[Movie] An American Pickle Review _ Funny, Worth it?

So the first thing I want to address is the name, An American Pickle, when I first saw the title, I was seriously genuinely confused, like what is this? What does pickle have to do with anything? but then the movie started and everything made sense and honestly, the name ended up being one of the most clever things about it, the whole story literally revolves around a man who fell into a pickle brine vat in 1920 and woke up a hundred years later perfectly preserved, like an actual pickle I sat there and laughed at the simplicity of it, they named it exactly what it is and somehow that is genius.

Now let me tell you about this movie properly, Seth Rogen plays two people, Herschel, a Jewish immigrant from the early 1900s who is hardworking, loud, stubborn, and full of old world energy and Ben, his great great grandson who is this quiet, modern Brooklyn guy building an app and just trying to live his soft life, the contrast between these two characters is where all the comedy lives, and Seth Rogen pulls both of them off so well that you sometimes forget it is the same person, that alone deserves some credit.

The beginning of this movie had me. I liked it immediately, the way they set up Herschel's story, his wife, his struggle, how he ended up in that vat it was funny but also had this warmth to it that made you actually care, and then he wakes up in 2020, completely unchanged, dropped into a world he does not understand at all, and the chaos that follows is exactly the kind of comedy that makes you laugh without even meaning to , i laughed for a long time watching this film, a long time, and I think that was the whole point, that was the effect they were going for and they achieved it.

But then we got to a certain part and I have to be honest something shifted for me.

So there was this scene where Herschel makes a comment about Jesus in TV , okay see now I understand that his character is from a different era yeah? a different background and different world entirely, I get that, but the way the movie handled what came after, and him suddenly being hated, people turning on him and the whole deportation situation,

Ehn ngl that part got me confused and I was just sitting there like, ehn, this should not be happening like this, It felt like the story took a turn that I was not comfortable with somehow, not it's not because I did not understand it, but just because it gave me this kind of unsettled feeling, like something that was light and funny suddenly had this heavy, uncomfortable energy and I did not fully know what to do with it as a viewer.

It is the kind of scene that makes you pause and wonder what exactly the movie is trying to say, Is it commentary? Is it just plot movement? Is it supposed to make you uncomfortable on purpose? Maybe all three, but it left me with a feeling I was not expecting from what started as a straightforward comedy.

Still, even with that part, I liked this movie, I genuinely liked it, It made me laugh more than most things I have watched recently and the relationship between Herschel and Ben... the way they clash, fall out, and eventually find their way back to each other had something real in it, something about family and where you come from that sneaks up on you before you even notice.

An American Pickle is funny, it is strange, it is sometimes uncomfortable and it is worth watching, go in knowing it is a comedy though there's more to it than meets the eye of the naive viewer.

_Imdb