know, the whole Satanic Panic era.

“Skywalkers: A Love Story” joins “Free Solo” in a film subgenre that can only be described as “F*ck That.” It’s an ultra-specific genre of documentary that showcases feats that are so incredibly dangerous that you not only shake your head in disbelief but actually get your heart beating harder as you hold your breath, imagining that if you don’t make a noise, then maybe these people won’t die right before your eyes.

By now, it should be evident that each passing year brings with it advancements in technology, landing anywhere on an imaginary graph containing the likes of the latest smartphone to a car that can brew a mean cup of coffee. One area that’s been hovering over the whole of humanity for far longer than a need for a house that dictates a grocery list is that of the afterlife; pondering what happens after each and every one of us shuffle off this mortal coil remains, quite possibly, an everlastingly unanswerable question, but for those left behind in the wake of a loved one’s passing, a more pressing matter would be the manner in which one deals with said loss, and how best to move on.

Kieran Culkin is opening up about what was happening with Jesse Eisenberg at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival!

Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story” and “Will & Harper” received emotional standing ovations, while “A Real Pain” and “It’s What’s Inside” defied the odds to score multimillion-dollar deals. As it enters its fifth decade, Sundance hasn’t lost its ability to excite us. But it needs to hustle to keep up with the changing times.

“We Are the World” was a once-in-a-generation meeting of musical giants when it was recorded Jan. 28, 1985 — and released two months later on March 7 — to benefit African famine relief.Anyone who was anyone in music at that moment — a who’s who of legends, including everyone from Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross and Bob Dylan to Billy Joel, Tina Turner and Bruce Springsteen — showed up to support the cause.Written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie and produced by Quincy Jones and ’80s hitmaker Michael Omartian, the single sold a whopping 20 million copies.

Pending Woody Allen’s final and absolute cancellation, few directors have emerged to take his place as an erudite and literary artist whose work combines snappy wordplay, base sex jokes and a philosophical willingness to stare into the abyss. Jesse Eisenberg staked a tentative claim to that throne with his 2022 debut When You Finish Saving the World, an amiable but scrappy political satire about a left-wing mother and son, but his follow-up makes a stronger case, being much more adult, less broadly scripted, and as depressing as Woody Allen circa Stardust Memories (which his sophomore film as director obliquely resembles, with its talk of chance, fate and irony).

The first line of “Winner” says it all: “My name is Reality Winner.” This uninspired introduction to the character, an NSA employee who leaked classified documents surrounding Russian election interference to the media, sets the tone for what’s to follow. Susanna Fogel’s film is not actively bad, just aggressively bland.

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic More actors than ever are now stepping behind the camera to take a shot at directing. To me, they always end up falling into one of three categories. There are the ones who simply aren’t very good at it.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter Jesse Eisenberg’s “A Real Pain,” one of the buzziest movies to premiere so far at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, has sold to Searchlight in a huge $10 million deal. Given the warm reception in Park City, the film sparked a bidding war among several distributions to land global rights. Eisenberg directed “A Real Pain” in addition to starring alongside Kieran Culkin.

EXCLUSIVE: The dealmaking has begun. Searchlight Pictures closed the first major deal on the ground at the Sundance Film Festival — $10 million for WW rights for A Real Pain, directed and written by Jesse Eisenberg. He stars with freshly minted Emmy winning Succession star Kieran Culkin as mismatched cousins David and Benji. They reunite for a tour of Poland to honor their grandmother, but older tensions resurface against the backdrop of their family’s history. The film will get a big theatrical release later this year.

Succession actor gave a recent interview to Rolling Stone, where he was asked about the lessons he’d learned watching Macaulay “walk through the flames” before him.“What happened to him as a little kid was very unpleasant,” he said. “He was like, “Oh, I fucked my life.

PARK CITY – There are multiple meanings to the title of Jesse Eisenberg’s latest directorial effort, “A Real Pain.” There is the pain that cousins Benji Kaplan (Eisenberg) and David Kaplan (Keiran Culkin) are experiencing over the passing of their beloved grandmother and there is the pain Benji is feeling over a horrifying incident in his cousin’s life. The most pressing example, however, is in David’s soul.

Stephen Rodrick Jesse Eisenberg‘s “A Real Pain” stars Eisenberg and Kieran Culkin as mismatched New York Jewish cousins. They’re on a trip to Poland in search of the life that their recently dead grandmother lived before the Holocaust. Benji is a buttoned up neurotic on OCD medicine while David is a charming fuckup with no prospects but a mouth that is equally hilarious and malignantly obnoxious.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Jesse Eisenberg is officially giving his Lex Luthor advice to Nicholas Hoult, and it’s blunt: “Don’t watch me!” During an interview at the Variety Studio presented by Audible while attending the Sundance Film Festival, Eisenberg suggested Hoult should forge his own path and not pay attention to Eisenberg’s own work as Lex Luthor in Zack Snyder’s DC Universe. “Whenever you play a role you feel connected to it,” Eisenberg added to Variety‘s Matt Donnelly about playing the DC villain for a short time.

The sling was off as The Last of Us star Pedro Pascal made his way through the red carpet for the Sundance Film Festival premiere of his movie Freaky Tales on Thursday.

William Earl Variety is returning to the Sundance Film Festival this year with its annual Interview Studio, presented by Audible, the leading creator and provider of premium audio storytelling. Throughout the festival, videos from the interview studio will be distributed across Variety.com as well as Variety and Audible’s social media channels (Instagram: @audible, @Variety; Twitter: @audible_com, @Variety; TikTok: @audible, @VarietyMagazine).

Emma Stone and Kieran Culkin dated many, many years ago and now they’re both being celebrated during the same awards season!

Kieran Culkin might have spoken out a little too much.

Pedro Pascal put Kieran Culkin on blast!