Jerry Seinfeld Revisits Old Territory in 'Unfrosted'
by EG
If you've spent decades wondering what's the deal with Pop-Tarts, Jerry Seinfeld has a new movie for you. The 90s sitcom star returns to Netflix with Unfrosted, a comedic fictionalization of the origin story of America's most famous breakfast pastry. The wacky film is loaded with celebrity cameos, but does it deliver enough laughs to lure a younger audience to a project by a comedian whose heyday was 30 years ago (and whose off-camera statements lately have gone a long way toward alienating younger people)? Read on for details.
If you appreciated Barbie’s eye-popping zaniness but its virtuous speechifying set your teeth on edge, have I got a sugary treat for you. And by “sugary,” I mean empty calories, not saccharine sentimentality. Gleefully silly — this is, after all, the directing debut of TV’s master of the domain of nothing — Unfrosted takes the origin-story template, wrings it dry of emotion, mixes basic facts with goofy fiction and serves up a bit of toasted history about the search for a “fruit-filled pastry dingus,” the 20th century creation we now know as the Pop-Tart.
Teaming again with his Bee Movie screenwriting collaborators, but this time without the strained punning and belabored narrative mechanics, Jerry Seinfeld has lured a cast of thousands to play characters both real and invented, often a hybrid of the two, in a straight-up comedy — no therapeutic underpinnings or civic lessons — that’s funniest when it isn’t trying too hard. (For me, the biggest laugh line is a tossed-off one-word response from Melissa McCarthy’s character.)
For buffs of any age, Unfrosted abounds in affectionate and jokey movie and TV references. And there are endless nods to ’60s pop culture totems (in the opening minutes alone, Woody Woodpecker, the Slinky and G.I. Joe make fleeting appearances), but whether anyone born after 1963, the year the movie takes place, will get most of them is another question. It should be noted, too, that Seinfeld’s recent stances on divisive political issues will make it difficult for even some longtime fans to wholeheartedly embrace him anymore. But for those willing to put aside reality for 90 minutes, as Unfrosted does with gusto, the Netflix movie whips up a frothy sendup of storytelling tropes and clichés.
The setting is Battle Creek, Michigan, ground zero for Mission Pop-Tart. The screenplay by Seinfeld, Spike Feresten, Andy Robin and Barry Marder establishes the rivalry between Kellogg’s and Post, America’s leading purveyors of breakfast cereal, as a Cold War space race. Seinfeld points to The Right Stuff as a key inspiration, and there are suggestions, too, of Hidden Figures. There’s even a visit to NASA, where food science whiz Donna “Stan” Stankowski (McCarthy) is working on astronaut food for the Apollo project. But Bob Cabana (Seinfeld) lures her away from the futile idea of moon travel for the chance to work with him again at Kellogg’s, where the countdown has begun to create a shelf-stable (yum) pastry.
A couple of dumpster-ping kids (Eleanor Sweeney and Bailey Sheetz, both aces) have clued in exec Bob to Post’s advances on that front. In an evil-looking edifice across the street, the turbaned and ruthless Marjorie Post (Amy Schumer) and her relentlessly abused right-hand man (Max Greenfield) are ready to launch their new product, though whether they’ll call it Dextrose Dillies or Fresh Flatties has yet to be decided. Upping its game, Kellogg’s holds a press conference, straight out of The Right Stuff, to introduce its team of “taste pilots,” a mix of historical and invented figures played by James Marsden, Jack McBrayer, Thomas Lennon, Bobby Moynihan and Adrian Martinez, with a cameo by the Univac computer.
Get the rest of the story at The Hollywood Reporter.