Why An American Pickles Reviews Are So Mixed

Why An American Pickle’s Reviews Are So Mixed

Seth Rogen plays dual roles in the adaptation of Simon Rich’s short story, An American Pickle. Here’s why the HBO Max comedy’s reviews are so mixed.

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Why An American Pickles Reviews Are So Mixed

Here’s what the reviews are saying about HBO Max’s comedy, An American Pickle. An adaptation of Simon Rich’s short story “Sell Out”, the film serves as HBO Max’s first original movie since the service went live back in May (though it was originally developed for Sony). Directed by cinematographer Brandon Trost in his solo feature debut, An American Pickle was also written by Rich and features a cast led by Seth Rogen, along with names like The Lonely Island’s Jorma Taccone and Succession star Sarah Snook. It’s actually the latest in a long line of collaborations for Rogen and Trost, with the latter having previously served as the DP on several of the former’s comedies to date (including, his directorial efforts This Is the End and The Interview).

Story-wise, An American Pickle stars Rogen as Herschel Greenbaum, an Ashkenazi Jewish immigrant who journeys to the U.S. in 1919, in the hopes of building a better life for his family. Once there, he secures a job at a pickle factory and accidentally falls into a pickling vat on the same day the building is condemned. Rather than killing him, Herschel is perfectly preserved in the brine until he’s awoken 100 years later, having not aged a day. Trying to find his way in this strange new world, Herschel eventually seeks out his only surviving descendant and great-grandson Ben (also Rogen), a New York hipster and computer programmer who, as Herschel quickly realizes, has little in common with him.

Reviews for An American Pickle have been mixed so far, with the film sitting at 73% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes after 67 reviews, but only with an average score of 6.1 out of 10. It appears the premise is the main sticking point – that is, most critics think it’s an inspired one, but even the more positive responses suggest the execution isn’t as strong as it could’ve been.

Why An American Pickles Reviews Are So Mixed

THR

… The oddball mix of goofy ’90s-style comedy with a big fat sentimental heart makes An American Pickle a tough movie to dislike. What elevates it above the often haphazard plotting of former Saturday Night Live writer Simon Rich’s script is the captivating dual-role performance of Seth Rogen, playing relatives divided by rivalry and misunderstanding before ultimately rediscovering the comforts of their shared heritage.

AV Club

As it progresses, the material feels more and more like a series of slightly amusing paragraphs, with sentimentality wedged uncomfortably between flights of satirical whimsy. As with the movie’s clunky technical fudges in the Herschel-versus-Ben scenes, there’s no sleight-of-hand in how it introduces the supposed poignancy of two incompatible men serving as each other’s only living relatives; the script just blurts that out, denying any sense of hard-won reconciliation.

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Vulture

Having to pony up for a ticket to An American Pickle would have almost certainly made it feel inadequate as a viewing experience, but with the lower barrier to entry of streaming, its modest pleasures are able to outweigh its minor miscalculations, and the fact that it occasionally plays like a prolonged sketch feels more forgivable. When it works, which it does most of all in its opening and closing acts, it’s because it manages to give a surprising emotional solidity to what’s otherwise a whimsical premise.

NPR

Particularly with such an offbeat story and such a small cast, how would this movie feel as a big-screen summer release? Like Superbad? Like something much less successful than Superbad?… Let’s focus on this much: It’s a clever idea, it has some good jokes, and it approaches the idea of immigration to the United States in a way I haven’t seen. That’s not to even mention the fact that being preserved in a pickle barrel and waking up in 100 years has never been more appealing.

Tonally, most reviews describe An American Pickle as being closer to a ’70s-era Woody Allen comedy (Sleeper being the obvious example, given its similar premise) than Rogen’s previous work, as far as its typically droll sense of humor and often lackadaisical plotting is concerned. Problem is, why the film does explore themes of generational differences, Jewish immigrant legacy, and the changing face of the American Dream, critics feel it does so without digging all that deeply into any one of these concepts. Likewise, many of the reviews – be they positive or negative on the whole – agree An American Pickle can be hit or miss with its comedy, resulting in some sharp observations about issues like cultural assimilation, but also predictable jokes that involve Herschel’s politically incorrect and/or dated views. At the same time, critics seem by and large impressed with Rogen’s acting, if more so his performance as Herschel than that of Ben.

IGN

An American Pickle works best when it rests on Herschel. The first act is hilarious and surprising, as it keeps us close to this curious character, even threading in narration that’s hilariously frank. However, once Herschel meets Ben, Rich’s script stumbles. It’s as if it knows the emotional beats the story needs to hit, but not how to get there. So Rogen faces off against Rogen in a series of clunky verbal battles about religion, grief, and Twitter… Some of these score laughs, but they also distract from the intriguing central story and its complicated hero.

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/Film

And yet, for all its problems, An American Pickle gets by on the strength (or make that strengths) of Rogen’s performance. Playing the very different Greenbaum men allows Rogen ample opportunity to flex his acting chops, and he runs with it. While Ben is the type of modern-day schlub he’s played more than once before, the Herschel part is something different for Rogen, and it’s a testament to the actor’s skills that he manages to make the oft-offensive figure endearing.

TIME

[An] American Pickle has an acidic zing that neutralizes any sentimentality. Rogen has a great feel for Yiddish humor, for its lilting rhythms and its joy, but also for its bleakness… But Rogen can carry the movie’s more serious threads too: while Ben claims that he’s not religious, he comes to understand that even among the non-observant, religion can be the thread that connects families through centuries. Rogen, Trost and Rich have a sense of how ridiculous, and sometimes punishing, life can seem, in 1919 or in 2020.

Rolling Stone

[The] transitions on screen feel blunt and off-putting, making the film seem long even at a scant 88 minutes. This could be due to the inexperience of first-time director Brandon Trost… Though [Rogen’s] affinity for new talent is admirable, the sudden shifts in tone and the arid dead spots give this movie a shapelessness that challenges your attention instead of rewarding it. Still, a movie that even glancingly grapples with questions of ethnic and spiritual identity, past and present, is hardly hack work. It’ll do in a pickle.

More than anything else, these reviews suggest Rogen’s whimsical buddy comedy was better served releasing as an HBO Max Original, where the bar for entry is lower anyway. It doesn’t sound like viewers are necessarily losing anything from not seeing An American Pickle on the big screen, either; many critics agree the scenes in the past (which are filmed in muted colors and an older aspect ratio, as a way of making everything feel properly antiquated) are stylishly done, but the present-day sequences (where the majority of the film takes place) are relatively lackluster, visually-speaking. It might not be worth getting an HBO Max subscription to watch An American Pickle alone, but for those who’re already subscribed and/or interested in Rogen’s continuing evolution as an artist, it appears there’s enough that works in the movie to merit checking it out.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/american-pickle-movie-reviews-mixed-divisive-reason/

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