If anyone has seen Jesse Eisenberg being interviewed recently, you probably can’t help but notice is that he appears to be transforming into the new Woody Allen – let’s just hope it’s not the full transformation.

The US actor, who appears self-effacing, self-deprecating, sprinkled with various OCD’s, has written, and also got behind the camera for the second time for his latest film.

It’s a personal project that relates to his own family tree, which finds him star alongside Kieran Culkin as the pair embark on a pilgrimage to Poland.

On his way to the airport in NYC is David (Eisenberg). He’s there to meet his cousin Benji (Culkin), as they’re about to take a trip together. Their grandmother has recently died, so they decided to visit her homeland of Poland in her memory.

It’s a trip that sees them as part of a tour, led by British tour guide James (Will Sharpe), taking in some historical sites, culminating in a tour of a holocaust camp.

It’s a time to spend time together, which is a rarity these days, as well as pay respect to their recently departed Grandmother. But as any hardened traveller knows, travelling can bring out the best and worst of you as David soon discovers.

As the title suggests, Eisenberg’s film is an exploration of pain. As a backdrop he uses the holocaust, which is bold, and yet it works. It serves as a catalyst for the pain that the two main protagonists feel, in particular Culkin’s Benji, who isn’t just not coping with the death of his grandmother, but life itself. It’s a superb performance by Culkin, the antithesis of his Succession character Roman Roy, and yet that startling, unpredictable edginess remains, that is all about highs and lows, and very seldom anywhere in-between.

Eisenberg dovetails his performance brilliantly, being the one with all the common sense, who struggles with his cousin’s mood swings, hating them and envious of them at the same time.

There’s also a nice role for Sharpe too, who hasn’t been seen since his star turn in White Lotus, and who is becoming a real chameleon on screen.

Eisenberg’s script has many layers, as it explores a number of relationships: there’s the one with grief, as well as with the Jewish faith, and our relationship with history, but at its heart is the one that sees two cousins trying to once again reconnect.

It also allows the pair to visit the actual building where Eisenberg’s real grandmother lived in Poland, as art imitates life.

It’s an intriguing road trip, with Eisenberg and Culkin making the perfect buddies, in a relationship that you feel could extend further to another film or TV show so good is the chemistry, in what is an often funny and heartbreaking European vacation.