Jerry Seinfeld Directs Pop-Tart Comedy

The Pitch: Once upon a time (specifically, 1960s Battle Creek, MI), two rival cereal companies were on the verge of changing the breakfast game forever. The idea: A shelf-stable pastry that, toasted or not, would offer kids and adults alike a milk-free alternative for that first meal of the day. Unfrosted captures the fierce war between Kellogg’s and Post over the invention of what would become the Pop-Tart, with Jerry Seinfeld and Melissa McCarthy on the Kellogg’s side and Amy Schumer and Max Greenfield on the Post side… along with so, so many other famous faces.

Brighten Any Breakfast: Unfrosted, Seinfeld’s directorial debut, bears as much resemblance to the true story of Pop-Tarts as Weird: The Al Yankovic Story does to the facts of “Weird” Al Yankovic’s life. Which is to say — very little. Instead, the film serves as a largely entertaining opportunity to bring together a remarkable collection of comedians for a goofy satire, one that proves to be surprisingly family-friendly. (It’s rated PG-13 “for some suggestive references and language.”)

Starring in your directorial debut can be a risk for an actor, but Seinfeld’s role as Bob Cabana (a fictional character, one of many mixed in with real life figures like Marjorie Post and Tom Carvel) doesn’t draw too much of the spotlight towards him — good news for the talented ensemble, which is honestly a pretty bonkers collection of actors.

Beyond the previously mentioned stars, there’s Jim Gaffigan, Hugh Grant, Peter Dinklage, Christian Slater, James Marsden, Jack McBrayer, Thomas Lennon, Bobby Moynihan, Adrian Martinez, Sarah Cooper, Mikey Day, Kyle Mooney, Drew Tarver, Tony Hale, Felix Solis, Maria Bakalova, Dean Norris, Sebastian Maniscalco, Beck Bennett, Cedric the Entertainer, Fred Armisen, Aparna Nancherla, Andy Daly, and… at least a few others. Bill Burr plays President John F. Kennedy. Dan Levy is Andy Warhol. It’s that kind of movie.

The Luscious Flavor of Real Fruit: Not every joke lands during Unfrosted’s 93-minute runtime, though it’s actually a credit to the film that not all of its bits work — you want to see a project like this take big swings. One particularly rich vein mined by the writers is an extended riff on The Right Stuff, as Bob and Stan assemble their dream team of “taste pilots” to help them crack the breakfast pastry problem; there’s also an exceptionally funny runner, involving a lab creation that becomes sentient, that draws laughs simply from how weird and silly it is.

Weaker moments, meanwhile, range from one-off lines to an unsuccessful attempt to mock the January 6th, 2021 attack on the United States Capitol: Maybe for some people, it’s not too soon, but personally I’d prefer to wait on jokes about that until after the next election. It doesn’t help that the sequence’s execution fails to add any extra layer to the satire, flattening the humor of it.

Unfrosted (Netflix)

Still, the casting goes a long way towards propping up even the wobbliest scenes — Seinfeld and McCarthy pair well together, and Hugh Grant’s entrance is maybe one of the film’s best laughs. Every person listed above gets their time to shine, along with plenty of surprises: I don’t want to spoil one of the film’s bigger cameos, but let’s just say that it’s both funny and mind-bending to watch an Emmy-winning dramatic actor reprise his Emmy-winning role in this context. (Even if it is appropriate on a number of levels.

The Verdict: What’s fun about comedy is that not every bit hits the same way for everyone — personally, I probably laughed the hardest at writer Kyle Dunnigan’s strange yet note-perfect impression of Walter Cronkite, but other viewers will have their own favorite parts; there’s certainly no shortage to pick from. And it’s a good-looking movie, too, popping (sorry not sorry) visually, with costumes, production design, and cinematography all working together to deliver a brightly-colored, nostalgia-drenched spin on the 1960s that trades realism for absurdity.

Seinfeld has been pretty vocal about the changing state of comedy over the years, just recently blaming “the extreme left and P.C. crap” for the decline of the TV sitcom. Yet Unfrosted doesn’t feel like a movie made by someone frustrated by censorship — it feels like a true labor of love, someone having a good time with funny people making something truly absurd.

And oddly, for a movie about the invention of the Pop-Tart, Unfrosted gets almost pornographic about the delights of breakfast cereal: The crunch, the flavor, the creamy milk accompaniment. And in those moments, Seinfeld’s love for his subject matter really comes through, in ways that prove personal and even maybe a little emotional — elevating this from a collection of funny bits into an actual film.

Where to Watch: Unfrosted begins streaming on Netflix May 3rd.

Trailer: