A REAL PAIN (Jesse Eisenberg)
It's that time of year when Oscar contenders are vying for every cinemagoer's attention.
Having picked up a Best Supporting Actor Golden Globe for his performance as a cousin wrestling with grief while visiting Poland, 'Succession' star Kieran Culkin looks like a decent bet to repeat the feat on Oscar night.
Culkin plays Benji who joins writer director Jesse Eisenberg's David on an emotional journey back to the homeland of their late grandmother who managed to survive Poland during the Nazi occupation.
The pilgrimage sees the cousins join a tour group led by Will Sharpe's English guide James who is packed full of facts about every Jewish community that existed in each town and city they visited prior to the Nazis and is eager to impart them until Benji reminds him of the need to also enable people to absorb the solemnity of the sites.
In addition to visiting Warsaw, Lublin and Kraanystaw, the cousins and their fellow travellers go to Majnadek - the concentration camp abandoned by the Nazis as the Soviet troops liberated Poland.
And while the pilgrimage enables David and Benji to reflect on their Jewish heritage and their grandmother's influence on their lives, it also causes them to examine their drifting apart in adulthood and Benji's mental health struggles.
Eisenberg's comedy drama is a nicely judged tale that feels a bit like a fusion of a Woody Allen movie with an Alexander Payne film.
There's more than a touch of Roman Roy about Culkin's performance as the emotionally fragile Benji who can oscillate one minute from being very charming and witty to becoming a more volatile and self-pitying character.
While Culkin will inevitably draw the awards attention, Eisenberg actually has the more challenging performance as the straight man to Benji.
During their Polish adventure, his digital advertising salesperson struggles to connect with a cousin that was once like a brother to him.
However he is also consumed by the guilt of knowing as a husband and as the parent of young boy back home in New York, he doesn't really have the time to invest in Benji's troubles.
Unobtrusively shot by cinematographer Michael Dymek, Eisenberg keeps this simple tale of cousins reconnecting rolling along with the help of editor Robert Nassau.
At a running time of just an hour and a half, the film feels just the right length and adopts the right tone. More importantly, it never overstays its welcome.
In addition to Culkin and Eisenberg's eye catching performances, there is strong support from Sharpe, Jennifer Grey, Kurt Egiawan, Liza Sadovy and Daniel Oreskes as Benji and David's travelling companions.
An immensely human, well observed indie film imbued with moments of gentle humour and angsty drama, this is an hour and a half so well spent you wouldn't objecting to it walking away with an Oscar or two on March 3.
GET AWAY (Steffen Haars)
Tourists of a different kind pop up in Sweden in the Sky Original horror comedy 'Get Away' written by 'Shaun of the Dead' star Nick Frost.
The writer plays Richard who along with his wife Aisling Bea's Susan and grown up kids, Sebastian Croft's Sam and Maisie Ayres' Jessie head to an island with a grim history.
As they blithely blast Cliff Richard's 'Summer Holiday' in their car on the way to Svalta, they encounter a grumpy cafe owner on the mainland and when they get to the their destination hostile islanders who object to the presence of tourists as they prepare to perform a pageant marking a 19th Century epidemic, period of quarantine, famine and the eventual slaughter of British sailors by angry locals.
While Anitta Suikkari's Kiara is especially hostile towards the presence of British tourists, Eero Milonoff's Mats who is hosting the family is more tolerant.
But he is also Norman Bates style creepy and you sense a bloodbath is on its way.
Dutch director Steffen Haars and Frost's spoof pays affectionate dues to 'Psycho,' 'Eden Lake,' 'Midsommar' and especially 'The Wicker Man' and, to be fair, it sometimes goes in directions that not even the most seasoned horror fan may not expect.
However for all its plusses - and Frost, Bea, Croft, Ayres, Milonoff and Suikkari's performances are definite plusses - the plot development still feels a little thin at times.
This is especially true of the first half of Haars' 84 minute film which definitely ups it's game in the second, thanks to a decent twist.
It's as if Haars and Frost are too impatient, too enthusiastic about bringing Richard's daughter to the slaughter.
As a result, a film that could have been a cult classic with a bit more plot development just doesn't satisfy in the way that it could.
('A Real Pain' was released in UK and Irish cinemas on January 10, 2025 and 'Get Away' was released on Sky Cinema and for streaming on NowTV on the same day)
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