Jesse Eisenberg and Kieran Culkin have had, in some ways, parallel careers.

Each had his breakout role all the way back in 2002, with, respectively, Roger Dodger and Igby Goes Down. Both roles were adolescents from privileged backgrounds who get schooled in the ways of the world and the heart by cynical elders. At that point, both were operating in the shadow of a more successful showbiz sibling, Macauley Culkin for the latter and Hallie Kate Eisenberg for the former. (Remember her?)

Later, their best-known roles would come as, respectively, the introverted, socially inept, hyperverbal Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Network and the extroverted, socially inept, hyperverbal Roman Roy on Succession. While neither can be accused of demonstrating enormous range, both excel at what they do. And, as demonstrated in A Real Pain, they’re two great tastes that taste great together.

The movie, which Eisenberg also wrote and directed, follows cousins Benji (Culkin) and David (Eisenberg) Kaplan as they travel to Poland to join a Jewish historical tour that includes a memorial to the Warsaw Uprising and the Majdanek concentration camp outside Lublin. They’ve come at the request of their late grandmother, who survived the Holocaust and emigrated to America. Her death has left Benji, already a troubled spirit, an emotional wreck, while David has taken time away from his family and his job in digital ad sales to accompany the cousin with whom he once shared a strong fraternal bond.

The group they join includes an American divorcee (Jennifer Grey), a retired couple from Shaker Heights (Daniel Oreskes and Liza Sadovy), and a survivor of the Rwandan genocide (Kurt Egyiawan) who converted to Judaism after emigrating to Canada. They, and the group’s capable British guide (Will Sharpe), will find their patience tested by Benji’s erratic behavior but charmed by his vivacity and vulnerability. This seems par for the course for Benji, who had a brick of weed shipped and waiting for him at their Warsaw hotel, and who operates with almost nihilistic impunity and inappropriate, sometimes brutal, honesty.

This is in sharp contrast to David’s anxious hesitancy, and the dynamic of the manic pixie dream cousin threatens to veer into cliché at some points. Eisenberg’s perceptive script and Culkin’s mercurial performance keep things out of that ditch, however, and A Real Pain moves from laugh-out-loud antics to the solemnity of a visit to a death camp (and back again) with remarkable dexterity. It’s a story about family, but also about the transformative power of travel and the importance of listening to the echoes of abhorrent history, two things that seem underappreciated in our current moment. (Cinema 21, Regal Fox Tower, Salem Cinema, and other locations)

This year’s Portland Queer Documentary Film Festival features stories of people who survived, and even thrived, despite the roadblocks often place in their path by a society that refused to grant them full acceptance. Among them is The World According to Allee Willis, a fond and fascinating remembrance of the woman whose obituary headline always includes her authorship of the lyrics to the theme song from Friends, but who also wrote hits for Earth, Wind & Fire (including “September”), co-authored the original Broadway musical adaptation of The Color Purple, hosted some of the best parties of the ’80s at her pop-art palace of a home, hung out with everyone from Paul Reubens to Cyndi Lauper to Mark Mothersbaugh, and was an early Internet visionary. Her maximalist aesthetic and creative zest, however, masked an unease regarding her sexuality in a time when coming out was a risky proposition.

Literal survival, though of fictional characters, is the theme of Bulletproof: A Lesbian’s Guide to Surviving the Plot. In it, Canadian documentarian Regan Latimer (aided by a less camera-shy interlocutor) probes the disturbing rate at which gay and lesbian characters are killed off in modern serialized TV series. Anyone familiar with the hashtag #BuryYourGays will recall the uproar over the scripted demises of beloved figures such as Tara from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Lexa from The 100. Latimer drills down on this phenomenon with sharp humor, grilling guilty screenwriters and commiserating with fellow members of the various fan communities. It’s an entertaining look at what feels like a subconscious remnant of the old Hollywood rules by which anyone who deviated from social norms on screen was required to be punished.

Closer to home, Outliers and Outlaws profiles the lively community of lesbians that assembled in Eugene, Oregon, over a span of decades starting in the late 1960s. And the festival’s closing night selection, Linda Perry: Let It Die Here, celebrates the journey of the songwriter and 4 Non Blondes lead singer Linda Perry through personal struggles and self-doubt. (Perry will participate in a post-film Q&A and give a live performance.)

These triumphal tales feel more important than ever in a climate of increasing intolerance, as do the more somber reminders of the price paid in the past by those who dared to be different. The opening-night film, I’m Your Venus, revisits the unsolved murder of Venus Xtravaganza, one of the stars of the groundbreaking 1991 documentary Paris Is Burning. And Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story unearths the saga of the pioneering trans singer whose career in the 1960s ended abruptly when she disappeared for four decades. The title of one of the short films in the festival captures the mood succinctly: Is Gay Marriage Next? Community has rarely felt so crucial. (Hollywood Theatre, Friday-Sunday, check website for full schedule.)

