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An American Pickle Movie Review

An American Pickle is a 2020 comedy film directed by Brandon Trost and starring Seth Rogen in the main dual role. It’s a flawed, but highly charming comedy.

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“Is pickle“

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It is about an Ashkenazi Jew who gets preserved in a vat of pickles and wakes up in modern-day New York City, attempting to fit in with the assistance of his last remaining descendant. If that premise sounds silly, don’t worry, the entire movie is even sillier, something that the film itself amusingly acknowledges a couple of times. The fairy tale-like opening is silly, but incredibly charming in equal measures, and it manages to hook you in as a viewer stupendously.

As for the rest of the movie, it’s rather uneven as most high-concept comedies usually are unfortunately. The movie quickly lost focus and its transitional scenes from comedy to emotional drama did not feel as earned or as deft as the movie obviously wanted them to feel. The lack of a stronger focus was also a big problem for this story as the various second half shenanigans that occur felt overly episodic in nature.

Still though, most are very fun, albeit safe as the movie could have been more ambitious when it comes to all the possible scenarios lurking beneath this excellent concept. The emotional moments were sweet, especially the bonding between its two characters, though their rivalry was overly exaggerated. I also liked how the movie contrasted the entrepreneurial spirit of yesteryear with today’s one by showing both their similarities and their vast differences.

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Seth Rogen usually plays the same character – a stoner buffoon and a slacker. However, sometimes he breaks that mold and does something different and more dramatic. Case in point, his role of Wozniak in ‘Steve Jobs’ was a nice dramatic surprise. In An American Pickle, though, he gets to be a lead. Two leads, actually. And it’s by far his career-best performance.

That’s because he pushed himself harder this time around. Ben Greenbaum isn’t like his usual overloud characters, but is more realistic as this guy who just wants to make it big in the app industry, but unfortunately fails. I really related to his character and especially for his strive for business success.

But the meatier role is of course Herschel Greenbaum. This Eastern European guy is stoic, familial, proud of his ancestry and religion and very much a man of his times. It was a lot of fun seeing the two different men pitted against each other, and the best moments are their first encounter and conversations with the socks conversation being the most hilarious one for me. Again, their rivalry was exaggerated, but their dramatic scenes were all wonderful.

Rogen obviously struggled at times playing this difficult character, especially in his less convincing angry outbursts. However, he mostly pulled it off stupendously, and I was particularly enamored by his hilarious Russian accent with some lines being spoken in such a funny manner. He also sold the emotional moments unexpectedly well.

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An American Pickle is badly paced, but solidly directed. The dialogue is excellent, but again it could have included more themes in it. Still, the concept is so great and there are so many sweet and funny moments here that I ended up really liking this surprisingly traditional comedy flick. I would like for Hollywood to make more timeless comedies such as this one.

An American Pickle is flawed in its overly episodic, lacking in focus second half, but it remains a surprisingly traditional, timeless high-concept comedy that features a charming fairy tale-like opening and many very sweet and amusing moments where its two characters are pitted against each other. This is by far Seth Rogen’s best performance yet as it is his most ambitious work. He played these two vastly different characters and he mostly managed to pull it off. The scenes with the two together were all delightful.