The actor's new film "American Pickles" has already received rave reviews in US newspapers • Recall, Rogen claimed that "Israel is based on lies"

• "A celebration of Jewish identity"? Seth Rogen

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  From the trailer

The new film starring Seth Rogen to be released this week is called "An American Pickle", in a kind of pun between the literal meaning of the word Pickle and its expressive meaning, which is used to describe the entanglement of events or an unpleasant situation. And judging by the reviews of the film in response to the actor's recent remarks in an interview promoting "American Cucumber," he himself may have gotten a little entangled.

In the comedy, directed by Brandon Trust and released in two days as the first original film of the HBO streaming service, Rogen plays two characters: one is that of Herschel Greenbaum, a Jewish immigrant to the United States in the 1920s, who falls into a tub at the pickle factory where he works - resulting in a miss (yes, what you heard) for a period of 100 years. When he wakes up in contemporary hipster Brooklyn he discovers that he has not aged at all, but his only relative in the world is Nino Ben Greenbaum, a member of the millennial generation, also played by Rogen. The film is based on the dynamics between the two, and was defined by the actor in interviews to promote him as "the most Jewish film" in which he participated.

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The plot of the film is based on a short story called "Sell Out" written by Simon Rich and praised when it was published in 2013. His cinematic (or streaming) version is currently receiving rave reviews.

Variety magazine referred to the film as a remnant of the 1980s, of films such as Splash, Discovery of America and A Kindergarten Cop - all of whom find their protagonists as fish out of water in a new and unnatural environment. Despite this, it was written in a rather negative review, that the release of such a film in 2020 only emphasizes how much of this genre is no longer relevant. The result is a film "too artificial to be convincing and too worded to be funny," the review said. The critic also refers to the fact that apart from flat sub-characters, "the only real characters in the film are Herschel and Ben Greenbaum. And that's, to be honest, too much Seth Rogen for any movie. '

 The trailer for the film

also the "Wired" website chose to comment on the film's release a little late, in a review whose title claims that it might have felt "fresher in the decade of 2010." The article refers to the fact that many jokes in the film are intended as a critique of the millennial generation, but are in fact told in a plot against the habits of American students - who these days actually belong to the Z generation. "Watching the film feels more like the mishaps of a lost film by director Judd Apatow (with whom Rogen often works. AP) from the previous decade, than a film in 2020," reads a rather negative text, summed up in the sentence: "This is a film about a man adapting to life. In the modern world - which itself comes from another era. '

The Guardian, on the other hand, gave the film three stars and described it as "a funny fiction that turned into a funny film" and a "piece of fictional and delicious comedy." The Hollywood Reporter referred to it as a "celebration of Jewish identity" and had funny passages, but found many shortcomings in it, including "conflicts that feel forced and occasionally sinful to the character of the characters." The Reporter also reported that at one point the film became scripted, but despite it being an "irrational or sophisticated comedy", it had enough charm to help it overcome its shortcomings.

As you may recall, Seth Rogen was interviewed a few days ago in a podcast by radio personality Mark Maron, and talked about his Jewish identity. He referred to "misinformation" about Israel in which he was fed in his youth, and wondered whether a large concentration of Jews in one country was necessary. The matter provoked a cyber-storm, in which the chairman of the Jewish Agency, Bozi Herzog, intervened and talked to Rogen about his remarks.

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As a result, the actor made it clear that he said these things with humor and that he supported the state's right to exist - but did not back down from his criticism of his Jewish upbringing. He stressed that he did not apologize for his remarks, but these were taken out of context. He added that he was aware of the sensitivity that exists around the issue of the Jewish state. If we had to guess, if it had been released in Israel, the film might have been called "Sour Story."