20th Philadelphia Film Festival – BUTTER

#MiniMovieReview Jennifer Garner in BUTTER 

Butter stars Jennifer Garner as Laura Pickler, a woman obsessed with Mid-western social status and being the cream of the crop; the cream she uses to get and stay at the top – butter. Well, butter carving, a competition her husband Bob (Ty Burrell from Modern Family) has won for 15 years in a row. And in those 15 years, Laura has been by his side cheering at regionals and basking at state fairs, using his victories to further her social and political agenda.

When the butter committee feels Bob should bow out of this season to allow someone else a chance at the “Blue Bonnet” 🙂 I mean blue ribbons. Laura decides she’s not about to let all her ambitions melt away and signs up to compete herself. Two of her competitors includes an African American 10 year-old foster child named Destiny (Yara Shahidi) who narrates most of the movie. And Brooke, the stripper Laura’s husband is boffing on the side (Olivia Wilde).

Unfortunately, Butter veers off course of being a Christopher Guest-type satirical, parody and meanders into sickeningly sweet, corny territory too often. Jennifer Garner gets it. She shines as a scarily intense, Republican housewife; but the rest is folly. Particularly, Hugh Jackman in the role of a car salesman, seduced by Laura to sabotage the competition.  He must have owed someone a favor to have even entertained doing the insipid and small role.

Personally, I don’t see Butter spreading to a wide-release.

Director: Jim Field Smith /Writer: Jason A. Micallef