Comedian Jerry Seinfeld is finally making the jump to movies with the Netflix produced “Unfrosted,” a film about the origin of the breakfast pastry Pop-Tarts, which he stars and directs.
However, despite his jump into film, and while promoting “Unfrosted,” Seinfeld has a rather dire outlook on the way things are going in the movie biz. While speaking with GQ Magazine, he’s plainly stating that the “movie business is over:
Film doesn’t occupy the pinnacle in the social, cultural hierarchy that it did for most of our lives. When a movie came out, if it was good, we all went to see it. We all discussed it. We quoted lines and scenes we liked. Now we’re walking through a fire hose of water, just trying to see.
He points to the over-saturation of content and how the entire film industry is trying to reorient itself after the pandemic. He’s not a fan of “content” either and yet is doing exactly that by teaming up with Netflix, the king of “content,” and directing a film that won’t be released in theaters.
Seinfeld also suggests that another issue lies in viewers flocking to other forms of viewing, like stand-up comedy specials, which have become very popular on streaming.
So, why did he decide to even make a movie in the first place? “It was Covid. I had nothing to do. So I got talked into it,” he said about the decision to direct his first film. “It wasn’t my idea. ‘Seinfeld’ wasn’t my idea either. I keep getting dragged into things and surrounded by the most amazing people.”
Given that he is a comedian, one might theorize that Seinfeld might be joking around with these comments, but it’s quite clear, reading the entire interview, that he is dead serious. Of course, he does make good points — streaming, COVID, the strikes and lack of originality are indeed killing cinema. However, if we’ve learned anything from the last 100 years of film it’s that the medium will most likely reinvent itself and continue to persist, in one shape or another.
“Unfrosted” can be streamed via Netflix and on May 3.