An American Pickle
Warner Bros. Pictures | Release Date (Streaming): August 6, 2020 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
58
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 39 Critic Reviews
Positive:
20
Mixed:
17
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
79
PolygonKaren HanAug 18, 2020
The film’s plot, adapted by Simon Rich from one of his short stories, is unfortunately saggy. But Rogen’s performance remains rock-solid throughout. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleAug 5, 2020
That none of this seems snarky, but sweetly human, is largely thanks to Rogen, who never makes Herschel ridiculous, but aspirational, as if he has a vision he’s working toward. Read full review
75
The PlaylistRodrigo PerezAug 3, 2020
An American Pickle is a most unexpected Seth Rogen film, maybe less funny than you hoped, but still charming, amusing, and far more considered than you would have ever thought. Read full review
75
ObserverBrandon KatzAug 3, 2020
An American Pickle uses arguably the dumbest concept imaginable to tell a surprisingly tender story about intergenerational pain, legacy, family, forgiveness, American division, Jewish heritage and the importance of family roots. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzAug 3, 2020
While Rich’s script misses a few trickier opportunities to further dig into questions of religion and history – Herschel sleeps his way through the entirety of the Second World War, yet there’s never any discussion of how the Holocaust has irrevocably changed the world he wakes up in – An American Pickle is a movie that your bubbe will love. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsAug 3, 2020
This one’s more than one kind of comedy, too. It’s a sweet yet nicely vinegary immigration fable; a deadpan fantasy; and a tale of two Brooklyns, one (1920) a repository of rat-infested factories and Eastern European Jewish immigrants, the other (2020) the gentrified land of their progressive, pea milk-drinking great-grandchildren. Read full review
70
TimeStephanie ZacharekAug 6, 2020
An American Pickle is a real movie, and it’s delightful. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesKatie WalshAug 5, 2020
It gestures toward controversial ideas but always swerves back to a simple but profound message of togetherness and family, and the personal importance of honoring tradition and memory. Read full review
70
The New York TimesA.O. ScottAug 5, 2020
Pickles can be comfort food. Not too filling, good for the digestion, noisy and a little sloppy rather than artful or exquisite or challenging. This one, as I’ve said, isn’t bad, and even allows a soupçon of profundity into its formula. Read full review
70
Wall Street JournalJohn AndersonAug 5, 2020
It has some savvy things to say about social media, assimilation and a specifically American condition: the peculiar mix of embarrassment and pride (and guilt) one can harbor about one’s ethnic origins. With a character who brings it all back home. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)Alison WillmoreAug 4, 2020
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. Read full review
70
IGNKristy PuchkoAug 3, 2020
All in all, An American Pickle is a solidly entertaining comedy. Its oddball conceit dares audiences to take the plunge, and Seth Rogen rewards them with Herschel, who is bold, thrilling, and a little bit bonkers. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyAug 3, 2020
An American Pickle is neither the most substantial nor the most sophisticated comedy, but its soulful sweetness outweighs its flaws. Read full review
67
IndieWireEric KohnAug 3, 2020
Pitched somewhere between outrageous satire and sincerity, the movie has a tough time finding its priorities, but it’s endearing to watch it try. Read full review
67
ConsequenceMichael RoffmanAug 3, 2020
An American Pickle is cute — nothing more, nothing less. It’s not laugh-out-loud funny; it’s folksy funny. This is chicken soup for the soul, arriving at a time when Americans could use a balmy parable on family and tradition. Read full review
65
The AtlanticDavid SimsAug 6, 2020
It’s Rich’s understanding of the connection between Herschel and Ben, not their time-dilated differences, that won me over. Read full review
65
SlashfilmChris EvangelistaAug 5, 2020
There’s an undeniable and lovely sweetness at play in this film; a type of warmth and acceptance that helps elevate the entire package. Read full review
63
Vanity FairK. Austin CollinsAug 12, 2020
An American Pickle proves a pretty good hang. It’s straightforward, well-paced, has fun-enough cameos (Lonely Planet’s Jorma Taccone and comic Tim Robinson, to name two). But it also sells its premise quite a bit short. Read full review
63
The Associated PressLindsey BahrAug 6, 2020
A solid film with a few good gags and a fair amount of heart. Read full review
