An American Pickle

Starring: Seth Rogen, Sarah Snook, Molly Evensen, Eliot Glazer, Kalen Allen, Kevin O'Rourke
Directed by: Brandon Trost
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Comedy
2020

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: An immigrant (Seth Rogen) is accidentally pickled alive and is reawakened 100 years later.

Review:

Tim: I really wanted to like An American Pickle. It features a funny concept, gives Seth Rogen a chance to showcase his acting ability, and should have been a funny, thoughtful movie. It doesn't achieve any of its aims. It's never a bad movie, but it's a thoroughly unimpressive one. It feels like it comes from an inexperienced director (and it does, Brandon Trost has only directed 1 film that by all accounts was pretty bad). Trost doesn't do a terrible job, but he never gets to the full potential of this story.

Perhaps the biggest draw in this movie is getting the chance to see two Seth Rogens. That's the main appeal and it's the movie's biggest strength. Rogen actually gives two great performances. One, he's a version of his modern day slacker that he plays in most of his films. The other, he's a tough, hardworking, narrow-minded immigrant from 1919. These dual roles could not have been easy to pull off, and Rogen does it wonderfully. It shows that he has more range than you might expect, and he creates two interesting, very different characters. That part of the film was fun to watch. Rogen definitely deserves a great deal of credit for his performances here.

The problem is that the movie lets him down. Oh, there were some brilliant ideas here. By contrasting 1919 America with 2020 America, the movie is able to skewer much of modern life, while drawing interesting parallels between what has and hasn't changed over the past 100 years. This is genius, but it never fully materializes. It never feels like the actual implementation rises up to the brilliance of the concept. We have social media and technology, common daily items would be wondrous to those from 100 years ago. Language and ideas about family, self-worth have all changed. PC culture is strong. The movie touches on all of these, but it never feels like the movie truly captures these. The script feels like it hits the needed points, but it's more about checking boxes than the brilliant send up of modern life it should have been.

Part of the problem is that much of the forward momentum in the movie is inspired by mean-spirited actions. The characters make a lot of mistakes, act petty and insolent. That doesn't translate into a whole lot of fun. The idea of Rogen interacting with Rogen is great, but when they're crappy to each other, it takes some of the fun out of it. It leaves you feeling disconnected from these characters. Why should we care about them? The film doesn't quite deliver an answer there.

For something billed as a comedy, the film was surprisingly unfunny. I remember laughing at how they glossed over the picklization process and winked at the audience with the ridiculousness of the whole thing. That was brilliant. There might have been one or two humorous moments, but most of the movie wasn't funny at all. The drama certainly took center stage, which was fine, but it needed more moments of levity. Without those, the whole thing feels kind of depressing. I didn't have much fun watching this movie, nor would I want to subject myself to another viewing.

An American Pickle got decent reviews from critics, but I think they're wrong here. This isn't a bad movie, it's just a perfectly ordinary one. It never rises to its brilliant premise. It kind of muddles through the story, rarely showing anything that makes you engage and focus. Rogen is the highlight of the movie for sure. He just needed a stronger director to make this movie what it could have been.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating- 6



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