best movie i've ever seen.

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

Blistering performances.

Like a companion piece to Election, Alexander Payne's magna opus to the steel hearted, uber frau willing to steamroll over every & all people in order to get ahead, Butter turns over simple Midwestern values on its head by exposing the hypocrisies & irregularities of the common man or in this case woman. Missing more than hitting, Butter churns (sorry!) at a predictable pace occasionally striking the scared cows it aims at w/a game cast including Jennifer Garner, Olivia Wilde, Ty Burrell & 'Clueless" herself, Alicia Silverstone but unlike Payne's films which often pierce their subject matters so hard it hurts, Butter barely leaves a bruise.

This movie essentially begins with a man named "Bob Pickler" (Ty Burrell) living in the state of Iowa and being the champion 15 years in a row for his butter sculptures at the annual state fair. His wife, "Laura Pickler" (Jennifer Garner) is extremely proud of this accomplishment and plans to use it to further advance her fortunes by having Bob run for political office. But that all changes one day when the organizers of the butter carving event ask Bob not to compete this year so that others can have a chance. Naturally, being the understanding type of person he is Bob reluctantly agrees. His wife, on the other hand, is incensed and sees this as an attempt to thwart her ambitions. To that effect, she announces that she will compete in his place instead. That being said, although Laura has some artistic talent she soon becomes distressed to learn that a young black orphan by the name of "Destiny" (Yara Shahidi) has also chosen to compete--and Destiny happens to have a natural artistic ability that is quite extraordinary. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that what made this film so entertaining was the way it tended to highlight some of the attitudes of certain people living in the "Bible Belt" of America. While they may profess to being Christian their actions clearly say otherwise. Yet--even though many of these scenes were quite funny in their own right—I must admit that there were a couple of scenes that were just plain vulgar and they detracted from what could have been a truly outstanding piece of comedy and satire. Even so, I enjoyed this movie for the most part and I have rated it accordingly. Slightly above average.

The premise Butter has promise, but the film makes no emotional sense, and it regards most of its characters as objects of scorn. When Laura discovers an important secret that her husband had been hiding, she's moved initially to violence. But for most of the rest of the movie, there are no consequences to her discovery -- Bob and Laura continue their marriage as they had before. When Destiny learns a crucial and life-changing fact about her mother, she says a rather pleasant and positive prayer, though the revelation should most likely have been shattering. And it's unclear why the supporting characters of Brooke and Carol Ann are in the film at all -- their actions lead to nothing. Brooke at least has something of a through-line. Carol Ann just disappears for some reason. Both characters are distractions from the main conflict between Destiny and Laura. But what a confusing conflict. One moment, Destiny and Laura find a way to connect, but a minute later, for no apparent reason, one is planning on kicking the other's ass. In general, the characters make emotional leaps we cannot follow, and similarly, when a major emotional shift should occur, nothing happens. It's as if the filmmaker just doesn't know how emotions work.Then there is the ignorance. The film is set in Iowa City, but not a single scene resembles anything in that city. Iowa City is not, contrary to the filmmaker's belief, a giant cornfield with a scatter of houses. It's a major -- and very liberal -- university city. People don't wear cowboy hats, as Hugh Jackman's smarmy character did, and people don't have whatever accent(s) the actors were attempting, which sounded like half-hearted Fargo impersonations.Most unpleasant, however, was the breathtaking condescension of the film. All the white Iowans were amiably harmless at best (as in Alicia Silverstone's sadly underutilized Jill) or racist hicks at worst. The film has no affection for the foibles of its characters, which means the viewer likewise doesn't empathize with the bumpkins populating "Iowa City." We're clearly meant to regard almost every character with disdain.The one major exception is Destiny, a precocious 10-year-old who is, I am sad to say, nothing more or less than a Magical Negro, there to teach the misguided country white folk of Iowa City important life lessons. It's a tiresome and racist trope.What a shame, that with such a fine cast and such a fine premise, the filmmaker's distaste for people who live in flyover country got in the way and ruined what could have been a charming film.

I Love butter on toast!.. Wait… wait... what? A movie about butter carving competitions? That sounds so dumb, but brilliant, fresh, new if it's done right and with the correct group of people. But it sounds so weird when you say it out loud! How did they pitch this!?Jack "The Film Lover" says... We always complain about remakes, redos, reimagenings, sequels, prequels, shmequels. But that's all we have, so we keep going and we keep watching them. When something new and original comes into the mix, we fear it, we don't know how to take it in until we actually give an original thought a chance and get something magical like "BUTTER". This movie was fresh and fun and had everything a movie lover would want; emotion, heart, comedy, story, characters who have character. This is another movie I had fun watching. It delivered great entertainment and escapism. There are seven celebrities on the "BUTTER" poster and the most important character of them all is not one of them. Yara Shahidi made the movie! This little girl has some chops and held her own. She showed you comedy and tragedy all in one small package of sassiness and tenderness. I really hope to see more of her in different roles and more movies.Jack "The Filmmaker" says… You don't need seven celebrities to make a great movie great, you need a great story involving complex characters portrayed by talented actors. It just so happens that the actors in this movie are recognizable celebrities, but these celebrities have challenged themselves. They all play roles that are very different from what we are accustomed to and they do a marvelous job at it. Director Jim Field Smith has great timing and a smooth rhythm of filmmaking. The story develops quick and you are hooked. Jennifer Garner's character was very multi-layered. You hate her, you pity her, you don't understand her. You want to ask her "What is wrong with you?!" many times throughout the film. And as always she delivers. Olivia Wilde stole the show for me. She was completely comfortable in her own skin,she was fun to watch and it seems she had fun playing the role. If there is anyone who can make being trashy classy it's her. Rob Corddry who is always hilarious actually showed a lot of heart, being partnered with Alicia Silverstone was a bit weird for me until I saw them together and got use to it.Jack "The Parent" says… Take your teen, no kids and no tweens. Unless you have already seen the movie and have memorized the correct scenes where to cover their eyes on a sex scene or have them well trained in the art of ear muffs. The sex scenes are mostly silhouettes and nothing is really shown there is a make out session and some other suggestive things as well as occasional curse word. Not really a movie made for the little ones.