AN AMERICAN PICKLE

An American Pickle is HBO Max’s first swing at an exclusive feature film on the platform. They chose a star vehicle with Seth Rogen for their first chance to get into the game that Netflix and Amazon Prime have been playing for years. The film works in some aspects, and fails in others.

Seth Rogen plays Herschel Greenbaum, a man who falls into pickle brine which preserves him about 100 years until he is discovered in 2019. The film doesn’t spend too much time explaining the science and we learn that Herschel has a great-grandson, Ben,  also played by Seth Rogen.

The first act is sweet, filled with fish out of water moments for Herschel as he learned his new world with the help of Ben. Small moments make you laugh and feel for Herschel as he struggles with his new landscape.

However, the second act brings an odd shift. The film focuses on a rivalry between generations the shows the two Seth Rogen’s exchanging blows for most of the film’s runtime before it is neatly tied up at the end.

Without spoiling much, the film tries to show us how the bonds of family and religion are stronger than we can anticipate. Ben struggles with his culture as a non-practicing Jewish man in New York, while Herschel struggles with the fact that his descendant may not be what he envisioned him to be.

The pacing is tight, but it may be due to its very short 89 minute runtime. It doesn’t waste time on cliches you typically find in a film like this.

The film falters on tone. Often, the film didn’t seem sure if it wanted to be a light-hearted comedy about a man out of time, or a scathing commentary on cancel culture in the US. It fluctuated between the two, which caused the film to feel uneven at times.

I applaud the film for not having cliche secondary stories such as a love plot for Ben or Herschel. I also applaud the film for not having a traditional antagonist, letting the conflict between Ben and Herschel as the driving force. Navigating a nontraditional plot can be tricky, but Brandon Trost finds some success in it.

It was a good first try from HBO. The company has always been a major player when it comes to premium television and miniseries, but it never had a strong foothold in feature films. As films move away from the big screen, it seems only likely that HBO will try to do its best to get their name into the mix when awards season comes around. However, An American Pickle will probably not be in the mix this year.

I find the film to be an enjoyable addition to the streaming services while we are all still stuck at home. As it seems more and more likely that we may never return to theaters anytime soon, I welcome more films like An American Pickle.