Quartile rating: 6.5/10 · 1 rating
An immigrant worker at a pickle factory is accidentally preserved for 100 years and wakes up in modern day Brooklyn. He learns his only surviving relative is his great grandson, a computer coder who he can’t connect with.
An American Pickle is a quirky high-concept comedy with a charming premise — a Jewish immigrant preserved in brine for a century waking up in modern Brooklyn — that never fully delivers on its potential. Seth Rogen's dual performance (playing both Herschel and Ben) is likable but stretched thin, as the script leans heavily on the comedic contrast without deepening it meaningfully. The cinematography is competent but unremarkable for an HBO Max production. The concept is distinctive enough to earn modest novelty points, blending Jewish-American identity, generational conflict, and fish-out-of-water comedy in a way that feels somewhat fresh, though the execution is uneven. The ending disappointingly retreats into sentimentality rather than resolving the thematic tensions with any real conviction, feeling rushed and overly neat for the questions the film raises about heritage and connection.