The trailer above is our first look at An American Pickle, the new HBO Max comedy starring Seth Rogen and Seth Rogen. Yes indeed, this is one of those movies that features the main star playing two parts — all through the magic of split-screen! Cinema!
Pickle is about Herschel Greenbaum, a Jewish immigrant who works in a pickle factory in 1920s America. After a freak accident, Greenbaum is preserved in pickle brine for 100 years and wakes to a world he doesn’t understand. He makes contact with his great-grandson who he also doesn’t understand. It’s a classic fish-out-water (or, brine, rather) story that seems to focus a lot on family, grief and loss as well.
I love what I see here. I love the way the film, directed by cinematographer Brandon Trost, looks. I love what Rogen is doing with the dual characters. I really love the emphasis on sadness that the trailer gets across. It would really suck to be stuck in time for 100 years. You’d lose a lot! This looks like it’ll be funny, of course, but it also looks like it’ll touch upon some pretty heartfelt things too. I am all about that.
An American Pickle will be HBO Max’s first big budget release, set for August 6. The movie was originally made for Sony but COVID-19 forced it to find another home.