Butter

2010 Drama

Jim Field Smith's gentle satire Butter stars Jennifer Garner as Laura Pickler, the wife of the longtime winner of a local butter-carving contest. When he decides to bow out of this year's competition, she can't imagine the family not having the title, so she begins to train herself. Her biggest rival turns out to be a young adopted African-American girl named Destiny (Yara Shahidi), who has a natural gift for sculpture. As the competition gets more and more fierce, Laura resorts to drastic measures, convincing an old flame to perform some dirty tricks in order to get the upper hand. Butter screened at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival.

Director: Jim Field Smith

Starring: Jennifer Garner, Olivia Wilde, Ashley Greene, Hugh Jackman, Alicia Silverstone

 30 Reviews

Reviews

  • The film grows increasingly mirthful as the characters come into focus, and the casting is the key: Ms. Garner, who also helped produce the film, has a gift for catty roles, and Ms. Wilde is so funny she should play hookers all the time.

    John Anderson - The Wall Street Journal

    19 January 2013

  • Butter thrives on skewering characters whose self-importance isolates them completely from the consequences of their actions. And while the film's perspective is distinctly liberal, providing several thinly veiled criticisms of conservative politicians, nearly everyone (except Destiny) is guilty of something.

    - NPR

    19 January 2013

  • Well acted and sporadically amusing - especially when Olivia Wilde's profanity-spewing stripper is around - Butter alternates between looking down its nose at Midwestern passions and cooing over smugly liberal values.

    Jeannette Catsoulis - The New York Times

    19 January 2013

  • The would-be satire is nothing more than a bunch of sketch characters and jokes welded to a sentimental subplot.

    - Los Angeles Times

    19 January 2013

  • The chance for delicious satire melts away quickly in Butter, a spoof without oomph.

    Peter Travers - Rolling Stone

    19 January 2013

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