Tag: 2011

#140RVW

What a weird movie. I guess it’s a satire of the 2008 Democratic Primary, although I didn’t get that from it at the time. Too over the top.

What’s more:

The hardest type of comedy has to be satire. It’s so difficult to get the tone right, and if you miss you really faceplant.

Butter is the story of the over-ambitious wife of a award-winning butter sculptor (yes, apparently that’s a thing) who believes his success will propel them both to political careers. When he steps down from competing, she becomes obsessed with taking up the mantle. The only problem, besides her total lack of any experience, is her competition from both her husband’s stripper lover and a 10-year-old foster child who has a real talent.

Butter really isn’t a very good movie. The script is a total mess, with at least two storylines too many going on and more actors than it can reasonably keep busy. It may be comic, but I’m not sure it can properly be labelled satirical, since it’s unclear what exactly it’s satirizing. Yeah, there’s a political message here that all elections are essentially the same, but it doesn’t really hit the mark.

There’s far too many good actors in this for it to be so poor. And it isn’t awful or anything. The film mainly seems confused about what it wants to be. I find myself in the unique position of recommending that you avoid the movie even though I didn’t think it was all that bad. It just doesn’t really have anything to offer.

The acting is really the only reason to watch Butter, and I’m not talking about the big-name talent. Jennifer Garner really goes for the crazy ambitious wife role with both barrels, but I’ve always found her sort of a lifeless performer anyway, so this isn’t the transformation it’s probably supposed to be. Ty Burrell does his thing, Kristen Schaal is herself and Alicia Silverstone is practically unrecognizable as a frumpy mom. Olivia Wilde is nicely over the top as Brooke and Hugh Jackman is just weird.

No, the star of the show is Yara Shahidi as the talented Destiny. This young actress is splendid and her performance alone justifies the 90 minutes I spent watching this. She has some really nice scenes with Rob Corddry, who up until this point I could take or leave. But he is wonderfully understated in this movie as Destiny’s foster dad and the first person to really connect with the girl. His character’s gentle caring for this amazing young kid is truly an unexpected subtlety in a movie that doesn’t deal in the small moments.

Poster:

Trailer:

Bechdel Test:

Pass

The Representation Test Score: A (11 pts)

(http://therepresentationproject.org/grading-hollywood-the-representation-test/)

Main Cast	Jennifer Garner Laura, Yara Shahidi Destiny, Ty Burrell Bob, Olivia Wilde Brooke
Rating	R
Release Date	Thu 18 Oct 2012 UTC
Director	Jim Field Smith
Genres	Comedy
Plot	In Iowa, an adopted girl discovers her talent for butter carving and finds herself pitted against an ambitious local woman in their town’s annual contest.
Poster
Runtime	90
Tagline	A comedy about sex, power and spreading the wealth.
Writers	Jason A. Micallef (as Jason Micallef) (written by)
Year	2011

#140RVW

Complicated tale of religious conflict in Lebanon recalls Lysistrata. Very good but not totally satisfying; bit scattered & inconsistent…

What’s more:

Where Do We Go Now? opens with an arresting scene of female mourners moving in rhythm to visit the graves of the young men of their Lebanese village. It is absolutely striking and sets the tone for an ambitious and mostly excellent film focusing on the impact of religious strife on a small village.

The Muslim & Christian people of this village have learned to live together, but the religious divide is always present and ready to swallow all. No one in the village has been unaffected by the fighting outside their borders and their tenuous peace is threatened when new conflicts stir up old resentments. Channeling their inner Lysistrata, the women of the town resort to increasingly crafty ways to keep the fighting from their homes.

Director, actress and co-screenwriter Nadine Labaki has put together some great elements for a movie here. Possibly more than one movie. In fact, that’s really the problem. The movie is kind of a mess.

While there are excellent pieces here – an empathetic view, great humor, strong emotions – the result is not greater than the sum of its parts. It’s all a bit muddled. The overall tone is one of humor as the women show their resourcefulness and humanity. But there are equal moments of such crushing pain and loss. It’s challenging, and that’s a good thing, but the different tones are hard to square and the final mix is a bit confused.

Additionally, there really are too many balls in the air. Plot points can be hard to follow and are not always resolved satisfactorily. In the end, it feels like the filmmakers bit off more than they could chew.

But it’s a good film. I am very glad I watched it. I enjoyed the humor of these wonderful women and I was ripped apart by their suffering. I just wish it hadn’t been in the same 2 hours…

One last thing; the version I watched had English subtitles, which is fine, and English overdubbed dialogue, which is not. It was awful. I prefer to hear the actors in their own language – I don’t mind reading. It was very distracting when the spoken English did not match the subtitles (nearly always) and the quality of the voiceovers was poor. So try to find a dvd with the spoken language in the original Arabic.

Poster:

Trailer:

Bechdel Test:

Pass

Main Cast	Claude Baz Moussawbaa Takla, Leyla Hakim (as Layla Hakim) Afaf, Nadine Labaki Amale, Yvonne Maalouf Yvonne
Rating	PG-13
Release Date	Wed 14 Sep 2011 UTC
Director	Nadine Labaki
Genres	Comedy, Drama
Plot	A group of Lebanese women try to ease religious tensions between Christians and Muslims in their village.
Poster
Runtime	110
Tagline
Writers	Thomas Bidegain (collaboration), Nadine Labaki
Year	2011