Directed By Brandon Trost

Starring – Seth Rogen, Sarah Snook, Jorma Taccone

The Plot – A simple Jewish man named Herschel Greenbaum (Rogen) works in a pickle factory in Brooklyn. One day he falls into a vat of brine and stays there, perfectly preserved, for 100 years. He comes back to life and goes to stay with his great-great-grandson, Ben, in contemporary Brooklyn.

Rated PG-13 for some adult language and rude humor

POSITIVES

– Dual identity. This is two Rogen’s for the price of one, and in an era where twin roles for one actor almost always rubs together in their personalities and demeanor, Rogen diverts his effort toward each role superbly enough that it does truly feel like we’re watching two different people interacting with each other at all times. For Herschel, it’s the tragic element that he brings to the character that really helps flesh out the real empathy for the character, allowing Seth the opportunity to play towards the drama that most of his career has been robbed of. He supplants it superbly, all the while maintaining this thick accent that remains consistent throughout the entirety of the picture. On the front of Ben, the grandson, it’s basically Rogen playing himself, but it’s forgettable for the evolution in arc that the character takes on, allowing him to feel anything other than the stoner Seth we’ve come to expect in the comedy genre. It’s a one man tour-de-force set of performances that value Rogen for his acting above all else, and fills the need from within that I have to see him take on more genre expansive projects that he was made for.

– Smart comedy. Much of the forefront comedy involving physical hijinks and interaction between the two Seth’s mostly didn’t land for me, but that doesn’t mean this movie wasn’t without its profoundly rich incidents that play to a more intelligent level of social commentary that the movie is trying to convey. Similar to how “Borat” illustrated the disconnect between America and middle Europe, “An American Pickle” doubles down on the distance between genetic generations that prove the distinct difference in these two respective eras, for better or worse. It paints certain matters in contemporary times that really questions what we value important, all the while preserving an element of satirical bliss that you can’t help but appreciate and chuckle at because of the movie’s stirring subtlety that doesn’t disappoint. Finally, there’s an unmistakable comparison during the movie’s second half between Herschel and a polarized celebrity like Donald Trump that hints at how outdated ideals between the two have allowed them to attain a career in the public eye, further cementing the problem we as Americans face in idolizing someone with such unorthodox conventions from our very own just because they challenge the contemporary.

– Artistic instances. While my problems with the production of the movie are infinite in their mundane appearances, the movie’s presentation is one that I applaud HBOGo for, in taking the first seamless step towards blurring the line of silver screen consistency. Within the first ten minutes of the movie, the film switches from a grainy, classic 4:3 aspect ratio meant to establish presence in the era of silent pictures that resonate in the distance of Herschel’s small world setting, to the full screen 1:8:5 ratio when he transports to current day New York. The latter certainly articulates the big world that Herschel is now saddled with, but more than that speaks volumes to the bigger world of possibilities that could quite literally make him a star in the public eye, or a clashing of ideals for a man whose body may be living in 2020, but whose mind is still very much stuck in the 20th century. Aside from this, the cinematography from John Guleserian offers just enough artistic integrity in distinguishing the color pallets between these vastly different worlds without it feeling like a gimmick within the film that distracts audience attention. These both give the film that rich authenticity of independent cinema, and allow the transfer of years during the film’s opening act to feel like one we immerse ourselves in to feel Herschel’s jaded disposition.

– Surprising drama. Easily the highlight of the movie for me is when the movie shifts from comedy to drama, which in turn helps flesh out Herschel and Ben with mentions of their backstories that play into what each of the characters are missing in current day. This not only confirms the hole that each of them have in their hearts that the other one is filling, but also establishes valuable exposition in ways that feel earned and mastered through these anything but obvious conversations between the two. It plays into the mastery of Rogen’s performance that I previously mentioned, to be able to zero in on two distinctly different levels of personal grief, but beyond that tips a hat to screenwriter Simon Rich, who wrote the book that the movie is based on, and helped terrifically to establish mental presence in the minds and importance’s that motivate each character.

– Seamless special effects. Most movies involving an actor or actress playing two different characters leaves a jarring pause, both physically and audibly, that alludes to the tricks being manufactured off screen to make this experience possible. However, the effects and camera work here edit between angles in a way that makes this interaction feel cohesively authentic without even a shred of obviousness between the translation. Said editing never feels overly zealous in its consistency, pasting together two respective angles in a way that marries the two sides together for one unique transition without sacrificing what is taking shape when these two characters collide. As for weight inside of the context of the scene, that too establishes believability in the directing by Trost, who commands each layer of Rogen at an eye level that never gives the hollow feeling that Seth is looking at an empty space in front of him.

