An American Pickle Review

An American Pickle is a comedy-drama and it based on Simon Rich's 2013 short story "Sell Out". The movie is produced by Gravitational Productions and Point Grey Pictures and disturbed by HBO Max. An American Pickle is written by Simon Rich and directed by Brandon Trost.

The story is in 1920 Herschel Greenbaum dreams of building a better life for his family, one day on the job Herschel falls into a vat of pickles and is brine. 100 years later he wakes up in the modern world and is horrified that his great-grandson Ben is a computer programmer. Now Herschel wants to reopen the family with his grandson but first they have to get on the same page.

Initial Reaction

Originally I wasn't going to review this movie because of a general lack of disinterest. In matter of fact I wasn't going to review anything from HBO Max until next year when Zack Snyder's Justice League would be released. But since I reviewed movies that were outside of the Netflix spectrum I decided to give a review for HBO Max's first original movie.

Cons

I've got nothing to say. Let's move on.

Middle Ground

The only thing that could've used more work was the film's message about family. It was there but not enough, what I mean is while you understand what the writer was telling us about family it wasn't fully developed.

Pros

One aspect of An American Pickle that was good was Brandon Trost's directing. This was he's first time and he did a good job. I did not once watch this movie and thought "Yep. This is a guy who doesn't know how to direct." Another thing that was good was the comedy. Yes there are some jokes that don't work but from my experience after watching the movie was I laughed for a majority of the time. The final thing to give the film credit for is Seth Rogen's dual performance. I was surprised that Rogen could pull this off, he really nailed playing two different characters. Whether it be their accent, the body language, or a character's mannerisms Seth was great at it.

An American Pickle is a pretty good watch. It had a great director at the helm despite being his first time, good comedy, and a great performance or performances from Seth Rogen. The only mix bag is the family message.

My final rating is Good

Okay. I am outta here. But due come back on Thursday, Aug 13th for my Classic Film Night review of Life of Brian. Until then enjoy the rest of your day.