A Real Pain (2024)

A Real Pain was the second film I saw at the cinema in 2025 and one that I felt was one that might belong going straight to streaming instead of getting a cinematic release. The story tells of two cousins who decide to visit Poland to honor their recently deceased grandmother. David (Jesse Eisenberg) is an introvert and has his life together with a good job and a family and then there is Benji (Kieran Culkin) who is the life and soul of the party and doesnt quite have his life together.  The film 

GOOD POINT 01 - THE EISENBERG/CULKIN DOUBLE ACT

The film is pretty much sold on these two and it's not hard to see that this was a smart move. Eisenberg and Culkin are basically playing exaggerated versions of themselves although Culkin is playing the same character he did in Succession but that's not a bad thing instead it was nice to see cause Roman Roy was a funny character. Eisenberg is the writer and director so he sort of takes a step back to allow Culkin to become the lead and he has some great moments but they work very well together by being two different types of people and as a result we get some not scenes about wanting to be like the other person. 

GOOD POINT 02 - THE CONCENTRATION CAMP SECTION WAS ??

I honestly didn't know how to finish that line. Given that the film was about the cousins visiting places connected to their grandmother and they visit interesting areas but the most interesting was Majdanek and very little is really said during this portion which goes on for a few minutes and it's a sombre experience and it's one of those examples where silence says more than words ever could but what really seals it as one of the most powerful moments in the film is when they are on the bus and the camera slowly moves along to show Benji crying and David is just sitting next to him. 

GOOD POINT 03 - NEVER BORING/WELL PACED

The film is 90 minutes long and it never stops as it can't really afford to but despite the inevitable fallout from making this film so short (see the bad points), the film was well constructed and so never feels like there is padding and every scene is important to the story. Things that on paper that look like they should be cut are played well by everyone and the film has humorous moments when it needs to have humorous moments and sad moments when it needs to have sad moments. When you have interesting characters then it makes films enjoyable to watch and that leads me to….

GOOD POINT 04 - SUPPORTING CAST ALL FEEL LIKE REAL PEOPLE

A large portion of the film sees David and Benji take part in a  tour along with other people who are there for similar reasons. We get a bit of information about each character to make them seem like real people and interesting ones that we can follow. I thought the most interesting of the supporting cast was James (played by Will Sharpe) who is trying his best but suffers from one of Benji’s well meaning but slightly mean rants at the cemetery. Jennifer Gray was arguably the most well known of the supporting cast and her character was interesting because of the marital grief she had suffered and I thought the film showed restraint by not having her fall in love with either David or Benji.

BAD POINT 01 - BENJI’S STORY FELT HALF BAKED

The bad points are linked to each other. My biggest issue with this film is that the details of what was going on in the characters' lives were too vague. We know Benji tried to kill himself six months earlier but we don’t know why or ultimately why he doesn’t want to go back home. Yes it could be implied that he doesn’t want to leave the airport because he doesn’t want to return to real life but there is nothing mentioned. I don’t want everything spelt out to me but a little bit more would have helped a lot.

BAD POINT 02 - COULD HAVE DONE WITH ANOTHER 30 MINUTES

If the film had been half an hour or so longer then it would have allowed things to be expanded and given more screen time because things did feel rushed. We could have had more Benji backstory as a result and I genuinely believe that this would have made this film a much better film. Not sure why they made the decision to make this film so short but if it was for artistic reason rather than financial then I feel like it was the wrong choice as it felt like we were being short changed a little bit.

OVERALL

It’s not a bad film by any means because the good things did make up for the bad things but it came perilously close to being a frustrating film and I haven't felt like that since I saw Challengers. The performances are really good and the story itself was equally as good but I think the short run time meant that we lost out on a lot of rather interesting things. I do think that you should go and see this film. Not just because it's a good movie or because it's been BAFTA nominated and will probably get some Oscar nominations but because it's an original idea and when they are in such short supply we need to make sure we are seeing them and supporting them especially when they are as good as this one. Frustrating but very good.

Nosferatu (2024)

My first cinema experience of 2025 is for one of my most anticipated films of the year. This is a remake of the 1922 copyright infringing Nosferatu which itself is based on Bram Stoker's Dracula and comes from Robert Eggers the director of The Lighthouse and The Witches along with 2022's The Northman. This isn't the only Dracula movie we are getting this year with a Chloe Zhao directed Dracula supposed to be coming this year but there currently are no details about it so there are several question marks attached to this.

