In Theaters

Butter

Movie Details

Butter
  • Genre: Drama
  • Release Date: 2012-10-05 Limited
  • Running Time: 91 min.
  • Director: Jim Field Smith
  • Cast: Jennifer Garner, Olivia Wilde, Hugh Jackman, Ashley Greene, Alicia Silverstone, Ty Burrell, Kristen Schaal, Yara Shahidi, Rob Corddry, Pruitt Taylor Vince
  • Writer: Jason A. Micallef
  • Distributor: Weinstein Company

Broad-stereotype comedy is slathered in shameless bathos in Butter, Jim Field Smith's tale of a heated Iowa butter-carving competition between former renowned champion Bob's (Ty Burrell) ball-busting wife, Laura (Jennifer Garner), and young African-American orphan Destiny (Yara Shahidi), who now lives with kindly foster parents (Rob Corddry and Alicia Silverstone). This showdown is marked by cartoon characters popping up at every turn, from a hooker (Olivia Wilde) to whom Bob owes money to Bob's daughter (Ashley Greene), who's in love with Wilde's working girl, to a car dealer (Hugh Jackman) still pining for Laura. Garner embodies her villainess with a robot smile that turns her into a grating Sarah Palin–style cretin. Jason A. Micallef's script is humorless, but worse is its attempt to tug at heartstrings via Destiny triumphantly discovering her talent and finding a home--a maudlin subplot pockmarked by the girl musing "Are these crackers for real?" At least initially, a rowdy Wilde kick-starts some comedic commotion. Finally, she's just another casualty of this inert dramedy, which plays like one long, slow descent into cloying moralizing and uplift that's well past its expiration date.

Nick Schager
VOICE Daily Deals

Now Showing

Find capsule reviews, showtimes & tickets for all films in town.

Powered By VOICE Places

Now Trending

Los Angeles Event Tickets

Box Office

  1. Star Trek Into Darkness, 70.2 mil, 83.7 mil
  2. Iron Man 3, 35.8 mil, 337.7 mil
  3. The Great Gatsby, 23.9 mil, 90.7 mil
  4. Pain & Gain, 3.2 mil, 46.7 mil
  5. The Croods, 3.0 mil, 177.0 mil
  6. 42, 2.8 mil, 88.8 mil
  7. Oblivion, 2.3 mil, 85.6 mil
  8. Mud, 2.2 mil, 11.7 mil
  9. Peeples, 2.2 mil, 7.9 mil
  10. The Big Wedding, 1.2 mil, 20.3 mil
Movie Title, Weekly Earnings, Total Earnings

Movie Trailers

©2013 LA Weekly, LP, All rights reserved.
Browse Voice Nation
  • Voice Places Los Angeles

    Voice Places

    Find everything you're looking for in your city

  • Happy Hour App

    Happy Hour App

    Find the best happy hour deals in your city

  • Daily Deals

    Daily Deals

    Get today's exclusive deals at savings of anywhere from 50-90%

  • Best Of

    Best Of...

    Check out the hottest list of places and things to do around your city