Unfrosted is Jerry Seinfeld's directorial debut, and is only his second contribution to cinema after the Bee Movie. Needless to say it's an uneven film, though still possibly the best comedy movie produced by Netflix (Adam Sandler fans may differ, but it's a low bar nonetheless). At the very least it feels like an actual film, with all the idiosyncrasies of a singular human mind, instead of the usual algorithmic dribble that Netflix churns out.
The film itself is a kind of quasi-spoof of all those corporate brand origin stories that have been plaguing the movie industry for a while now. It's about Pop Tarts, and takes place in the apparently cutthroat world of cereal corporation rivalry and espionage. Seinfeld uses the same framework for humor utilized in the Bee Movie; namely to create a fantasy world that incorporates 'normal' elements of human society, rendering them absurd with gags and puns. Thus the cereal corporations have their own award ceremony, press conferences, and political system where they have to negotiate for milk and sugar. Everything revolves around cereal. A man dies testing the first Pop-Tart and is buried 'with full cereal honors', namely mascots dumping milk and cereal on top of his coffin as it's being lowered into the grave.
The film's mileage with viewers will depend on how much of this absurdity they can take, since that's almost all there is for the full 90 minutes. Like 'Undercover Brother', for example, it starts out funny but eventually becomes exhausting. There are some nice touches; the colorful production design is excellent, reminiscent of a Frank Tashlin or Blake Edwards film. (How many modern comedies can you say that about?) Most of the ensemble cast excel in their roles (Bill Burr and Peter Dinklage are highlights), while the less palatable ones (ie Amy Schumer) are at least utilized in ways that don't derail the film. There are a few Tashlinesque gags involving gadgets and corporate buffoonery.
Unfortunately the satire is just too haphazard to cohere; everything feels like a side gag. There doesn't seem to be point or real story to all this. The overall film still passes the low standard for comedies today, and the critical revulsion is unwarranted though anyone can see the real reason for it.
Someone has to mention this. Reading the 'professional' critic reviews (to say nothing of the cretinocracy that is Letterboxd) explicitly show that some reviewers have an axe to grind with Seinfeld after his offhand comments criticizing 'the extreme left'; nobody likes having their bubble burst. As it turns out the extreme left is so used to being pandered to that it's incapable of processing any criticism, and its defensive attacks are way overcompensated. How can this even remotely be 'Worst film of the year'? Have they watched any other Netflix films? So now Seinfeld was somehow never funny in the first place and owes all his success to Larry David? Have they seen David's wretched 'Sour Grapes'? Practically no one hits home runs all the time, especially in comedy.
(As another side note, the climactic scene of the mascots rioting is the point where you can imagine more liberal viewers squirming uncomfortably in their seats. It's not just that Seinfeld is lampooning two of their current sacred cows-worker's unions and the Jan 6 riot-but that he dares to conflate them. It's the only really gutsy sequence in the film, and is also quite funny.)
Ultimately the film reminds me of those similarly disdained comedies of the 90s (like the films of Sandler or Chris Farley), which later went on to become cult films. I could see Unfrosted having the same fate, if it can transcend its Netflix origins.
The film itself is a kind of quasi-spoof of all those corporate brand origin stories that have been plaguing the movie industry for a while now. It's about Pop Tarts, and takes place in the apparently cutthroat world of cereal corporation rivalry and espionage. Seinfeld uses the same framework for humor utilized in the Bee Movie; namely to create a fantasy world that incorporates 'normal' elements of human society, rendering them absurd with gags and puns. Thus the cereal corporations have their own award ceremony, press conferences, and political system where they have to negotiate for milk and sugar. Everything revolves around cereal. A man dies testing the first Pop-Tart and is buried 'with full cereal honors', namely mascots dumping milk and cereal on top of his coffin as it's being lowered into the grave.
The film's mileage with viewers will depend on how much of this absurdity they can take, since that's almost all there is for the full 90 minutes. Like 'Undercover Brother', for example, it starts out funny but eventually becomes exhausting. There are some nice touches; the colorful production design is excellent, reminiscent of a Frank Tashlin or Blake Edwards film. (How many modern comedies can you say that about?) Most of the ensemble cast excel in their roles (Bill Burr and Peter Dinklage are highlights), while the less palatable ones (ie Amy Schumer) are at least utilized in ways that don't derail the film. There are a few Tashlinesque gags involving gadgets and corporate buffoonery.
Unfortunately the satire is just too haphazard to cohere; everything feels like a side gag. There doesn't seem to be point or real story to all this. The overall film still passes the low standard for comedies today, and the critical revulsion is unwarranted though anyone can see the real reason for it.
Someone has to mention this. Reading the 'professional' critic reviews (to say nothing of the cretinocracy that is Letterboxd) explicitly show that some reviewers have an axe to grind with Seinfeld after his offhand comments criticizing 'the extreme left'; nobody likes having their bubble burst. As it turns out the extreme left is so used to being pandered to that it's incapable of processing any criticism, and its defensive attacks are way overcompensated. How can this even remotely be 'Worst film of the year'? Have they watched any other Netflix films? So now Seinfeld was somehow never funny in the first place and owes all his success to Larry David? Have they seen David's wretched 'Sour Grapes'? Practically no one hits home runs all the time, especially in comedy.
(As another side note, the climactic scene of the mascots rioting is the point where you can imagine more liberal viewers squirming uncomfortably in their seats. It's not just that Seinfeld is lampooning two of their current sacred cows-worker's unions and the Jan 6 riot-but that he dares to conflate them. It's the only really gutsy sequence in the film, and is also quite funny.)
Ultimately the film reminds me of those similarly disdained comedies of the 90s (like the films of Sandler or Chris Farley), which later went on to become cult films. I could see Unfrosted having the same fate, if it can transcend its Netflix origins.
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