Nominated for three Critics Choice Awards (Best Original Screenplay, Best Comedy, Best Supporting Actor) and 4 Golden Globes (Best Comedy, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best Screenplay), Jesse Eisenberg’s “A Real Pain” is on a roll.

The story follows two estranged Jewish cousins – cautious, pragmatic David (Jesse Eisenberg) and unpredictable, free-spirited Benji Kaplan (Kieran Culkin) – who reunite for a Holocaust tour through Poland to honor their late, beloved Grandma Dory whose childhood home they’re planning to visit.

Their travelling companions include wistful Los Angeles divorcee Marcia (Jennifer Grey), a stolidly boring older couple from Shaker Heights – Diana (Liza Sadovy) and Mark (Daniel Oreskes) – and soft-spoken, compassionate Eloge (Kurt Egyiawan) who fled the Rwandan genocide and later converted to Judaism.

The itinerary takes them to a number of picturesque stops in Warsaw and Lublin with a somber visit to the Majdanek concentration and extermination camp.

While their British tour guide James (Will Sharpe), an Oxford scholar, has an intellectual understanding of the statistics of history, outspoken Benji forces him into exploring a more visceral connection to these landmarks, much to uptight David’s embarrassment and exasperation.

David and Benji’s adventure takes an abrupt emotional turn when old resentments and tensions erupt against the backdrop of their shared Jewish family heritage. 

Yet there’s relatable humor when they visit an immense sculpture dedicated to W.W. II’s Warsaw Uprising Movement and – urged by Benji – their various companions pose for photos, pretending they’re fighting the Nazis.

Written and directed by Jesse Eisenberg (“The Social Network”), the deftly perceptive comedic drama explores the various paths to dealing with pain, loss and suffering, accompanied by the complicated upheaval of self-discovery.  And look for Kieran Culkin to snag a Supporting Actor Oscar nomination to accompany his Emmy for “Succession.”

Cinematographer Michal Dymek makes the most of the contemporary Polish locations, and the sound track incorporates Chopin nocturnes, preludes, etudes, ballads and waltzes, played by Israeli-Canadian pianist Tzvi Erez. 

On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “A Real Pain” is an authentic, emotional 8, streaming on Amazon Prime, Apple TV+ and Fandango At Home on Dec. 31.

Like “Hidden Figures,” the 2016 film that heralded unsung Black female NASA mathematicians, “The Six Triple Eight” tells the true story of the first and only Women’s Army Corps unit of color to serve overseas in World War II.

Led by 26-year-old Major Charity Adams (Kerry Washington), their mission was not only important but seemingly impossible: the 855 Black women were given just six months to sift through 17 million pieces of undelivered letters – to soldiers and from them – which had been dumped in canvas bags stored in numerous airplane hangars in Glasgow, Scotland. 

 “No mail, low morale” was their mantra.

Their tale is told through the eyes of Pvt. Lena Derriecott King (Ebony Obsidian), a spirited Pennsylvania teenager who impulsively enlists in 1943 soon after her high-school boyfriend Abram David (Gregg Sulkin), a pilot, is killed in combat.

At that time, Black troops – both male and female – were segregated at Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia, and the women were shown little or no respect by the Caucasian officers – until activist/educator Mary McLeod Bethune (Oprah Winfrey) sought help from formidable First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt (Susan Sarandon).

Even then, after they were shipped overseas in 1945, the Black WACs were given no training and decrepit facilities in which to live and work. Their ruthlessly condescending Commanding Officer, General Halt (Dean Norris), is openly racist. 

Nevertheless, utilizing inventive ways of sorting/identifying the backlog of mail, they got the job done in fewer than three months and proudly became known as the 6888^th Central Postal Directory Battalion.

Helmed and co-written by Tyler Perry, who adapted it from historian Kevin Hymel’s 2019 article in WW II History Magazine, it’s compelling despite Perry’s pedantic dialogue and shamelessly manipulative direction, leading to the actors’ somewhat stiff, stilted performances.

During the end-credits, there are archival glimpses of the real-life WACs, including footage of Michelle Obama paying tribute to two of the survivors and acknowledgment that Fort Gregg-Adams was named for Charity Adams.

On the Granger Gauge, “The Six Triple Eight” is an inspirational, historically significant 7, streaming on Netflix.