Film
An American Pickle
A gentle time-displaced comedy about culture shock, family, and what we pass down. Seth Rogen plays a 1920s immigrant pickle-maker who wakes up in 2020 Brooklyn and tries to build a life with his estranged great-grandson. It's warm and funny without punching down, more interested in understanding than laughing at its premise.
If you liked this
Ghostbusters II1989
A fish-out-of-water comedy where 1980s New York is genuinely strange and magical to characters returning to it. The tone matches—affectionate toward the city and its weirdness, funny without cruelty.
But The supernatural plot feels bolted on. If you want character-driven comedy, the ghosts get in the way.

Schitt's Creek2015
A family learns to make a life in a place they never expected to be. It deepens as it goes, finds real emotion in culture clash, and makes you love people you started by laughing at.
But The first season leans harder on fish-out-of-water gags. It takes commitment to reach the show it becomes.

The Adam Project2022
Ryan Reynolds and Ryan Gosling as a man and his younger self. It's built on generational understanding—a father learning from his son, a son learning from his father. Warm beneath the spectacle.
But The plot is serviceable at best. If you're here for the story mechanics, you'll feel the duct tape holding it together.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from An American Pickle
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
A Prayer Before Dawn2018
Both are about learning to live in a place you didn't choose, discovering that the distance between yourself and another person is smaller than you thought.
Joe Cole as a boxer in a Thai prison, learning discipline and grace from a place that should destroy him. Entirely genuine about how we're changed by displacement and hard work. Brutal and beautiful.
But Not a comfort watch. The violence is real, the humiliation is real, the struggle is relentless. This is work, not entertainment.

More like this (8)
Everything Everywhere All at Once2022
A mother and daughter learning to connect across a gulf of misunderstanding and disappointment. Wildly inventive formally, but the heart is always the same: family is what grounds you.
But Exhaustingly maximalist. If you want simplicity or a gentle watch, this will exhaust you.

Chef2014
A father and son travel together and learn each other. Built on food, conversation, and the specific joy of someone discovering something they didn't know they needed.
But Basically a long food advertisement. If you're hungry, it will torture you.

The Terminal2004
Tom Hanks stuck in JFK airport, building a life in a place he doesn't belong. Spielberg finds the humanity in displacement and the way connection transcends language and circumstance.
But Sentimental by design. If you resist the earnestness, the film won't work on you.

Godmothered2020
A fairy godmother from 1950 lands in modern Boston and has to adapt. Sweet, funny, genuinely interested in why people feel lost and what it takes to help them.
But Deliberately formulaic Disney comfort-food. Subversion isn't the point—gentleness is.

Drowning by Numbers1988
Three generations of women solving their problems with dark, specific humor. Peter Greenaway's most accessible film—precise, strange, genuinely funny about inheritance and escape.
But It's Greenaway. If his mannered formalism has ever annoyed you, nothing here will change your mind.

Okja2017
A girl and a genetically modified super-pig love each other. Bong Joon-ho finds real tenderness in an absurd premise, mixes genres fearlessly, and grounds it all in simple devotion.
But It's a mess—tone lurches, plot tangles. Some people find that energizing; others just find it annoying.

The Farewell2019
A story about someone caught between cultures, trying to translate between people who speak different languages of love. The pickle factory becomes a metaphor: old-world values preserved in new-world containers.
Awkwafina as an Americanized woman navigating her fractured relationship to her Chinese family. Funny and devastating about generational drift, language barriers, and what we owe each other.
But The pacing is deliberately slow and contemplative. If you want resolution or catharsis, you'll wait a long time.

The Apartment1960
Both are about men learning that the things they thought mattered don't, and the people they overlooked are everything. Both trust gentleness as a radical act.
Jack Lemmon as a lonely man who discovers connection through small acts of kindness and self-respect. One of the warmest films ever made—about how you build a life and find family outside the one you were born to.
But A period piece in every sense. If you're allergic to 1960s screwball pacing or gender politics, it won't bend for you.

People
Cast
Seth RogenHerschel Greenbaum / Ben Greenbaum
Sarah SnookSarah Greenbaum
Molly EvensenClara
Eliot GlazerChristian
Kalen AllenKevin
Kevin O'RourkeDane Brunt
Sean WhalenScientist
Geoffrey CantorDavid Greenbaum
Carol LeiferSusan Greenbaum
Jorma TacconeLiam
Marsha Stephanie BlakeInspector Sanders
Alyse ZwickNews Anchor
Directing
- Brandon TrostDirector
- Mark Anthony LittleFirst Assistant Director
- Scott PetersonScript Supervisor
- Frederic RothSecond Assistant Director
- Jonathan MedeirosSecond Second Assistant Director
Writing
- Simon RichScreenplay
- Simon RichShort Story
Production
- Ashley LambertADR Voice Casting
- Ranjani BrowADR Voice Casting
- Wendy HoffmannADR Voice Casting
- James A. MahatheyAssistant Location Manager
- Jason CalabroAssistant Location Manager
- Larry GeyerAssistant Location Manager
- Lisa Smith-ReedAssistant Production Coordinator
- Francine MaislerCasting
- Molly RoseCasting Assistant
- Elizabeth BerraCasting Associate
- Alex McAteeExecutive Producer
- Simon RichExecutive Producer
- Ted GidlowExecutive Producer
- Katie ShenotExtras Casting
- Sheruldon P. HerronFirst Assistant Accountant
- Donna BelajacLocal Casting
- Lynn KresselLocal Casting
- Shawn BoyachekLocation Manager
- Evan GoldbergProducer
- James WeaverProducer
- Seth RogenProducer
- Frida PerezProducer's Assistant
- Tanoa ParksProduction Accountant
- Joni SmithProduction Coordinator
- Gabrielle GonnellaProduction Secretary
- Austin LapierreProduction Supervisor
- Betsy ButterworthSecond Assistant Accountant
- Grayson MaxwellSecond Assistant Accountant
- Nathan MattSecond Assistant Accountant
- Allison A. MillicanTravel Coordinator
- Ted GidlowUnit Production Manager