Unsweetened (2024), review – a new disappointment from Netflix, Jerry Seinfeld makes his directorial debut with a film that fails to channel his cartoon logic

It is inevitable that Jerry Seinfeld has been forever associated with the legendary television comedy in which he himself starred. Completed in 1998, the truth is that in all these years he has not released anything that even comes close to the level of that acclaimed sitcom. It is also true that, having had his life resolved, it is not that he has worked very intensely since then.

However, now he presents a project so beloved that it has led him to make his directorial debut at 70 years of age. The title in question is ‘Unsweetened’a movie Netflix which explores the origin of Pop Tarts, one of Kellogg’s star products. Of course, it is a film that takes all the liberties in the world to shape a work as curious as it is unbalanced that takes one step further the current Hollywood tendency to make biopics of products instead of people like ‘Air’ or ‘ Tetris’.

Unrefined excesses

The first thing to make clear about ‘Unsweetened’ is that it is a film in which realism is thrown away from minute 1 to opt for a story with cartoon logic which allows Seinfeld to build a very particular thriller. And the film is built around the rivalry between Kellogg’s and Post to launch an item that will make them the breakfast kings in the United States.

On paper, Seinfeld’s bet is most attractive, since it allows him great freedom of movement over what he can show on screen. It also gives him a lot of room to play excessively and make everything fit within the approach he proposes, but It is one thing for the idea to be stimulating and another for the execution to be up to par.

‘Unsweetened’ It is absurd and boasts of it constantly, but it is in a way that seems more the result of wanting to take everything lightly without really having an idea in mind beyond – a good example of this is everything related to the milk lobby – that it should work by mere accumulation. In fact, there are such a number of cameos that, in some cases, they end up becoming a simple distraction and not a real plus.

All of this is also a consequence partly because Seinfeld shows an almost theatrical tendency as a director, perhaps a result of his many years as a stand-up comedian. It’s not that this translates into an exaggerated formal rigidity, but it does give a visual peculiarity to the film that it never ends up taking advantage of beyond trying to make almost every dialogue funny. I say try because ‘Unsweetened’ suffers from something: lack of necessary spark so that what may be more or less witty on paper can work on screen.

I’m aware that it may seem like I’ve hated ‘Unsweetened’ based on everything I’ve said so far, but the truth is that it’s more in the territory of those missed opportunities I wish you had liked them more. As a comedy it is peculiar and moves away from the usual stuff that Hollywood usually gives us, but that only takes you so far, which in this case is that watching it becomes a quite curious experience.

Furthermore, all the actors seem to understand very well the somewhat exaggerated tone that Seinfeld wants to set so much, but they simply lack more polished material to be able to shine. That leads to at all times there is the feeling of seeing something somewhat fake, since the film never quite finds the balance point for this tendency to excess to take hold. We have a good example of this with the two children addicted to sugar, while the best off is probably Hugh grant.

All in all, ‘Unsweetened’ It does propose several situations in which it at least makes the viewer smile., although it may be more for what it seeks to convey than for the way it is done, and it is appreciated to be able to see a film in which it crosses your mind in more than one moment than how it is possible that Kellogg’s has given its approval to this or that at least he has not complained about the image that ‘Unsweetened’ conveys. It’s something.

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