I’ve been waiting 30 years or so for Jerry Seinfeld to make a full-length movie. He famously said he never would, then about three years ago rumors began that he was making a film (his directorial debut) about the history of the Pop-Tart.<\/p>\n
Yeah, that sounded pretty ridiculous, but hey, this is a guy who made a billion dollars on “a show about nothing.”<\/p>\n
This past Friday the wait was over, as Netflix released\u00a0Unfrosted<\/em>, Jerry’s sort-of true origin story of the Pop-Tart and the folks who made it happen.<\/p>\n Nearly every review I’ve read of this movie has called it one of the worst movies of all time.<\/p>\n They’re wrong.<\/p>\n Unfrosted<\/em> is deliciously good. Most of all it’s hilarious, but also tells a pretty interesting story, and incorporates just about everything in mid-’60s America and the world at large. The Cold War, the Space Race, Khrushchev, the Cuban Missile Crisis, JFK… it’s all there. (Bill Burr doing JFK, by the way, is one of the finest performances I’ve ever see.)<\/p>\n There’s “pop” history too, from Walter Cronkite and Jack Lalanne to Schwinn bikes and Silly Putty. Period food items? In addition to Pop-Tarts, Jerry and company are able to work in Froot Loops, Frosted Flakes, Chef Boyardee, Carvel ice cream, Tang, Rice Krispie Treats, and everything wholesome about pre-Vietnam\/pre-Watergate America.<\/p>\n And every A-lister in Hollywood showed up to play.<\/p>\n Nobody tries too hard, nobody’s going to win an Oscar, but that\u2019s kind of the point. The movie is just meant to be funny, and it is. It\u2019s a bit like a summer camp variety show. It’s the end of the week and the kids are going to put together a skit to remind themselves of the fun they had the past few days. Except\u00a0this<\/em> summer camp isn’t made up of kids–it’s Hollywood actors.<\/p>\n Dear every reviewer who panned this movie: get over yourself. Yes, I get it, it’s “cooler” to say you didn’t like something than to gush over it. I’ll gush over it. Saying you didn’t like it doesn’t make you cool and doesn’t make you smarter than the people who made the movie (Jerry and his usual team of Seinfeldians, by the way).<\/p>\n I loved\u00a0Unfrosted<\/em> as much as I love its delicious subject matter (which starts pretty much every day for me). And the many Seinfeldian nods, subtle and otherwise, just make it that much better if you’re familiar with the Seinfeld oeuvre. (And if you’re not you should be.) The movie is very Jerry.<\/p>\n Yeah, I had to wait a long time to see this one, but it was worth the wait. I’m not sure whether Jerry’s got anything else in the works these days, but if he does, I’ll see it the day it comes out.<\/p>\n Like a public clamoring for packageable breakfast, I’m all in.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I’ve been waiting 30 years or so for Jerry Seinfeld to make a full-length movie. He famously said he never would, then about three years ago rumors began that he was making a film (his directorial debut) about the history … Continue reading