Butter may be the funniest movie I have seen in a long time. From the very beginning, a sold-out Culbreth Theater laughed as Jennifer Garner gave butter carving at the Iowa State Fair all she had. The film starts when her husband Bob (Ty Burrell), a master butter-carver for 15 years, stops competing. His wife Laura Pickler (Jennifer Garner) tries to keep the crown in the family by learning the art herself, ultimately competing against 10-year-old foster child Destiny (Yara Shahidi), a carving prodigy. The film is a wonderful and quirky look into the twisted mind of a woman who thinks that her life will improve if she can beat an orphan girl in butter carving.
Apart from the competition, Butter intertwines the lives of the overly-political Laura, her husband and her stepdaughter Kaitlen (Ashley Greene) with the life of a hooker named Brooke (Olivia Wilde) and Laura's old-flame Boyd Bolton (Hugh Jackman). Each complicated character adds a new level of humor to the story so that Butter serves no dull moments. Destiny shares some funny thoughts on white people, Brooke stalks Bob for the money he owes her while simultaneously trying to bring down the tyrannical Laura, and Kaitlen experiments with lifestyle changes - anything that distances herself from her stepmother Laura. The leads are complemented by a strong ensemble of supporting actors like Alicia Silverstone and Rob Corddry, who play the Emmets, Destiny's adoptive parents.
Ambitious, sharp and politically motivated, Laura incites fear in the entire town in her pursuit of the championship. The audience, however, occupies a more privileged position, because we get to dive into her head and understand her flaws. Although the audience might understand Laura's motivation, it is still difficult to reconcile the fact that she is simply an unlikable character: she basically attacks a 10-year-old girl whom the audience loves from the beginning. This over-the-top caricature, and the way everyone reacts to Laura, creates comedic tension that had me suspending my disbelief and bursting out laughing.
On top of the tear-inducing humor, the story digs into a quirky American tradition. The audience enjoys a unique perspective of the importance of small town past-times in America's heartland. Coupled with the fact that every line offers more comedy, this movie kept me happily entertained the entire time. Butter has a ton to dish out for everyone.
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