The awards season brings delights of many stripes and colours each year. From sprawling epics to intimate dramas, a host of films vie for attention. 2025 is no different, but what makes it stand out so much this time is how open the race feels. Even after past weekend’s Golden Globes, it’s hard to say which films will come out on top when the season reaches its finale with the Academy Awards in March.

But one film that feels like it is almost certainly weaving its way towards Oscar gold is A Real Pain, and in particular Kieran Culkin. He plays one of two cousins, who take a tour through Poland to honour their now-deceased grandmother. A seemingly slight work is imbued with weight and depth both in how we process our people’s history (the cousins are Jewish, and their grandmother left Poland in the build-up to the Holocaust) and how chalk-and-cheese individuals thrive and clash.

Written and directed by Jesse Eisenberg (his sophomore feature effort), A Real Pain is a spikily enjoyable comedy. Eisenberg is a director confident enough to let his film breathe when it needs to, but never slowing to such an extent that momentum is lost. Eisenberg’s script is rich with humour with an undercurrent of tragedy that builds over the course of the narrative’s second half, particularly as it delves into the cousins’ recent past. There’s a reason these two are on a trip together and it’s more then just to commemorate a dearly departed grandparent.

Eisenberg casts himself as the less likely of the central duo. His David is quieter, cooler with people, wracked by an obvious tension within. It is bold of a director to give himself the part that will be overshadowed, but Eisenberg brings enough light to make David a subtly tragic figure. Still, he is overshadowed by Succession’s Kieran Culkin as the brasher, louder Benji, a commanding force of nature. Those of us who so took to Culkin’s turn in HBO’s hit drama will see much of the skill he brought to that role. But his turn here may be even richer, with less time to impact us. Culkin is favourite for Best Supporting Actor and his remarkable study is one deserving of that frontrunner status. There is also admirable support from the likes of Jennifer Grey, Daniel Oreskes, Kurt Egyiawan and Will Sharpe. But this is often Culkin’s show and is all the better for giving the performer room to flourish.

On the surface A Real Pain is a slight, small work. But while the surface is small, what lies beneath is rich and deep, emotionally engaging and beautifully told. It also offers something within itself for today, how a people’s history may inform them but does not define who they are. In an unstable world it is a message worth hearing, and in Eisenberg’s latest it is explored with a delicate care, enhanced by one of the year’s finest turns. A cinematic must see.