Just As Sweet As Pickle Brine...Period!!!
An American Pickle (2020) tells the tale of Herschel Greenbaum, an immigrant worker who flees to America with his wife to become a pickle factory worker only to fall into a pickle barrel and is preserved for 100 years and wakes up in modern day Brooklyn. With his great grandson as his only family, he must connect with him and learn the rules of the new world.
Written By Simon Rich and Directed By Brandon Trost, the film is Seth Rogans best performance to date whilst also being as heartwarming and joyous as you wish it to be. Grab your jar of pickles and get comfortable as we dive into what made this film for me one of the better films to come out of an almost bleak 2020 film release year.
The Film
Lets kick things off by saying I had no clue about this movie at all, it wasn't until a few days prior to its release date that I even knew this film exsisted, much like my previous review for Unhinged were again I had no knowledge of the film having been made. So going into this movie I had only seen a small section of the trailer and stopped as I wanted to go in a blind as possible.
The film touches on many different aspects of life, from family traditions to the disconnected but connected world we live in to how social classes have changed within 100 years. There were a few moments in this film that made me laugh quite a bit and moments got almost got a small tear from me, it hits a few basis and almost hits them all perfectly. A moment that really sprung out at me was a moment where Herschel discovers Twitter, being in that old mindset his views are somewhat absurd and out dated which to me is very reminiscent of a certain blonde haired orange that is currently leading in America. Of course people disagree with Herschel's outrageous views but I couldn't help but laugh at what the writers really meant. It really puts into perspective just how stupid and idiotic Mr Orange who runs the White House's tweets really are.
I really loved how heartfelt this movie was too. Imagine you’re living your single, happy life and then you get a call from some scientists to say that your 100 year old great grandfather who isn’t actually 100 years old is alive and can you come and collect him and then having to teach him everything he has missed out on the past 100 years would be quite a wake up call to say the least. But the way Rogan portrays these characters makes you really feel for them both as they bond over the family and little things we take for granted like on demand seltzer water. It stops you in your tracks and makes you think hard about how humanity has come along way in 100 years and how we are forever changing and evolving. An example of this is when both characters are outside in the cold and Hershel isnt fazed by the cold, harsh winds but Ben is shaking tremendously and Hershel comes and hugs him to keep him warm. It shows how the human body has evolved over the years and how weaker our body’s have become because of how much we have become dependant on technology. This film really puts that into perspective as we also forget about family traditions, sure we learn to evolve and change these traditions but every once in a while it’s nice to go back and remind ourself of just how far our families have come.
The only problem I have with the movie is how NOBODY notices Hershel fall into the barrel of pickles with an almighty splash soaking the floor and other workers yet no one bats an eyelid. Sure it's not a film to be taken too seriously as it is a Seth Rogan film after all and his movies are made to be enjoyed but some sort of acknowledgement wouldn't have gone a miss. Even if one of the workers had asked where he was it was.
The Cast
Playing our two main leads Herschel and Ben Greenbaum is of course Seth Rogan (Superbad, The Interview). Playing Herschels wife Sarah Greenbaum is Sarah Snook (Steve Jobs, Winchester) and other characters include Herschels assistant Clara, played by Molly Evensen (The Hunger Games MockingJay: Part 1, Speak Now).
Okay I'm putting this out there now. This isn't going to be winning any awards for best movie of the year and it has a slim chance of getting some nominations during award season, if it does it will most likely be for cinematography and costume design and, at the time of writing this, maybe one or two nominations for Seth Rogan for Best Actor. Am I being ambitious, maybe, but honestly this really is Rogan's best performance to date. For me Rogan's performance is more mature, heartfelt and human and he boasts this by playing both generations of the Greenbaum family. At times you even forget he is playing Herschel and my mum even said to me half way through watching the movie that they "matched these actors up well" until I told her it was the same man playing both characters, so this really proves to me how good Rogan is in this.
To Conclude
An American Pickle (2020) is a joyous movie about family traditions that have been forgotten about over time and makes you stop and re-evaluate your life. Even with a performance best from Seth Rogan and a well thought out script it sadly just falls flat in places that could have had more done with it and could have experimented more with its camera work.
An American Pickle (2020) is out now in UK cinemas and avaliable to stream on HBO Max in America.
Rating:⭐️⭐️⭐️.5/5