Better Late Than Never On "American Pickle"

Continuing with the Seth Rogen talk, after reading his book I decided I wanted to see "An American Pickle". He mentioned filming the movie in the book, he talked about its release coinciding with the pandemic and I had remembered seeing the trailer and wanting to see it. So for date night last week that is the movie my wife and I watched. It was streaming on HBO Max and it was 90 minutes long. It was perfect.

I really liked this movie. For those that do not know, "An American Pickle" is about a man who falls in a pickle barrel in the early 1900's and somehow stays preserved until the barrel is opened 100 years later. Herschel, who is one of the characters Rogen plays, finds himself in modern day Brooklyn and he wants to reconnect with family. There is one great grandson left, Ben, the other character Rogen plays, and they connect after doctors and scientists deem Herschel fit to leave. From there on out the movie has very funny and very sweet jokes about family. There is also a nice little rivalry that starts to brew between the two when they have a falling out. I enjoyed seeing Rogen kind of stretch his acting chops a bit on this one. First off, he plays two roles and the two characters share quite a bit of screen time. I was fascinated by how well the directors and animators were able to pull this off. It looked as real as it could have. They nailed it. Rogen also shows some depth doing some more dramatic things in this movie. He has been in other drama movies, stuff like the Steve Jobs movie and "50/50", but he is barely in the movie or used as comic relief. In "An American Pickle" he stars in two roles and does the drama really well. I also liked the way they weaved family and love in the movie. That is really the sticking point of the whole thing in my opinion. Herschel wants to reconnect and learn all he can but Ben is not very keen on doing such. He is more reserved and quiet and keeps his feelings to himself. Herschel does get him to open up, but it takes some doing. When Ben finally does open up, great things happen. And there were other people in the movie with bit roles. I saw Jorma Taccone, but this was all about Rogen. He is the star. He is the draw. He is why people were tuning in to watch. He nailed it, as I have already said. I really liked how he embodied Herschel, accent and all. He went for it, and to me, he nailed it. But I also liked what he did with Ben. Ben was a modern day hipster, and Rogen really portrayed that very well, but he was never over the top or douchey about it. He was a mild mannered hipster. And the run time, the 90 minutes I mentioned before, that was the exact right amount. The movie was short and sweet and to the point. That is how I like to consume my movies nowadays.

I highly recommend "an American Pickle". It is a bit different from Rogen's normal movies, but I always like when an actor takes a chance and does something out of their comfort zone. It is an added bonus when they nail it. Check this movie out.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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