You know the film. It’s a film you have never heard of. The cast might be composed of actors you know and love or complete unknowns. A documentary that sounds interesting about a topic you might like. You stumble across it on streaming and wonder if it will be worth two hours of your time. This series will be devoted to reviewing films like these, the strange items that pop up when you are looking for a flick on the streaming service of your choice. This is “We Found It On Streaming”
During our celebration of Saturday Night Live‘s 50th anniversary, we will be devoting this feature to films found on streaming with some ties to the sketch program. This installment covers a film with strong cast, many with SNL ties—Unfrosted.
FILM: Unfrosted
Release Date: May 3, 2024
Run Time: 96 Minutes.
Streaming Service(s): Netflix
Rating: Rated PG-13 for some suggestive references and language
It’s 1963 and there is a contentious race on between two heated rivals to obtain the unobtainable. Both sides are using the smartest scientific minds they can get to get an edge over the other. One has John F. Kennedy on their side, the other Nikita Khruschev. It is a race against time and each other to take humanity to a place they have never been before–a world where breakfast pasties line the cereal aisles.
Unfrosted might not fit into the “undiscovered gem” category. Even if you haven’t seen this film, you know doubt heard of it before. It had a publicity blitz that is almost unrivaled for made for streaming films, including writer/director/star Jerry Seinfeld giving interviews where he complained about woke culture ruining comedy. It also got less than stellar reviews, But are all those critics wrong? Is Unfrosted as bad as they say it is?
Well, that all depends on your tolerance for silly parodic farce. Your enjoyment of that genre might make you a bit more forgiving of the film’s flaws.
Let’s start by talking about the best part of the film–its cast. The film is jam-packed with stars. Practically every role if filled with an actor who headlined a movie on their own (Melissa McCarthy, Hugh Grant, Christian Slater), are legends of the stand-up stage (Amy Schumer, Jim Gaffigan, Sebastian Maniscalo, Cedric the Entertainer), cult TV shows (Dean Norris, Jon Hamm, Peter Dinklage) and, the reason why the film is included in this feature today, a load of SNL-cast members (Kyle Mooney, Mikey Day, Beck Bennett, Bobby Moynihan, Sasheer Zamata, Fred Armisen). It is an abundance of riches. With a cast this good, it is impossible for the film to fall completely in the terrible category.
However, it does become a bit of overkill. Whenever a new character is introduced, you find yourself wondering what celebrity will be playing them. It also means talented comedic actors such as Patrick Warburton and Tony Hale only get a few seconds of screen time and a few lines of dialogue to share.
The actor who comes best out of all the cast is Amy Schumer as Marjorie Post. This might surprise some, but I thought she struck the right balance for her role. Most people play farces completely straight and serious. Schumer knew enough to be silly at times when the role required it. She also has a good rapport with Max Greenfield, who plays her assistant, Rick Ludwin.
The weak part of the cast is unfortunately its lead, Jerry Seinfeld. Just like he did on his TV show, Seinfeld surrounds himself with great actors, so great that he is destined to pale in comparison to them. He isn’t completely awful, but he’s not up to the work of the Emmy-winners and Oscar nominees in the cast.
As for the film itself, the best way I could describe it is that it wants to be an out and out farce but doesn’t want to commit to it. It’s the type of movie where it has mascots who apparently independent beings on their own, but there are also mascots who are the people who voiced them. It’s a movie where it takes a herculean effort to come up with a pop tart, but a sentient ravioli is created by accident. The film lacks a consistency of tone in my eyes. It is too concerned with aping the conventions of the genre do devote itself to the wackiness a farce needs.
There are some laughs here and there. It would be hard for there to not be with the amount if talent involved. I think the film would work better for you if you were old enough to know about the 1960s era the film is set in. The fight to get a toaster pastry on the shelves is a pretty strong parody of the space race and the struggle to get a man on the moon that dominated that decade. However, if you missed that lesson in history class, some of the effect is lost. And your mileage may vary, but the parody of the January 6th riots, complete with Thurl Ravenscroft (Hugh Grant) in a Tony the Tiger themed QAnon Shaman cosplay, struck me as a bit “too soon” for me.
Unfrosted isn’t as bad as Rotten Tomatoes makes it out to be. It has a certain charm and a few laughs. It just suffers from holding back on the wackiness of its comedy. It is a partial farce, and you get the feeling that it took itself too seriously to go all in on it. The result is a film that is more a disappointment than an outright failure.
Have you found a film on streaming that you’d like us to look at? Leave it in the comments and it might appear in a future installment of this feature.