ALSO OF NOTE

Bird: Andrea Arnold is kind of the English Sean Baker (or he’s the American Andrea Arnold). Like Baker (Anora), she’s spent much of her career training a lyrical lens on figures at the margins of society, from the rageful teenaged girl at the center of her 2009 breakthrough Fish Tank to the anarchic youth of her 2016 masterpiece American Honey to the domesticated bovines in her 2021 verité-style documentary Cow. In her latest, Bird, she’s back in the grim public-housing setting of Fish Tank. (And if you’re detecting a title trend, yes, she also won an Oscar for her short film Wasp.) That’s where 12-year-old Bailey (Nykiya Adams in an astonishing debut) lives in a graffiti-covered flat with her tattoo-covered dad, Bug (Barry Keoghan). Bug, who wasn’t much older than Bailey is now when he fathered her, is a terrible dad but, maybe, not a terrible guy. He speeds around the neighborhood on his electric scooter, and his get-rich-quick scheme involves convincing a toad he has acquired to exude its hallucinogenic slime.

Bailey, naturally, chafes at her surroundings, finding solace only with her half-brother Hunter and his girlfriend Moon. Her world is altered, however, by the arrival of a gawky, foreign-accented stranger who goes only by Bird (Franz Rogowski). He’s trying to track down the father he never knew, but he’s also a starry-eyed holy fool who’s like no one Bailey’s ever met. She helps him, and then he helps her, in a manner that literalizes both his nature and her dreams and injects an unexpected note of wonder into what is already a moving and well-acted drama. Keoghan, he of Saltburn fame, exudes the same dark Irish charm that he did in that film, the same half-smile that says “Aw, you wouldn’t hit a guy, wouldja?” Rogowski, who’s shined in films by Christian Petzold and, last year, in Ira Sachs’s Passages, is an unearthly presence, and maybe a little too twee at times, but memorable and bold. (Regal Fox Tower, City Center, and Bridgeport Village).

My Name Is Alfred Hitchcock: You may not know the name Mark Cousins, but if you’re a cinephile you’d probably recognize his voice, since you may have seen at least part of his 15-hour documentary The Story of Film: An Odyssey. (Or its follow-ups, Women Make Film: A New Road Movie Through Cinema and The Story of Film: A New Generation—all are worth your time). His smooth, sibilant Northern Irish accent washes over you as he describes the magic of an Ozu mise-en-scène or introduces you to the Ukrainian auteur Larisa Shepitko. Which makes his decision to have his latest exploration of film history, My Name Is Alfred Hitchcock, narrated in first person by the Master of Suspense himself—or, rather, a skilled mimic. Maybe he, like most of us, can’t bear the sound of his own voice.

In any case, it’s a curious gimmick, and one that never quite works. It’s also a bit suspect that he doesn’t reveal that (a) Hitch himself never said any of this and (b) he’s using a human impersonator. (I wondered at one point if it was AI.) This is a shame, because the film itself is a typically insightful, thorough walkthrough some of the famously obsessive director’s favorite obsessions: chapters are titled “Escape,” “Loneliness,” “Height,” and so forth. Cousins’s ability to make thematic, visual, or biographical connections between movies in unexpected ways hasn’t ebbed, and, as per usual, he devotes admirable effort to exhuming and examining works often considered minor, in this case the likes of Jamaica Inn, The Paradine Case, and Torn Curtain, as well as Hitchcock’s early silent films. There’s no mention of Hitchcock’s reportedly problematic, possibly criminal off-set behavior, which is an unfortunate lacuna that can’t be fobbed off on the nature of the voiceover. As a brilliantly guided tour through the work of perhaps the 20th century’s most iconic filmmaker, though, it’s a treat. (Kiggins Theater, through Tuesday. The Kiggins will also be screening Hitchcock’s 1929 Blackmail with a live musical score on Thursday 11/21, and five iconic Hitchcock films the weekend of Nov. 22nd.)

Magpie: Poor Daisy Ridley. With her character Rey’s status in the Star Wars franchise uncertain, Ridley has branched out into smaller indie films, including last year’s Oregon-filmed Sometimes I Think About Dying. Now her idle mind has dreamt up the premise for this curious, effective domestic thriller, in which she also stars as Anette, whose young daughter has just been cast in a movie alongside a famous actress named Alicia (Matilda Lutz, who starred in Coralie Fargeat’s Revenge). Anette, however, is stuck at home with their newborn while her husband Ben (Shazad Latif) accompanies the girl to set each day.

