Tony Hale delivers a career best performance in Eat Wheaties, a cautionary tale on the perils of social media and celebrity obsession that balances cringe comedy with heartfelt drama.

“You’ve gone viral” are three words that come with it a feeling of uneasy dread, and with good cause. Society loves nothing more than to pile on and ridicule those who show any form of weakness or social miscue. This is especially prevalent in the social media era we are now living in, where one false step can see your life, job, and friendships destroyed to the gleaming applause of the digital masses.

It’s a situation that has befallen on the moustached head of Sid Shaw (Tony Hale), a successful software sales manager whose eager to please, socially awkward demeanour often sees him on the outside looking in. When Sid is chosen as co-chair of the upcoming Penn State University reunion and encouraged to join social media, he is reminded of the fact that he was college friends with actress Elizabeth Banks. Sid’s numerous attempts to contact the Hunger Games actress on her Facebook community page results in his become a viral embarrassment as cancel culture destroys his life. Now Sid has to look inward to understand who he is and fight back against his detractors.

Based on the 2003 book “The Locklear Letters”, the Scott Abramovitch written and directed Eat Wheaties succeeds as a fascinating characters study, and on-point commentary, about loneliness and social anxiety in the digital era. In Sid Shaw, represented is a man so desperate for connection and approval, that his once-upon-a-time friendship with a celebrity is seen as a way to gain acceptance from those who view Sid as nothing more than an eye-rolling annoyance.

Tony Hale perfectly captures the quirks, the tone, and the vulnerability that makes Sid Shaw such a sympathetic, perhaps even empathetic, character. Hale has perfected the art of cringe comedy with his performances in TV comedies Arrested Development and Veep, and in Eat Wheaties he certainly brings that element. Yet so too does Hale tap into that loneliness, that vulnerability, that leads a kind hearted albeit overbearing man to reach out into the ether for someone to connect, only to find a vicious response from the jackals of social media ready to pounce on vulnerable prey.

A great supporting cast including Eisha Cuthbert, Alan Dubyk, Sarah Clarke, and a scene stealing Paul Thomas Hauser all compliment Hale’s central turn.

Abramovitch deals with not only the fall, but the redemption of a cancel culture victim with a story big on heart and laughs. Those who don’t take to the confrontational awkward nature that the films comedy style employs might find some moments hard to watch, yet under the cringe is a comedic drama of a big heart and keen intelligence, much like Sid Shaw himself.