A Real Pain, the newest film from Jesse Eisenberg, starring himself and Kieran Culkin, is one I saw back in January at Sundance, and it remains one of my favorites of the year. And if his feature film debut, When You Finish Saving the World, was very good if somewhat shakier, A Real Painnow indicates Eisenberg is a director to be reckoned with: this latest film is, justifiably, on the Oscar predictions lists, especially for its screenplay and for the performance it elicits from Culkin. 

The story follows David (Eisenberg) and Benji (Culkin) as two cousins on a guided tour through Poland to honor their grandmother and their family history as well as their Jewish history. The beauty of the film is, in part, that the necessarily fraught historical backdrop does not take center stage as it might in so many other films even though it is an essential part of the film. Rather, the narrative is foregrounded by the personal relationship between David and Benji, two people who could not be more unlike one another but who also have deeply connected roots, both emotional and familial. David is a regimented, uptight, socially awkward and reserved rule-follower, while Benji is the complete opposite: instantly confidently making friends with everyone else on the tour, flouting all the rules (much to David's chagrin), and seemingly taking a totally unserious view of life. 

The contrast between the two men and the inevitable tension between them makes for some wonderful comedic elements, earning the film's designation as a "comedy, drama" and evoking a sort of odd-couple-buddy-comedy-road movie in the vein of Midnight Run. But as you might suspect, Benji is not quite as unserious and confident as he appears, and the film ultimately ends in a beautifully rendered catharsis that deepens our sense of the humanity of both and of their relationship while also gently but profoundly bringing the enormity of the historical backdrop back into the foreground. 

It's a really, really good film.

Anora, the newest film from writer-director Sean Baker (Tangerine, The Florida Project), took the coveted top prize at Cannes this year and has been something of a sensation ever since, making the festival rounds and becoming an Oscar front-runner in the Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, and Best Original Screenplay categories. 

Following from his earlier films, including Tangerine, The Florida Project, and Red Rocket, Baker continues his keen interest in class and the working class and in those who live on the margins of society, particularly those who make a living with sex work, a sector of the working class that many often forget or ignore. Anora follows Ani (played by luminous and absolutely terrific Mikey Madison), an erotic dancer and escort working in a New York strip club, who encounters Ivan, a young and fabulously wealthy Russian playboy, who hires her for a week and then impulsively proposes, offering Ani a chance at love and a fairy tale life. Ivan’s parents, who hold the purse strings, however, aren’t so keen on Ivan’s choice of a life partner, and Ani and Ivan’s union sets off a chain of events that involve comically bumbling Russian stooges in the pay of Ivan’s parents and chases through the streets of New York, an all-out effort to reverse the fated marriage.

Baker’s films have always danced a delicate balance of humor, realism, and heart, offering wonderfully comic situations and characters with big personalities but then also landing the kind of narrative emotional gut punches found in the most serious of dramas, particularly neorealist dramas about class like The Bicycle Thieves and Pather Panchali.  Anora might be Baker’s most rollicking film yet--with sequences that border, hilariously, on farce--but the emotion isn’t far behind either, and it plays out particularly beautifully in Ani herself as well as in her unexpected relationship with another character played by the wonderful Yura Borisov (whom I’d love to see nab an Oscar nomination).

It’s ultimately a film that asks the question of what happens when an outsider’s dreams come crashing up against the realities of class and wealth, and the answer is, in some ways, an antithesis to the one offered in Pretty Woman. But if Baker doesn’t offer the fairy tale, he does offer something that will linger with me and comfort me for much longer than a fairy tale ever could: an account of human tenderness.   

We’ve also got two special events this week, including the final entry in our Kid Pixar series: Incredibles 2. Directed by Brad Bird, this sequel to the wildly popular The Incredibles once again proves the Pixar rule: that their sequels offer the same level of excellence as the originals. As Matthew Norman noted in the London Evening Standard, “Brad Bird not only directs with the same assured inventiveness he brought to The Incredibles(and Ratatouille, and The Iron Giant), but has written a script every bit as smart, witty and touching as the first.” It’s creatively-vibrant, heart-warming, and very funny -- a crowd-pleaser for all ages. 

Join us on Saturday at 1:30 or Sunday at 10:00 am! Tickets are just $7.

Finally, I could not be more delighted to say that our new season of Cinema East begins this Thursday. And kicking things off is the Wong Kar Wai masterpiece, Fallen Angels. Perhap less familiar to many than Wong’s Chungking Express (which we played in November of 2022) or In the Mood for Love (which we played in December of 2023), Fallen Angels remains, for me, one of the most beautiful and visually arresting of his films. It’ll be a stunner on the big screen. 

Cinema East curator, Jeff Purdue, will be on hand on Thursday to give us an introduction to the film prior to the screening, and watch out for his newsletter, coming to your inboxes this Sunday, for a primer on Fallen Angels you won’t want to miss.  

As a reminder, too, we are now showing our Cinema East films on Thursdays (instead of Tuesdays), and, in response to requests from you, our patrons, there will now be two opportunities to see each Cinema East film this year: an 11 am matinee and a 7:45 pm evening show. (Jeff will be present for both -- thank you, Jeff!) 

See you at the movies, friends! 

Melissa