“An American Pickle” is far-fetched yet charming

If you can’t get enough of Seth Rogen—and want to see him call an iPad a “magic rectangle” in an impressive Yiddish accent—boy, have I got the movie for you.

Adopted from a New Yorker story by Brandon Rich, “An American Pickle” runs off of a ridiculously fun prompt. In 1919, a Jewish immigrant by the name of Herschel Greenbaum (played by Rogen) comes to America to work in a pickle factory, only to fall into an impossibly large pickle vat and stay perfectly preserved for 100 years.

Upon his emergence in 2019, his only living relative is his great-grandson, Ben Greenbaum, who is also played by Rogen. Ben is an entrepreneurial type who’s trying to get his app off the ground, and Herschel, not knowing much about the modern world, decides to stick to what he knows: making pickles.

The movie knows its impossibility, and that’s perhaps what makes it so charming. Many jokes center around the difference of Herschel’s time era, which was incredibly violent and vulgar. For example, when Ben tells Herschel that his parents died, Herschel has only one question: “murdered or regular?”

While most of the movie focuses on making its audience laugh, there are surprisingly heartfelt characteristics. Because he never got to meet his son or say goodbye to his wife, Herschel’s main motivation in the new world is to make his deceased family proud.

Ben, too, wants to make his late parents proud, though this is not as obvious and causes Herschel to think he is a disgrace to the family name. This leads to a chain of events where they sabotage each other, but eventually come back together. I have to say, the smaller moments where it’s shown that family is important and treasured actually come across as very genuine.

There’s another aspect that “An American Pickle” delivers well, too: its subtle commentary on modern American politics. When Herschel unknowingly says offensive things about the Russians, other religions and women, the public quickly falls into two different sides.

To me, these scenes—which have both angry protestors and people who praise Herschel for his daring free speech—are commenting on how easily each party is swayed. It is interesting to see how controversy causes Herschel to become an American sensation, something I daresay is all too common today.

As for the acting, the majority of the entire one hour, 30 minute movie is just Rogen, but he plays the two roles very well. I am not always impressed with Rogen’s acting—he usually plays the same monotone, comedic-relief character with a lack of depth.

However, in this movie, he displays a skill for accents and a commitment to each time era, so much so that his two characters are both believable and very distinct from each other. It is probably his best acting that I’ve seen so far.

All in all, this movie was exactly the lighthearted film I needed this week, with the stress of final papers starting to overwhelm me. I recommend it to those who need a little something far-fetched and funny. I give it a 7.5/10.

Also, as next week is The Record’s last issue, feel free to send me any recommendations for my last movie review of the year! My email is right below my name—I welcome any genre besides horror. It’s preferable if I can sleep at night; however, after watching “An American Pickle,” I don’t think this will be a problem knowing that in at least one fictional universe, pickles are the secret to immortality.