Director Jim Field Smith's sophomore foray into feature film comedy fails to break the boorish mold of what little we've come to expect of them: fleeting fun, cheap laughs, and tiresome attempts of tossing in anything redeemable. "Butter" attempts and misses "The Hangover"'s gritty charm and "Superbad"'s unadulterated and endearing honesty. However, it does seem to stride passed Smith's mediocre 2010 teen comedy "She's Out of My League,"-- this is perhaps due to "Butter"'s unfamiliar gusto, with its wacky butter carving premise and even wackier cast of Middle America characters.
Bob Pickler (Ty Burrell) is white America's humble and handsome Michelangelo, a masterful craftsman of butter-carved sculptures. His hilarious renditions of "The Last Supper" and a scene from "Schindler's List" enamor his red-neck community but also stoke the pride and aspirations of his self-important wife, Laura Pickler (Jennifer Garner), whose "mavericky" gung-ho-ness satirically smacks of Sarah Palin. When Bob decides to modestly end his victorious, decade-long reign as champion and pass his buttery torch, Laura becomes absurdly livid, suspecting their successes as everyone's envy and cannot fathom this year's First Prize going to anyone but a Pickler. So with no experience of the craft, and with some mantra-born confidence absorbing lines from "The Secret", she struts to the competition sign-up table and declares herself a participant.
Only she's not alone: to Laura's dismay, two more contestants vie for buttery glory, and the insults and connivery that follow in this triangle of (adorable, but more often annoying) treachery make the cake of this flimsy film. One is a humorously vengeful stripper named Brooke (Olivia Wilde) and the other is a strong and clever orphan named Destiny (Yara Shahidi).
Wilde's Brooke is a perpetually scantily-clad, sarcastic, saucy- mouthed, sex bomb-shell that rides a small child's BMX bike. She gets the guys' juices flowing and leaves everyone's eyebrows levitating above their heads. But that's all the former Dr. Hadley of "House" fame seems to aspire to, mere Megan Fox eye-candy. Brooke only joins the competition to remind Bob of her unpaid "services" rendered unto him in the backseat of his mini-van.
Destiny's motivations, on the other hand, are pure and estimable. After enduring travesty after travesty of awkward and inept foster parents, she finally lands a nice couple that's more promising and capable of fostering her untapped artistic talent. Mr. and Mrs. Emmet (Rob Corddry and Alicia Silverstone) are a smiling white couple, happy to make a difference to an underprivileged and disenfranchised little girl. They provide for her and encourage her interests in butter- carving, as good parents should. Here it seems "Butter" has found its heart, something redeemable within the crass and the obscene.
But perhaps not. Destiny, if you haven't already guessed, is African American. It's just hard not to cringe when Shahidi performs with so much spirit and charm—on more than one occasion she adorably cracks wise about the "weirdness" of "crackers" —because what casts a dreary shadow over her is the unashamed and unaware racist undertones and stereotypes stupidly frolicking about. Of course it's only the white couple that can provide a stable and caring family, and of course it's only they that have the benevolence to take Destiny in. Needless to say, it is drug addiction that cost Destiny her loving mother.
This is disappointing because it manages to eclipse what "Butter" did so well—namely being an above average comedy that makes you laugh. Much of this movie is after all a "liberal" poke and jab at the crazed "conservatives" and God-fearing folk of Middle America. They ostensibly trump "family values" over everything and the Pickler's are apparently representative of this image. Smith doesn't fail in gleefully toying with these conservative "truths". Laura Pickler is actually a step-mom, and the Picklers' daughter, Kaitlen (Ashley Greene), is an attractive and bored lesbian that despises her "retarded" parents. Bob cheats on his wife only to feel the apathetic hand of Laura chiding him like a teenager out past curfew. Even Laura eventually skirts her conservative morality, cheating on Bob with Boyd Bolton (Hugh Jackman), a grinning, cowboy car dealer with a big hat. He later thanks God for his sexual exploit in the front seat of his shiny corvette, "You're more awesome than I thought, God! Okay, bye."
