By Rex Reed 10/02/12 7:58pm

movies

Garner in Butter.

Spread Thin: Jason Micallef’s Script is Blue-Ribbon Worthy, but Jim Field Smith’s Overcooked Butter Is a Mess

Butter hasn’t had this much attention on the screen since Marlon Brando thought up new X-rated things to do with dairy products in Last Tango in Paris. No artery clogging to fear in the clumsy, uneven farce called Butter either. Like The Oranges, it first appeared a year ago, at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival, and it’s been on the shelf ever since, yellowing with age until it looks more like margarine.

The first hour of Butter is funny, irreverent and full of satirical promise about America’s obsession with greed and competition. The targets of its parody are often more vulgar than clever, but before it eventually falls apart and hits the frying pan, it paints a picture of American home economics that is occasionally hilarious. Read More

By Drew Grant 9/28/12 3:04pm

premieres

Olivia Wilde, Harvey Weinstein at 'Butter' (PMc)

Olivia Wilde and Jennifer Garner Get Chilly at Butter Premiere While Justin Kirk Talks Monkey Business

Last night at the Cinema Society’s after party for the premiere of the dark satire Butter, The Observer found Animal Practice‘s Justin Kirk lounging around on one of the black leather couches at Double 7, just one day after his show’s second episode.

Animal Practice has been getting a lot of love, so much so that New York magazine dedicated four whole pages in this week’s issue to its star. Not to Mr. Kirk–who had just finished up the last season of Weeds, on which he stole the show as Nancy Botwin’s free-spirited brother-in-law Andy–but to Crystal, a capuchin monkey who earns $12,000 per episode on the NBC hit.

We just had to ask … did Mr. Kirk feel a tiny bit jealous of all the monkey business? Read More

By John Heilpern 4/17/06 12:00am

Danish Gem Becomes Awful Play- What on Earth Happened?

When I first saw the 1998 Danish film Festen—now at the Music Box Theater in its prestigious play version from London—my excited, immediate reaction was twofold:

On the one hand, I thought the brilliantly unsettling Danish movie might make a great play. This staggering story of a family reunion, I thought, is just what Read More

By John Heilpern 4/17/06 12:00am

Danish Gem Becomes Awful Play— What on Earth Happened?

When I first saw the 1998 Danish film Festen—now at the Music Box Theater in its prestigious play version from London—my excited, immediate reaction was twofold:

On the one hand, I thought the brilliantly unsettling Danish movie might make a great play. This staggering story of a family reunion, I thought, is just what Read More