GOOD POINT 01: VISUALLY BRILLIANT AND ATMOSPHERIC

You can tell this by the trailer but this film is very atmospheric and looks stunning. The film does basically exist in black and white although there are obviously other colours but when I think of this film I just think of it in black and white. Every frame gives off a gothic vibe and despite the plot, Credit has to go to Jarin Blaschke for his cinematography work which would totally undermine the tone of the film if it didn't work like it did. I would love to spend a bit of time in this world. We might not even be a full week into 2025 but I would be astonished if there were any better looking films that I see this year. 

GOOD POINT 02: GREAT PERFORMANCES FROM SKARSGARD & DAFOE

To say that Bill Skarsgård and Willem Dafoe give the best performances is at this point a given. I cant remember a time when Dafoe has given a bad performance, he might be in films that aren't as good or terrible but he's never been bad in them. As Professor von Franz, he comes into the plot relatively late but when he does appear he makes up for the time he is missed and starts to steal the show (more of that later). It’s a confident and at times cranky performance yet its mixed in with kindness and warmth. Skarsgård who plays Count Orlok gives a performance that at times rivals Pennywise. In fact there are a couple of shots where he did remind me of It. The thing about Skarsgård’s performance is that we don't really see him for 80% of the runtime as he is always shown in silhouette which works for the tone of the film and when we do see him it's quite horrific and makes the final scene. I did find the manner in which he spoke to be slightly frustrating and joked to myself that the film would have probably been 30 minutes shorter if he spoke at normal speed. It’s still a great performance and a great villain for the film.

GOOD POINT 03: NICHOLAS HOULT AND LILY ROSE-DEPP ARE GOOD SUPPORTING ROLES

Normally this would be a negative but Nicholas Hoult and Lily-Rose Depp are supposed to be the leads of the film but they are outacted by Dafoe and Skarsgård. They aren't terrible in it by any means but they weren't able to quite keep up with their co-stars. I quite like Hoult and think that he is quite underrated in most of his films. The Menu instantly comes to mind as a cowardly Tyler in 2022’s The Menu. He is very good as Thomas Hutter who is trying to be a nice person but has been pulled into this horrible work through no fault of his own. Lily-Rose Depp is ok when she is playing Ellen normally but never has any weight behind her scenes, where she saves this from going into the negative section is when she is possessed and has to contort her body in ways that dont look like they have been done with CGI. I think that this makes up for the weaker aspects of her performance.

Ralph Ineson is also worthy of an honourable mention as it is his character that drives a lot of the action in the first half of the movie. He always elevates whatever he is in and is one of those actors that never delivers a bad performance regardless of whether the film is any good or not.

GOOD POINT 04: WELL PACED AND NEVER BORING

The film is just over two hours and it was never boring. The atmosphere and visual moments keep you occupied when the action takes a breather and at no point during the course of the film was I looking at my watch waiting to see how much time was left. For something that is lacking in light hearted moments, the film managed to keep my attention and was the rare thing nowadays and that is a film that is the perfect running time. It would have been so easy to make this an extra 30 minutes or so but Robert Eggers told his story and got out as soon as he could. An argument could be made that the film needed a final scene which left the audience with an upbeat moment but I thought it ended just the right way.

BAD POINT 01: AARON TAYLOR-JOHNSON WAS THE WEAK LINK

Hollywood’s attempt to try and make Aaron Taylor-Johnson a big star continues to falter. I haven't seen Kraven the Hunter but apparently he’s not great in that and I don't think he is much better in this. There are moments where he is fine but I thought that he disappeared into the background. He was at best the fifth best person in this film which considering he’s in a decent amount of the movie is a shame.  It’s worrying that people keep trying to push him as the next Bond because I don't think he has the presence that is needed to play the role.  

He is due to appear in 28 Years Later so hopefully that will show us what he can do but in Nosferatu he doesn't quite keep up with everyone else.

OVERALL

I had a lot of expectations for this film and they were met. It’s not the best Robert Eggers film but I still think it's a damn good movie with some great performances and one that looks like care and attention has been paid to the film and it's also clear that Eggers cares about the source material and the end result is an early contender for film of the year. Not sure if that will be the case by the end of the year but wherever it ends up in my rankings, its a relief that the year has started off in such a great way.