Movie Review: An American Pickle Is Very Filling (Pun Intended)
Watching An American Pickle, I was both surprised and unsurprised by its poignancy. Seth Rogen is a great actor, and the film shows he can swim more dramatic seas. Written by Simon Rich and directed by Brandon Troust, he understands how to plant seeds of discussion on heavy topics like, identity, immigration, and politics, in between laugh out loud situations.
A good comedy doesn’t always go for the joke, but it does always go for the thought! In An American Pickle, Seth Rogen plays Ben Greenbaum ,an app creator struggling to get his big, financial break while mourning and chasing the legacy of his dead parents. Rogen also plays Herschel whom is TOO FUNNY as a hard-working and totally, politically incorrect 1920’s immigrant whom fell in a pickle vat and was miraculously “pickled” for 100 years. Thus, he wakes in a non-pandemic 2020 to find things have CHANGED and his only living relative, Ben, is struggling to change for the better.
An American Pickle | Official Trailer | HBO Max
Herschel reminds me of my elderly family that swears the young are lazy and believe tough love IS LOVE. He is so hilariously un-soft, but his tenderness brews throughout the film in the very rivalry he strikes with his great-grandson. The things these two do to each other to prove the other is wrong is, well, so wrong, but it leads to highly original, comedic instances that involve running , illegally immigrating to Canada (which I will be doing if Trump wins again), and an internship run in Brooklyn that will ask people to ponder, “What do you get out of interning again?” Ah..yes… experience!
Overall, An American Pickle is very filling! (see what I did there) For all its nuances on social tribalism, cancel culture, and what it means to be a “citizen,” it flows very smoothly as a look into what we give the world versus what we take from it. Herschel and Ben are two VERY different people, and although Seth plays both characters, they manage to look so different, in essence and mannerism, that it feels like two different actors. Still, their journey is the same; two men mourning the loss of their past, fearing their future, and wondering if they’ll ever be happy or successful. How very Millennial/ Gen-Z of them!
An American Pickle comes out August 6 on HBO MAX and in the arising, streaming wars, it is a film that broadens it as a platform to have, especially if these are the kind of original films it will offer. Moreover, an American Pickle is such a great edition to Rogen’s films because it balances his desires to make you laugh, think, and even cry a few tears; even if those tears are because you sniffed a jar of strong pickles.