The marriage is clearly in a rough patch even before Anette begins to notice how much time Ben is spending with Alicia, how increasingly obsessed with her he is, and how little attention he seems to lavish on her and their baby. As she tamps down her suspicion and frustration, things get more and more tense, until the dominos start to fall, revealing the depth of Ben’s betrayal. With a good, but not great, twist ending, theatre and TV director Sam Yates’s first theatrical feature benefits from Ridley’s steely, intense performance, the best one she’s given to date. Poor Daisy Ridley? Somehow she’ll be fine. (Available for digital rental or sale.)

ALSO OPENING

Red One: The head of Santa Claus’s security team (Dwayne Johnson) enlists the aid of the world’s greatest tracker (Chris Evan) to rescue the disturbingly buff Saint Nick (J.K. Simmons) after he’s kidnapped. The movie’s IMDb credits list Kristofer Hivju (Tormud Giantsbane from Game of Thrones) in the role of Krampus—I bet he did it. Directed by Lawrence Kasdan’s son Jake as his first non-Jumanji theatrical feature since the Jason Segel-Cameron Diaz comedy Sex Tape a decade ago. (multiple locations)

Ghost Cat Anzu: In this anime adapted from the manga series by Takashi Imashiro, a girl forced to live with her grandfather at a rural temple rebels against her ghost cat guardian and allies with local forest spirits to annoy him. (Lloyd Cinemas, Cascade, Cedar Hills, Bridgeport Village subtitled and dubbed options at most venues)

ALSO SCREENING

Caligula: The Ultimate Cut [1980/2024]: During the late 1970s of peak porn chic, Penthouse magazine publisher Bob Guccione hired Gore Vidal to write a movie about the notoriously orgiastic Roman emperor, and Italian smutmaster Tinto Brass to direct it. He also hired name brand British actors including Malcolm McDowell (as Caligula), Peter O’Toole, and Helen Mirren. Then, without the approval of anyone involved, he caused a bunch of actual hard-core porn scenes to be edited into the thing, and it was released to widespread condemnation and ridicule. Now, some enterprising souls have managed to excise the most egregious shenanigans and incorporate a raft of deleted scenes, so that we, the 2024 viewing public, can see if there was ever anything to it. Buy the ticket, take the ride. On 35mm, even! (Friday, Cinema 21)

Sweetheart Deal: This remarkable documentary, which I first saw back in 2022, had a devil of a time finding distribution. But it’s well worth the wait, as directors Elisa Levine and Gabriel Miller, who died in 2019, spent years observing four of the many sex workers in one of Seattle’s notorious red-light districts, in the process meeting a man living nearby in an RV who serves as a support system and refuge for them. The level of trust between subjects and filmmakers is remarkable, which makes some of the film’s revelations even more shocking. (Wednesday, Cinema 21)

Exhibiting Forgiveness: The recently released directorial debut of visual artist Titus Kaphar is about an up-and-coming painter coming to terms with his painful childhood. Kaphar will be in attendance for a post-film Q&A. (Friday, Tomorrow Theater)

REVIVALS

Friday

• The Invisible Man [2020] (Cinemagic, also Saturday & Thursday)
• Kedi [2016] (5th Avenue Cinema, through Sunday)
• Moonstruck [1988] (Academy, through Thursday)
• My Own Private Idaho [1991] (Academy, through Thursday)
• Ten to Midnight [1983] (Academy, through Thursday)
• Zoolander [2001] (Cinemagic, also Tuesday & Wednesday)

Saturday

• Little Women [1994] (Cinemagic, also Sunday, Tuesday, & Wednesday)
• Meet Me in St. Louis [1944] (Cinema 21)
• Murder on the Orient Express [1974], preceded by a 30-minute murder mystery game (Tomorrow Theater)
• The Night of the Hunter [1955] (Cinemagic, through Monday)
• The Town [2010] (Cinemagic, through Monday)

Sunday

• Amadeus [1984] (Salem Cinema)
• Chasing Chasing Amy [2024] (Clinton St. Theatre)
• The Fifth Element [1994] (various locations, also Wednesday)
• Koyaanisqatsi [1982], preceded by a sound bath experience (Tomorrow Theater)
• Ratatouille [2007] (Tomorrow Theater)

Monday

• Portrait of a Lady on Fire [2019] (Hollywood Theatre)

Tuesday

• The Asphalt Jungle [1950] (Salem Cinema)

Wednesday

• The Iron Crown (aka Kanawa) [1972] (Clinton St. Theater)
• The Star Wars Holiday Special [1978] (Kiggins Theater)

Thursday

• Blackmail [1929] with live musical accompaniment (Kiggins Theater)
• The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn—Part 1 [2011] (Clinton St. Theater)