From a writer and a director who didn't really do anything that noteworthy before and an interesting cast comes 'Butter', a hilarious film about a butter carving contest in Iowa.



Whilst there certainly will be plenty that disagree - save for about the last ten minutes where things got a bit to touchy-feely - I thought this film was excellent.   IMHO it plays well as a satire of the mid-western US.

Jennifer Garner plays an uptight conservative butter queen, who fights to retain her husband's honor in a butter carving contest against a young foster child.  Add an aggressive prostitute to the mix and you have some interesting character play.

This movie had some of the funniest dialog I've heard in a while.  I'd quote some of it, but I don't think it would be as funny as it was in context.   However, I think I laughed at this movie more than I have at any other movie this year  - maybe for the last few years.

One note: If you are very religious then you might not see the humor in this movie.  So I'd steer clear in that case.  

Otherwise, I would definitely recommend it.      

Lol.  Looks original at least.  I would check it out for the dialogue you're talking about, too.

Oh yeah.  And for Olivia Wilde.  I don't think I've ever had a crush on anybody like I do her for some reason.

(Except for maybe Candace Cameron when I was ten.  I had it hard for her, too.)

The writer seems to be quite busy now:

http://www.jasonamicallef.com/feature-films.html

Yep.  Noticed that.  This probably got him those other jobs.  

Very funny.  Kinda Election-lite; not quite so sharp on the satire, but probably a little bit more with the belly laughs.

Olivia Wilde stole the show, for me, but the whole cast kicks ass.  I've always liked Garner, and she's in her element here.

The sequence where everyone signs up for the contest is absolute gold.  Wilde's best moment and a very clever comedic device.

I enjoyed the performances in this a lot.
I thought the young lady would be great for something of Mark's when she grows a bit.

But the schmaltzy ending kinda soured the fine buttery flavor of the rest.
And sometimes the little girl came off as insincere at odd times.
Hugh Jackman let it all hang out. Wish they used Ty Burrell better.
And Olivia Wilde did some fun stuff too!

Overall, it's quite a pleasant indie project!

E.D.

I had neve heard of this before.
Looks pretty interesting. Original concept.
I'm gonna check it out.

Quoted from E.D. I thought the young lady would be great for something of Mark's when she grows a bit.

Lol.  I was planning on watching this anyway, but now it'll probably be sooner than later.  :-)

Great idea that's rich with promise and yet disappointingly underwhelming. This must've been chopped up heavily during post. It's a very lopsided movie that's largely bereft of coherence. Would be very surprised if the VO wasn't lumped in after the fact to try and tackle the issues. There's no coincidence this took a long time to hit the big screen. There's just a real lack of characterisation throughout and the initial butter contest needed a beefier buildup (or a more focused buildup) for me to actually be bothered by what's happening.

Garner is very good. She clearly knows what she wants from this character and she goes full throttle. Good performance. The writing was funny at times, but the delivery of the jokes felt a smidgen too flat to actually be funny. Case in point the prostitute (Olivia Wilde) who had some zing but never really came across funny. Also, the purchase of the knives was too out of character (perhaps motivations were chopped in edit, as it's a very slimline 80 or so minutes), contrived and sort of unnecessary.  The girl has beaten Garner first time, so the knives are redundant - as a gesture it also falls flat because there's no relationship established between the girl and prostitute to set us up for this supposedly heartwarming moment.

Just hope there's a Director's Cut out there.