In his directorial debut, Jerry Seinfeld takes on the cereal wars of the 1960s. The epic battle between Kellogg’s and Post to create a toaster breakfast pastry that will addict children to a new form of morning ritual. A Manhattan Project for cereal, if you will. In 1963, Kellogg’s is king and Post the also-ran. But Post has discovered a secret recipe for a new pastry sensation, never mind that they stole the concept from Kellogg’s.
Battle Creek, MI is the stage as Edsel Kellogg III (Jim Gaffigan) and Marjorie Post (Amy Schumer) look out across the river at each other from their towering corner offices. (The production design evokes a colorful, whimsical 1960s.) Seinfeld and Max Greenfield play employees of Kellogg’s while a NASA food scientist (Melissa McCarthy) joins them in their race with Post to win over the breakfast tables of America. The quest takes them to the White House, Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the U.S.S.R. The best ad men of the decade are called in to come up with a name for the product: Don Draper (Jon Hamm) and Roger Sterling (John Slattery) in a delicious satire of Mad Men. The cereal giants will stop at nothing. A taste pilot is even accidentally killed and remembered in a funeral with “full cereal honors.”
A quick, convenient pastry breakfast would upend the cereal business. The milk industry (represented by Christian Slater) is in panic mode. Cereal mascots, with Tony the Tiger (Hugh Grant) as their spokesman, are worried about the future. Tony organizes a massive protest, and you’ll never guess what it will remind you of. Numerous other pranks occur utilizing a parade of celebrity cameos. It’s a showcase for comedians.
Unfrosted has received mixed reviews, some being quite harsh (“one of the decade’s worst movies”* and “one big steaming pile”**). Whoa, let’s take a breath. It’s not Oppenheimer. It’s silly and absurd. Not all the jokes land but you might laugh anyway at the effort. If you grew up in the ’60s eating Froot Loops or Rice Krispies, you’ll enjoy it. The references to the decade fly by fast and you’ll be trying to name the fleeting glimpses of the cereal mascots in costume (was that Apple Jacks I just saw?). If you missed the ’60s but liked Seinfeld, you should also like it. This isn’t a movie about nothing, but you’ll remember that the legendary sitcom got pretty weird, too (Junior Mints, Marine Biologist, or Rye Bread, anyone?) If your Saturday night needs a break from serious films, dial this one up on Netflix.
* Chicago Sun-Times
** Daily Globe and Mail
D² Rating: ◼◼◼☐☐
Trivia: Jerry Seinfeld combined his two favorite things in what television series?
Answer below
Answer: His love of cars and coffee gets top billing in Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee. Currently streaming on Netflix, the show premiered in 2012 and ran for 11 seasons with 84 episodes, each about 15 minutes.