AFF Review: Butter
Similar to the way butter can sometimes be that last thing to transform a recipe of seemingly unrelated ingredients into a delicious meal, writer Jason Micallef's script for Butter manages to bring together a diverse cast and even sometimes puts them in unfamiliar territory to create a uniquely original and hilarious comedy. On paper this might not sound like a movie that could possibly work, but it does, and it does it with gusto. Butter is straight up one hell of a hilarious film.
Bob Pickler (Ty Burrell) carves butter. Not much more to him than that, he leads a simple life making amazing carvings out of butter and he couldn't be happier. His wife Laura (Jennifer Garner) loves the privileges and fame that come from being Mrs. Bob Pickler, wife of a champion butter sculpter. But after 15 years of being the gold standard when it comes to butter carving, Bob is encouraged to let someone else try to achieve the buttery glory. This does not please Laura.
Meanwhile, we are treated to wonderful narration by a little orphan girl named Destiny (Yara Shahidi) whose life experiences have made her quite the noble philosopher. She's seeking her place in life and when she's adopted by a couple in the same town as the Picklers, she might have finally found her calling.
Beyond that simple plot synopsis, there is so much more going on in Butter that is better experienced organically. The cast though is phenomenal. Olivia Wilde turns in a truly hilarious performance here as a local stripper who charms with her unrelenting honesty. Ashley Greene, in one of her first comedic roles, plays a character that I'm sure a lot of us who grew up in small towns can relate to. Rob Corddry proves that he can play a sensitive role and still be really funny without having to resort to vulgarity in his humor. I don't know that anyone would have ever thought he could play a sensitive dad, but he excels in that here.
For people who come from small towns, there's a lot to appreciate in Butter. Even though this takes place in the Midwest, there's no doubt many people here in Texas could see a little of themselves in the townspeople. The movie's got a little bit of everything: small-town folk, politics, adultery, strippers, kids, religion and of course butter.
The Butter screenplay made it on the infamous Black List of popular unproduced screenplays in 2008 and didn't get any momentum generated until Jennifer Garner was attached to star. It's easy to see how a screenplay like this could have been overlooked. As soon as most people hear the words "butter carving" they probably checked out. Truth be told, I did too a little bit, but the number-one rule of film festivals is to see movies.
Austin Film Festival has a gem on its hands with Butter and they couldn't have chosen a more perfect film for the fest's opening-night gala screening. This is easily one of the most hilarious movies of the year; if you come across it, be sure not to miss it.
If you missed Butter at AFF, you can catch it at the Lone Star International Film Festival in Fort Worth, where it screens Saturday, November 12 at 5 pm in AMC Palace 9.