Bittersweet Road Trip Film A Real Pain Feels Really Familiar

Actors: Beware of vanity projects. Beware especially of creating your own vanity projects. But if you must write and direct yourself in a leading role—as Jesse Eisenberg has done in A Real Pain, his bittersweet road trip film—at least make it a role you haven’t already played.

Alas, David Kaplan, an amusingly neurotic nerd with poor social skills, bears a striking resemblance to the other cold, uncomfortable characters the actor has played over the years, most notably Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Network. David Fincher, who directed Eisenberg in that Oscar-nominated role, should get a credit here, too. As should that nebbish-auteur Woody Allen, who was doing Eisenberg’s schtick miles better long before Eisenberg was born.