RIP Roger Ebert

The world has lost a true legend of the film industry.  Today, April 4th 2013, Roger Ebert has passed away at the age of 70, he will be missed.

Review # 2 Butter

Last night I had the pleasure of watching a movie that was a venture further into the obscure than the typical Hollywood fare.  The movie was called Butter.  While it boasted many big names such as, Jennifer Garner, Alicia Silverstone, Hugh Jackman and Rob Cordry it wasn't anything that I had seen widely advertised.  As I am never the one to shy away from an unpopular film I decided to take the chance.  The movie is set in Iowa and centers on the somewhat tongue in cheek art of butter sculpting.  The main protagonist is a ten year old orphan girl named Destiny (played by Yara Shahidi) who has bounced numerous foster homes and has just been placed with the Emmets (played by Cordry and Silverstone) a nice couple that encourage her to find something that she is good at.  After having previously visiting the state fair and adeptly finishing the carving on the holy grail cup of the winning butter sculpture and drawing an amazingly life like tree in school she decides to enter in the butter carving tournament.  The antagonist, Laura Pickler (played by Garner) is the wife of the reigning butter carving champion Bob Pickler who has been asked to stop entering as he has won every year for the passed 15 years.  This upsets Laura and after a humorous scene involving Bob, a stripper named Brooke (played by Olivia Wilde), and Laura t-boning the family minivan she decides to enter the contest herself.  Due to her competitive nature Laura will stop at nothing to come out on top, including accusing Destiny of cheating after her sculpture wins the district competition.  The movie tries hard to make you feel sorry for Laura throughout the movie and there are a few scenes where I almost did but overall I didn't sympathize with her at all and felt that her character was a horrible person.  Destiny is a wonderful protagonist and I supported her throughout the movie.  While the film was not an emotional roller coaster it was very heart warming and I am proud to classify it as a hidden gem.