An American Pickle (12A)
Sleeper and Idiocracy meet Trump’s America and cancel culture in this smart-dumb satirical vehicle for Seth Rogen. He plays Herschel Greenbaum, a hard-working early 20th-century Polish-jewish immigrant who falls into a vat of pickles just before the factory he works in closes and wakes up – having been fully preserved – in present day Brooklyn where, weirdly and hilariously, he fits right in among the hipster residents who dig his rabbinical beard and peasant threads. But his old-world prejudice soon brings trouble for his great grandson, Ben Greenbaum (also Rogen), a mobile app designer working on a product designed to instantly check the ethical credentials of any business. What follows is an amusing tale of intergenerational rivalry as the cautious Ben’s frustration with his long lost (and only) relative is exacerbated by Herschel’s savant-like rise among the woke sheeples who don’t realise that the artisanal pickle empire he quickly establishes is sourced from garbage. Exacting his own revenge by using his internet savvy to bring down Herschel, Ben’s repeated ability to hoist himself with his own petard underscores the insanity of a world in which rational thought is sacrificed for a quick hit of righteous anger.
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