Quickie Review: Butter

So I rented the movie Butter, that semi independent movie starring Jennifer Garner, Rob Corddry, Olivia Wilde, Ty Burrell, and Yara Shahidi.  The movie centers on a group of people living in Iowa during the big rush of an annual butter carving contest.  I'll sum up this movie in two words.

Watch it.

I saw the trailer almost a year ago and thought it would either be great or disappointing  but Butter nails every note.  Never looking for scale, this movie feels like my own small town, where everybody knows each other and the skeletons in the closet are many and growing.

While Butter is a comedy, it has it's share of drama, sex, and suspense in scenes involving family history, crazy strippers, and carving mounds of butter.  Destiny, the ten year old butter prodigy, is played meek and clever by Yara Shahidi, and it's clear the movie is about her in the best way.

Other highlights include Jennifer Garner nailing the repressed mid western trophy wife, Oliva Wilde as the vibrant hilarious stripper Brooke, aka "Tokyo Rose", and Hugh Jackman as Boyd Bolton, the earnest car salesman and idiot with good intentions most of the time.

What really grabbed me was how Rob Corddry was playing a calm loving husband and foster dad.  As opposed to his usual characters that curse, fight, drink, and act like monsters.  I enjoyed seeing him play something different.

I can't imagine who wouldn't want to watch this movie.  Maybe if you don't like the occasional swearing or partial sex scenes, then you'll want to avoid this movie.  But Butter is so well written, acted, directed, shot, and edited that even the more risque scenes were funny and occasionally heartwarming.  Butter could have melted quickly, but held firm up to the very end.