So "Butter", like butter, can be good or bad, depending on how you use it. Enjoy the taste and accept the fatty consequences, or make the effort to settle on something healthier. But more often than not, it's best left in the fridge.
Bob Pickler (Ty Burrell) is white America's humble and handsome Michelangelo, a masterful craftsman of butter-carved sculptures. His hilarious renditions of "The Last Supper" and a scene from "Schindler's List" enamor his red-neck community but also stoke the pride and aspirations of his self-important wife, Laura Pickler (Jennifer Garner), whose "mavericky" gung-ho-ness satirically smacks of Sarah Palin. When Bob decides to modestly end his victorious, decade-long reign as champion and pass his buttery torch, Laura becomes absurdly livid, suspecting their successes as everyone's envy and cannot fathom this year's First Prize going to anyone but a Pickler. So with no experience of the craft, and with some mantra-born confidence absorbing lines from "The Secret", she struts to the competition sign-up table and declares herself a participant.
Only she's not alone: to Laura's dismay, two more contestants vie for buttery glory, and the insults and connivery that follow in this triangle of (adorable, but more often annoying) treachery make the cake of this flimsy film. One is a humorously vengeful stripper named Brooke (Olivia Wilde) and the other is a strong and clever orphan named Destiny (Yara Shahidi).
Wilde's Brooke is a perpetually scantily-clad, sarcastic, saucy- mouthed, sex bomb-shell that rides a small child's BMX bike. She gets the guys' juices flowing and leaves everyone's eyebrows levitating above their heads. But that's all the former Dr. Hadley of "House" fame seems to aspire to, mere Megan Fox eye-candy. Brooke only joins the competition to remind Bob of her unpaid "services" rendered unto him in the backseat of his mini-van.
Destiny's motivations, on the other hand, are pure and estimable. After enduring travesty after travesty of awkward and inept foster parents, she finally lands a nice couple that's more promising and capable of fostering her untapped artistic talent. Mr. and Mrs. Emmet (Rob Corddry and Alicia Silverstone) are a smiling white couple, happy to make a difference to an underprivileged and disenfranchised little girl. They provide for her and encourage her interests in butter- carving, as good parents should. Here it seems "Butter" has found its heart, something redeemable within the crass and the obscene.
But perhaps not. Destiny, if you haven't already guessed, is African American. It's just hard not to cringe when Shahidi performs with so much spirit and charm—on more than one occasion she adorably cracks wise about the "weirdness" of "crackers" —because what casts a dreary shadow over her is the unashamed and unaware racist undertones and stereotypes stupidly frolicking about. Of course it's only the white couple that can provide a stable and caring family, and of course it's only they that have the benevolence to take Destiny in. Needless to say, it is drug addiction that cost Destiny her loving mother.
This is disappointing because it manages to eclipse what "Butter" did so well—namely being an above average comedy that makes you laugh. Much of this movie is after all a "liberal" poke and jab at the crazed "conservatives" and God-fearing folk of Middle America. They ostensibly trump "family values" over everything and the Pickler's are apparently representative of this image. Smith doesn't fail in gleefully toying with these conservative "truths". Laura Pickler is actually a step-mom, and the Picklers' daughter, Kaitlen (Ashley Greene), is an attractive and bored lesbian that despises her "retarded" parents. Bob cheats on his wife only to feel the apathetic hand of Laura chiding him like a teenager out past curfew. Even Laura eventually skirts her conservative morality, cheating on Bob with Boyd Bolton (Hugh Jackman), a grinning, cowboy car dealer with a big hat. He later thanks God for his sexual exploit in the front seat of his shiny corvette, "You're more awesome than I thought, God! Okay, bye."
So "Butter", like butter, can be good or bad, depending on how you use it. Enjoy the taste and accept the fatty consequences, or make the effort to settle on something healthier. But more often than not, it's best left in the fridge.