- “Without frosting” is the directorial debut of the famous comedian and stand-up master Jerry’Seinfeld's ego.
- Jerry Seinfeld himself played the main role in the film. His screen partners include: Melissa McCarthy, Amy Schumer, Jim Gaffigan and Hugh Grant. There are also cameo appearances by other stars.
- In the era of the undivided rule of cereals with milk, two corporations start to fight for who will revolutionize breakfast – this is the short story of the plot of “No frosting”.
Jerry Seinfeld he adds in an interview that today's comedians really like stand-up in comedy clubs because they are not controlled by anyone except the audience. “We shot an episode ‘The Seinfeld Chronicles’ in the 1990s, in which Kramer wants to start a rickshaw company using homeless people, because homeless people are always outside anyway. “We wouldn't be allowed to make such jokes today,” he says. He's right. I recommend watching this television masterpiece from 1989-1998 to see how many jokes that were not outrageous back then would cause controversy today. “The Seinfeld Chronicles” was created by Seinfeld and Larry’David's ego, who this year has just finished the production of his brilliant HBO series “Curb Your Enthusiasm” (2000-2024), where he struggled with political correctness until the end, intelligently handling it in the style of almost the creators of Polish comedies from the Polish People's Republic, who had to sophisticatedly fight censorship.
In the last episode of David's show, Jerry Seinfeld himself appears and the gentlemen brazenly take on the now forgotten, and at the time passionate, criticism of the finale (to this day it is ranked among the “worst finales” of American series in history, although I happen to be his, nomen omen, enthusiast) of “The Seinfeld Chronicles”, copying it in “Curb Your Enthusiasm” almost 1:1. Jerry Seinfeld hasn't played leading roles since his series ended. He made episodes in his friends' sitcoms and series, was a voice in the animation “Bee Movie”, played numerous stand-ups and shot a great eleven seasons (2012-2019) of the series “Comedians in cars getting coffee”, in which he drove famous comedians (and including President Barack Obama) in classic cars and drank coffee with them while debating comedy. Now it's time for his feature directorial debut.
The fashion for making entrepreneurship-friendly films in the American version is slowly returning. These are not productions that worship the mythical “American Dream”, which is passe in the era of pompous class struggle, but last year's productions such as “Air” by Ben Affleck about the creation of Air Jordans, “BlackBerry” by Matthew Johnson about the groundbreaking telephone at that time, or especially “Flamin’ Hot. Taste of Success” by Eva Longoria (yes, that Eva Longoria!) show that there is some pro-capitalist trend in Hollywood. “No frosting” Seinfeld can be compared to the latter film. “Flamin' Hot” tells a satirical story about the birth of spicy Cheetos, but it is also a voice in defense of demonized Mexican immigrants who are working hard to build American prosperity. Seinfeld is not about immigrants, but about white and rapacious capitalists who created the jam-filled toast called Pop Tarts, beloved overseas.
Jerry Seinfeld plays Bob Cabane, a variation of William Post, a manager from Kellogg (today Kellanova), which today has in its imperial possession such brands as Pringles and Corn Flakes. Cabane and his boss Edsel Kellogg II (Jim Gaffigan) are waging a fierce war against the owner of the Post company (the list of their breakfast junk food, including Oreo's flavored cereal, makes you feel diabetic), Marjorie Post (Amy Schumer), once the richest American. By the way, it was she who built the Mar-a-Lago villa in Florida, where Donald Trump currently resides. The on-screen character Post, played by the always disarming Schumer, could easily share a donut with Trump, who once eagerly advertised fast food on television. They are both cynical, caricaturally exaggerated and have only green banknotes in their eyes, dipped in double icing. Besides, Bob and Edsel are no better.
Seinfeld takes aim at large corporations that produce breakfast for millions of Americans. When Post's assistant Rick (Max Greenfield) daydreams that the company could provide healthy gluten- and sugar-free breakfasts to children, his boss hits him in the head with a large typewriter. Post and Kellogg poison children with sugar and make sugary lemonade for their brains with advertisements, taking advantage of the benefits of television at its peak in the 1960s. Hugh Grant even plays the real character of the unfulfilled Shakespearean actor Thurl Ravenscroft, whose most important role was the tiger Tony the Tiger, praising breakfast cereals on their packaging and on television. Recently fond of playing with his image (remember Guy Ritche's “The Gentlemen”?), Grant is sweet and steals the show, but Ravenscroft probably dreamed of having another Tony Award on his shelf.
Seinfeld, along with his screenwriter buddies from the times of “The Seinfeld Chronicles” Spike Feresten, Barry Marden and Andy Robin, do not avoid political insults, sometimes referring to the storming of the Capitol (Grant as the Buffalo Man breaks the system) and other times to the affairs of President John F. Kennedy. ego (Bill Burr in his element), but they try to stay on the safe track set by the Netflix algorithm. Jerry Seinfeld has never been a very political comedian, but his tirades against even political correctness promised that “No Frosting” would have more spice. However, “No Frosting” is a corporate product that cannot criticize Kellanova and Post too much, but at the same time it is intended to please Seinfeld fans. As it was said above, I am one of them, so I appreciate the fact that in the “Bez icing” advertising spots I see iconic characters from “The Chronicles…” such as Schmoopie, the soup Nazi or lawyer Jackie Chiles, as well as a delicate vehicle after “Friends”, who they fought for the viewers' souls with the sitcom Jerry’ego. But why isn't this in the movie itself? Bill Burr had more mischief in his eyes in his Netflix directorial debut last year, “Three Daddies.”
Well, Seinfeld is already a 70-year-old icon. It is therefore not surprising that a whole host of past and present stars appeared in episodes in his feature comeback. In addition to those mentioned above, we will enjoy Peter Dinklage, Christian Slater, Mellisa McCarthy, Sebastian Maniscalco, Jon Hamm, Maria Bakalova and Cedrick The Entertainer on the screen. Andy Warhol also appears (Bill Burr again!), which in the context of the shooting of the Pop Art icon in 1968 (yes, we have revenge for Pop Tart here) is the most politically incorrect joke. However, a viewer familiar with American pop culture from the 1960s will understand it. For the rest, it will be a diet version of Seinfeld.
6/10
“No frosting”, dir. Jerry Seinfeld, USA 2024, premiere on Netflix: May 3, 2024.