63
RogerEbert.comMatt Zoller SeitzAug 5, 2020
An American Pickle is charming and moving whenever it is content to be a two-man play. That's where the dramatic and thematic action happens. And it happens mainly through Rogen's dual performance. Read full review
60
The Observer (UK)Simran HansAug 9, 2020
Millennial self-interest and performative liberal politics are contrasted with “authentic”, let-it-all-hang-out conservatism. It’s a simplistic critique. Still, the frequently charming Rogen brings enough of his affable, nice guy credibility to each character to ground both loose cannon Herschel and his straight man foil. Read full review
60
The GuardianPeter BradshawAug 6, 2020
An American Pickle is a tasty, insubstantial snack of a comedy. Read full review
60
Screen DailyTim GriersonAug 6, 2020
The sliver of a plot sees An American Pickle stumble in its attempt to be a timely commentary, although its emotional underpinnings give the film a modest charm to relish. Read full review
60
UproxxMike RyanAug 5, 2020
An American Pickle is more interesting than laugh-out-loud hilarious. It’s introspective, without at all seeming that way. Read full review
60
Screen RantChris AgarAug 3, 2020
An American Pickle is a fun, fleeting buddy comedy that spreads its humorous premise a bit too thin, minimizing the story's impact. Read full review
60
EmpireAl HornerAug 3, 2020
Part time-travelling family drama, part idiosyncratic immigrant-adventure comedy, An American Pickle’s gags underwhelm, but its emotion and originality will surprise you. One of oddest films of 2020 so far, buoyed by two superb turns from Rogen. Read full review
58
TheWrapSteve PondAug 4, 2020
If you want a comedy that works hard to be touching, you might find that here – but honestly, you’d expect a movie about pickles (and a movie starring Rogen) to have more of a bite than this. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubJesse HassengerAug 3, 2020
Rogen’s comedies have often layered broad laughs with humanity and thematic ambition. Here, like Herschel and Ben, they aren’t especially convincing sharing the frame. Read full review
55
CNNBrian LowryAug 6, 2020
This adaptation of Simon Rich's novella has some fun contemplating how the modern world would like to a 20th-century immigrant, before scraping the barrel for deeper themes. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliAug 17, 2020
Most of the movie involves Rogen interacting with Rogen and this is problematic on a number of levels. First, neither version of Rogen has a good feel for the shifting tone of the movie. Secondly, without another human to play off, Rogen is frequently stiff. Or, to put it another way, he has zero chemistry with himself. Read full review
50
We Got This CoveredMark BenedictAug 14, 2020
An American Pickle features an impressively committed Seth Rogen in dual comic roles, but the film lacks depth and urgency and isn’t nearly funny enough to make up for it. Read full review
50
ScreenCrushMatt SingerAug 5, 2020
There are good things in American Pickle, like two convincing (and occasionally moving) performances from Rogen. But they’re the equivalent of a couple cucumber scraps in a giant vat of salt water. Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperAug 5, 2020
Rogen does a remarkably fine job in creating two distinct characters. Read full review
50
Rolling StonePeter TraversAug 4, 2020
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. Read full review
50
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzAug 3, 2020
An American Pickle is the kind of movie that never quite decides what it wants to be. Pick a lane, as they say. Otherwise, you’re all over the place. Read full review
50
USA TodayBrian TruittAug 3, 2020
There are some scattered laughs but it's not particularly funny, and American Pickle is generally all over the place, aiming to be an abstract comedy about family and religion but losing its way trying to also poke fun at modern culture. Read full review
40
VarietyOwen GleibermanAug 3, 2020
Of course, the essence of the fish-out-of-water comedy is that it’s never been a realistic genre — it’s pure Hollywood fantasy. Yet An American Pickle, in its ethnically satirical and scattered way, lacks the integrity of its own ridiculousness. It’s pungent but flavorless: an unkosher dill. Read full review
38
Boston GlobeTy BurrAug 6, 2020
Among other things, An American Pickle is very, very Jewish, and a scene toward the end revolves around Ben finally joining a minyan to say the Mourner’s Kaddish. Better they should have said it for the movie. Read full review
25
Entertainment WeeklyDarren FranichAug 4, 2020
There are actors who can pull off dual roles, and now we know Seth Rogen isn’t one of them. Read full review
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