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A Real Pain

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  • Award Snub: While the film was nominated for Best Motion Picture (Musical/Comedy) at the Golden Globes, and the top 10 films of the year at the National Board of Review, the American Film Institute, and the Producers Guild of America awards, it failed to get a Best Picture Oscar nomination. Some also believed Jesse Eisenberg should have been nominated for Best Actor at the Oscars, though he did get a nomination for his script.
  • Jerkass Woobie: Benji, full stop. He's a boisterous and almost completely unfiltered individual, and while on one hand that endears him to others (at least initially), just as often he's emotionally volatile and abrasive, making him exhausting for the more introverted Dave to be around. It doesn't help that Benji appears to have few qualms with demeaning Dave in front of others and generally seems insensitive over his anxiety issues. That said, it's almost impossible not to feel bad for him to some extent, knowing that he's essentially directionless in his life and is dealing with intense grief over losing one of the few family members who seemed to genuinely understand him, especially upon learning that he tried to commit suicide shortly before the events of the film. As the final scene shows, even after starting to mend fences with Dave over their estrangement and coming to accept his grandmother's passing, it's still not entirely clear that he's going to be okay.
  • Tear Jerker: David's monologue about Benji while the latter goes for a toilet break, letting go of the anger and frustation he has about Benji with the tour group. Jesse Eisenberg's performance sells it.
    David: I'm just, like, so fucking exhausted by him sometimes, you know like, I love him, and I hate him, and I want to kill him, and I want to be him, you know? And I feel like, so stupid around him, you know, because he is so fucking cool, and he just does not give a shit. And then, just like being here with him is just so fucking baffling to me, you know? It's just baffling 'cause it's, like, how did this guy come from the survivors of this place, you know? ... And that our grandma survived by a thousand miracles when the entire world was trying to kill her, you know? And I look at him and I just like wanna ask him, and I just can't. Like, how did the product of a thousand fucking miracles overdose on a bottle of sleeping pills?

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