Who isn't wrought?

A Real Pain — 2.5/5

Compelling characters, connected to a relevant backdrop, and my own personal anger that they didn't manage to make anything more out of it. I think we're all realizing in real-time that Kieran Culkin is more character than actor, blitzkrieg bopping from one emotion to another, ADHD by way of BPD. He's very good at embodying the shithead kid brother; love 'em but hate 'em. But also he embodies my struggle with the characters he plays; stories about people with mental health issues are largely unsatisfying because the thing to be solved is not some external thing. It can't be solved with a conversation, or a slap to the face. His brain is leaking, and I can relate to being around those people, but I'll never be able to relate to those people. Jesse Eisenberg has a lovely emotional speech just after the halfway point that embodies the feelings towards these people who you simply can't help, but the way that it is presented, it feels like a valve opening... that then is quickly closed again. You want to repair them, and they refuse to be repaired, they will not allow you to repair them, so you're just walking around with this broken thing that you can't throw away. I think the truth of those people—a truth that I push against—is that those people know exactly how to create sympathy for themselves: they are in pain. They are, and they aren't, and that creates division in you, making you unable to pick a path, which keeps these people in your life far longer than they should be. You're a good person! A good person doesn't just discard people! And they have so much value! And the cycle continues. Hey, the movie awakens a lot of feelings in me! Good job! At best, it's probably the best story I've seen about those types of people. But at the end, the movie wants me to feel like there's some hidden thing still to be discovered and if you just said the right thing, if you just slapped them in the face, it would awaken them from their terrible slumber. I think it wants me to feel sympathy for the person, and I'm sorry, but I don't and I won't and I can't and I will not.