2020 Reviews – An American Pickle

I grew up with these fish-out-of-water comedies, like George of the Jungle and Jungle2Jungle; even the live-action Addams Family movies are an opportunity to satirise the modern lifestyle. But I’ve never seen anything like this; bringing a distant relative to the future and having them gawk over our current day. I saw the trailer and I thought, ‘what a fantastic idea.’ Seth Rogen didn’t write this, but it seems like one of his quirky premises; An American Pickle is actually written by Simon Rich, making the most out his short-story called Sell Out.

The movie opens in a hardened fictional European country in 1919, where Herschel Greenbaum (Seth Rogen) lives a poor life as a ditch digger. His one breath of fresh air is his bride-to-be Sarah (Sarah Snook), with whom he travels to America to start a prosperous life. Working in a pickle factory, he accidentally falls into a vat of pickled pickles, and is left undisturbed for a hundred years, where he is perfectly preserved in the brine – how could pickle brine do this to a person, you ask? Don’t worry, because the scientists have a perfectly logical explanation that everyone accepts and believes. Now, in modern times, Herschel’s only living relative is Ben Greenbaum (also, Seth Rogen). Ben takes Herschel in, where the two try to connect over their lineage, and overcome a three-generation age gap. An American Pickle is directed by Brandon Trost.

Just as our two Rogens meet, the story starts out with a bit of a celebration of the present, and I appreciate that. We live in the most modern time (duh), but also arguably, the best time to be alive. We have seltzer water at the ready, and we commonly own 25 pairs of socks. It’s great to take a moment to appreciate the luxuries we enjoy every day, that would be inconceivable 100 years ago. We often joke about ourselves, that in the past we predicted we’d have flying cars by now, but we do have electrified scooters, and stereos, and Alexa; that’s pretty cool enough. What is particularly great about the idea of bringing ancestors to the future, is watching them marvel at our existence that their toil, no doubt, led to, for their future relatives. It’s a nice touch – Herschel is rapped that Ben owns so much stuff, and considers he must be an elite of his time… We do live like old kings, and it’s nice to be proud of that for a moment.

I had an inkling that the modern Seth Rogen was going to be a schmuck, like the characters we see in Funny People or Long Shot, or pretty much any Seth Rogen movie actually, but instead, he fits into his world quite well. Ben’s app idea sounds pretty cool, ey? I could see the most conscientious among us getting addicted to scanning their products before each purchase, and boasting about their retained ethics. Ben is probably the most fashionable a Seth Rogen character has ever been; I love it. Story wise, this movie fits a lot in for a shortish running time, and we don’t learn much about Ben’s life other than that his parents are gone, he lives alone and he has an app idea – that’s not nothing. On the flip side, you could argue, the movie doesn’t follow through with one idea to the other, and An American Pickle is kind’ve like reading a collection of short stories. I didn’t feel cheated though, but I also would have appreciated a firmer ending to any one of the three main directions the movie takes us in. I love the way that Herschel’s pickle business blows up, due to a hipster love of restoring the past; Herschel doesn’t even clean his filthy jars, but they still lap it up. Then, I had an instant hunch that Herschel’s stint on Twitter might backfire on Ben, who slyly jabs him into it; a past President used to make a hobby of riling up a twitter audience too, and I thought this segment was clever commentary on how hysterically and readily people are willing to take meaning out of other’s words, despite what they are actually saying – yeah, we should stop doing that. The third drama, back in the home country, was a nice little endorsement of religion on Ben’s behalf, and a time for the two men to show some humility again. It’s not the first time Seth Rogen’s work has flaunted his Jewish faith and I doubt it will be the last – I do value this movie’s contemporary take on traditional values.

Obviously, the movie has to make it look like Seth Rogen is acting opposite to himself a lot of the time, and it comes across completely realistically and never cheesy. Rogen humanises both counterparts individually, with a noteworthy competence, and the movie is not really interested in making either character look the fool when presented with fish-out-of-water type opportunities. I noticed the surgical way in which the movie implanted random jokes too, that actually come back for future emotional payoffs later on – who ever thought I’d enjoy watching a European immigrant taste seltzer water for the first time so much. Despite the silly premise, this is a comedy to make you feel and to make you think. Honestly, did the movie have to explain around why the brine worked; I mean, us moviegoers supported a hot-tub time-machine not that long ago. But I understand; getting in before the CinemaSins of the world shoot you down, I see. But c’mon guys, comedy and fantasy are allowed to get away with a little outrageous happenstance every now and then; more than realistic drama. The explanation did provide a worthwhile joke though. P.S. I think I’m obsessed with the quote – ‘You will take down vanilla vodka, or I will do violence.’ Funny stuff.

4.0