An American Pickle | Brandon Trost | August 6, 2020
An American Pickle, the solo debut from director Brandon Trost, is the tale of two Seth Rogens who grew up a century apart but are brought together in the most magical and comedic sense imaginable.
Herschel Greenbaum (a bearded Rogen) is a Jewish immigrant who arrives in 1920 New York along with his wife Sarah (Succession’s Sarah Snook), hoping to seize the day and make the American dream a reality. His goal is to create a solid foundation for his family to reap the benefits for generations of Greenbaums to come. He gets a job at a pickle factory where he falls into a vat of pickles that are sealed up after the factory is closed down, preserving him for 100 years. Simon Rich’s screenplay, based on his own short story entitled “Sell Out,” doesn’t get hung up on this ridiculous premise too long. The film acknowledges the comical insanity of it all right away and brushes its hands free, ready to play with the plot.
Removed from the vat in the present day, Herschel discovers he has a living relative in Brooklyn, his great-grandson Ben (a beardless Rogen). He’s an app developer who has been at it for five years with not much to show for it. Herschel and Ben are understandably very different people and operate on many different ideologies and systems of beliefs. It doesn’t take long before they butt heads, sending Herschel to fend for himself by starting his own pickle business.
If HBO Max is trying to set a precedent that it’s going to be a major operator in the theatrical streaming business, An American Pickle isn’t helping its cause. Despite the best efforts from Rogen, who carries the entirety of the film on his back, An American Pickle takes a pretty comical idea and has no real idea what to do with it. The first half features all the expected fish out of water elements, as well as the expected friendship turned sour elements that seem to persist in so many of Rogen’s films. Even at 90 minutes, it manages to still seem overlong as the screenplay loses focus and aimlessly shuffles the same beats back and forth.
Unexpectedly, it tackles modern-day themes of capitalism, politics, not-so-subtle jabs at Trump, protestors, and everything in between. But it seems to just throw it all in there to kill time before returning to the core of the story: the familial elements. There’s such a scene that occurs towards the final moments at a religious ceremony that was sincere and moving. Sadly, this sort of moment was wasted in a film that never finds a solid pace or tone, let alone knows what it wants to be.
Despite its unevenness, it’s Rogen’s dual performances that keep you glued to the screen. After the initial table-setting is laid out, you really do start to see two different characters, not just two different Seth Rogens. But with so much (understandable) focus on him, there aren’t any memorable supporting characters or performances, virtually wasting actors such as the aforementioned Snook and Jorma Taccone, the latter playing an investor interesting in Ben’s app.
Trost, previously known for his work as a cinematographer, clearly has a talent for composing a good frame. Even still, the film suffers from that now blanket “polished streaming service” look that seems to almost be a filter for all streaming shows and films. It is rather fitting, as An American Pickle takes a wild idea and delivers it in the safest way imaginable.
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