The HBO Max film feels direct-to-video in the worst way.
There are actors who can pull off dual roles, and now we knowSeth Rogenisn’t one of them.
Picture the best Borat impression you ever heard at a fraternity party.
Hopper Stone/HBO
So Herschel meets his lookalike great-grandson Ben, a fitted-sweater version of Rogen’s oldJudd Apatowpersona.
Really, the resemblance is astonishing.
Rogen’s a reactive performer who emerged from the cult of improvisation.
He needs somebody to play off.
It doesn’t help that both characters are aggressively uninteresting.
In the span of a few minutes, Ben says e-scooters are “Pretty fun!
“, Alexa is “Pretty cool!
“, and his seltzer machine is “Pretty cool, actually!”
Then he turns on his home stereo: “Pretty cool, huh?”
Some editing would’ve been pretty cool, too.
It’s like watching aSaturday Night Liveepisode where none of the segments hit.
You find yourself wondering: How bad were the sketches thatdidn’tmake it past rehearsal?
WriterSimon Richactually comes fromSNL, and Herschel comes off like a caricature designed for maybe a six-minute goof.
(It’s actually adapted from Rich’s own 2013 story, which explains the stale hipster gags.)
you’re able to almost spot the satire here.
Ben’s a laptop barfly who stopped practicing religion after hisJumanji-themed bar mitzvah.
The disappointment runs both directions.
People love Herschel until he starts offering any 1919 opinions about identity politics.
But the plot works overtime to convince you they’re both really very nice people.
This is increasingly ludicrous as their activities edge into a full-blown political cartoon.
There are protests, conservative mobs, social media cancellation.
Rogen produced the movie, which may explain the curious vanity schmaltz that glows around both of his characters.
The sentimentality, and outright spirituality, is as half-hearted as the indifferent dialogue.
“I think it’s that pickle guy, from the news!”
Is it okay to admit that I’m concerned about Rogen?
Things go south anytime humans have to speak.
And there’s a palpably saccharine treatment of the main characters.
Everyone played by Seth Rogen gets to secretly be a good, spiritual person.
HBO Max picked upPicklefrom Sony, nominally because the coronavirus scotched a planned release.
In a theater, the laughless silence would’ve been deafening.D
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