Alex Baker’s review published on Letterboxd:
This is not a traditionally enjoyable movie. This is a challenging movie. And it was challenging in ways I wasn’t expecting. I knew from the plot, two Jewish cousins two generations removed from a grandmother who survived the Holocaust go to Poland to reconnect with her history after she died, that this would be uncomfortable. What I wasn’t ready for was how readily unlikable Culkin would be, how difficult he would be to watch, how uncomfortably selfish he was and how okay with that selfishness he was. He’s truly insufferable, but the genius of it is how little Esienberg gives the audience to make them feel better.
This is not the kind of movie you walk away from happy or content because the sad, hurt, broken people came to terms with themselves after a harrowing journey into a twisted history. This movie has the courage to explore the idea that even after a visit to a concentration camp, after a cathartic journey into perspective, after a series of conversations between two distanced individuals… that some pain can’t be fixed. That it’s not going to be okay in the end. That even in comparison to actual tragedy, even your unremarkable pain might be forever.
Eisenberg really nails it here, and shows tremendous talent in walking to the edge of what’s comfortable and exploring the shit on the outside. There are two specific scenes in here that are probably high on the list of the best scenes of the year. And he’s unafraid to alienate the audience, to visit generational trauma and individual grief and give you no respite, no condolence, no break.
2024 Freakin Ranked.
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