Trailer Tuesday: Butter

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I don't know why exactly but I have a special fondness for comedies that focus on absurd, unconventional and/or pointless competitions... and the people who take them deadly seriously. Think mockumentaries like dog show-centred Best in Show and beauty pageant black comedy Drop Dead Gorgeous; or even warring cheerleader tale Bring It On, which is an especial guilty pleasure of mine. Hell, I even usually enjoy the juvenile ones, like Blades of Glory, Dodgeball and Balls of Fury.

Bearing all this in mind, I'm naturally excited for Butter, which features a group of people competing for the title of Champion Butter Carver at the annual Iowa State Fair. This group includes driven, deranged Laura Pickler (Jennifer Garner) who believes victory in the competition will open the door to political power; vengeful stripper Brooke (Olivia Wilde) who has seduced Laura's dissatisfied husband, a legendary butter carver (Ty Burrell); and young orphan Destiny (Yara Shahidi) who is a butter sculpting prodigy. Rounding out the ensemble cast, meanwhile, are Hugh Jackman, Rob Corddry, Ashley Greene and Alicia Silverstone.


Honestly, I'll be watching Butter chiefly for Wilde, who I admit I have a very large girl crush on. Wilde is one of those rare actresses who can be simultaneously sexy, smart and funny - and while the makers of House knew exactly how to harness such a unique ability, mainstream Hollywood evidently still has no idea how to cast her to her full potential. Indie effort Butter looks different though, with Wilde coming across like the movie's big scene-stealer.

Butter has been touring the North American film festival circuit since September 2011. Word from those who've managed to catch the movie before now is that Butter is far from perfect, seeing as it tries to be too many things at once: political satire, black comedy and a Little Miss Sunshine-style quirky underdog tale. However, there are still plenty of laugh-out-loud moments to be had, and the script isn't short on entertaining wit.

Butter will receive a limited cinema release in the US from 5 October this year, but it's also going be available to download from 7 September, according to the film's director, Jim Field Smith. It's unclear what Butter's fate in South Africa will be: It could screen at Cinema Nouveau, it could go straight to DVD or it could never become available in the country at all. We wait and see...


Comments

oliver said…
A comedy about butter carving.

It just calls for its own theme song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gq01UYiMyHg
8:10 AM
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