– Family first. Even if the character motivations are sometimes stalled and spontaneous from scene to scene, the film does eventually settle back in with a third and final act to the film that hammers home the greatest importance in human existence: family presence. It attains this quality by constantly reminding us how lost each of these characters are without the other, feeling only whole when the interaction between them brings forth something whimsical and serene. This makes the PG-13 rating that the movie is tagged with a wise decision, as the typical Seth Rogen humor pallet might not come across well with the brunt ingenuity that much of the film centers around. It makes much of the film’s material ideal for the pivotal message that it’s trying to convey, and in such conjures up a strange and magical experience that truly is unlike anything playing in this cinematically depleted landscape of 2020.

NEGATIVES

– Flailing production values. The film’s presentation is indeed a diversely beautiful one, but the elements inside of the heart of its scenes left slightly more to be desired. For one, the backgrounds of the wide angles depict the landscapes with such an artificial balance of depth that resorts far too heavily towards green-screen, documented in a way that sticks out like a sore thumb compared to everything else in the heart of the scene. Likewise, the individual lighting and costumes displayed left slightly more to be desired, especially with the former never elevating its television quality of drab coloring correction that splashes each sequence with a cheap level of production influence that did the cinematography no favors is replicating what it previously established. If HBOGo is to make a run at this thing, and break down the walls between television and cinema accordingly, it is going to have to invest more in tones and textures that don’t always sync up remarkably to what is being conjured up emotionally in the context of the scene. With it, they will help to understand what makes the vibrancy of the cinematic landscape such a must-see experience in all of its visual beauty.

– Stretched logic. In any comedy, you will find plot elements that don’t always sync up well with real world laws of gravity. However, in movies like “Hot Tub Time Machine”, “Ghostbusters”, and any other far-reaching plot device there is at least an attempt to explain how any of this is possible. In “An American Pickle”, that attempt exists, but it’s glossed over in a way that we the audience don’t get to hear the explanation because of audible narration summarizing how everyone in the scene believed everything that the scientists were explaining to them. So there isn’t a shred of explanation that we are given to understand how being contained in a pickle jar allows you to live for a hundred years, but it only sets the precedent for the rest of the movie, which is equally conflicting. Clothes seem to come out of nowhere whenever characters need to elude the authorities, billboards can be removed from lands that technically the billboards don’t reside in, and in this world there’s apparently no blood or DNA test to decipher which relative is which in the middle of a conflict. I can forgive ridiculous plot conveniences if they establish that certain paranormal elements exist in said world, but this one glosses over logic in a way that doesn’t invest time in what’s possible, leaving it with a lazy sense of storytelling that can’t even be bothered to attempt the unexplainable.

– Flawed screenplay. There’s plenty of problems here that play into the already rushed pacing that the movie persists on. This is barely an 82 minute movie, a problem that creates much in the way of rushed storytelling, particularly that of rushed pivotal plot points that make it difficult to latch on to a situation requiring audience investment. For me particularly, it was during the movie’s opening act, which speeds through Herschel’s time in the old country, as well as the lead-up all the way to the point when he first meets Ben. Even after that point, the movie’s momentum stalls during the second act, when it’s throwing as many ideas at a wall, and hoping something sticks. In fact, there’s an overall feeling about this movie’s screenplay that it doesn’t fully comprehend what it’s trying to be, whether in a tonal obscurity or a creative fog that envelopes much of the film’s second half.

– Too bland. Ultimately, this whole experience with “An American Pickle” left me clutching for any semblance of memories even fifteen minutes after I finished watching it. Part of it is what is listed above, but there’s an overall plague of ambiguity within the film that kept anything in dialogue or happening’s from feeling remotely memorable. It summarizes everything about the film that may be the reasoning for its straight-to-streaming platform, perhaps relying far too heavily on the ‘Two Seth’s for the price of one’ gimmick that is fine on a surface level of marketing, but requires much more cinematic depth once you’ve invested in the initial plot of the movie, which fully takes shape at only a mere 15 minutes into the film. It’s a movie based on an idea, and little else, giving us a tasteless pickle without the juice to sell its savor.

My Grade: 6/10 or C