Butter

Butter fills the void of movies with a message for young adults. It's intelligent and engaging for adults too. Everyone should be on board to keep this movie in theaters long enough for organizations, groups and schools to catch on and advocate for this important gem of a film. Don't wait - go and see it!

Cheeky title, but it's in the same ballpark. While I absolutely despised The Whale as a film, I found this one better done, even as an adult watching. It was relatable...life isn't all doom and gloom, and people who seem perfectly normal can be dying inside. And people near to those suffering always wish they'd have known, suffering people don't wear a cowbell. And this film catches that well, bouncing between joy and utter sadness.

It's a little corny at times, and not the best acted. It's also not completely unrealistic in any way, as I was worried where it was heading from the description. The description both here and on prime actually doesn't do it justice, it's a far deeper movie and the catfishing isn't all that relevant to the movie at large. But it doesn't pound the drama and negativity into your head like The Whale, it's a balanced look. Give it a watch on a lazy Sunday afternoon, you'll be glad you did.

My friend wrote the book. It's phenomenal. It's an important subject for teens to watch and read on as bullying is getting worse and worse. I urge you to read the other books Erin has written as each book is captivating. Dead Ends is great. Online bullying has ruined so many young Children's lives. This movie is great.

I've seen many movies that portray high school bullying and self harm- this one has a slight edge due to the saxophone music. And I thought the ending, while unrealistic and sickly-sweet, was rewarding.

However there were no laugh out loud moments and the relationship between the young man and his parents wasn't fully explored. The parents are essentially placed on the sidelines while their son is hurting, and they don't seem concerned at all about his morbid obesity nor do they encourage their son to exercise or diet. Some of this movie did seem downright exploitative and mean-spirited. So much so that the mother enables her son to eat high caloric meals, and she even seems shocked when her son cuts down on his portions.

In terms of the scenes with the high schoolers partying or hanging out, those do drag on. I didn't think I'd rate this above a 5, but the Professor and Doctor characters were fun to watch and were great advocates for Butter. As a whole, I think this movie is worth watching due to its musical interludes and emphasis on self respect and healthy relationships.

Greetings again from the darkness. Being a high school kid has always been challenging, and today's added pressures of social media makes being an outlier almost unbearable at times. Writer-director Paul A Kaufman (in his feature film directing debut) has adapted the 2012 novel by Erin Jade Lange into a film that tackles several emotional hurdles, some of which are downright devastating.

Marshall (an excellent Alex Kirsting) is a morbidly obese high school student. He plays a mean jazz saxophone, yet yearns to be heard, seen, and accepted as a person, rather than as a target for the bullies who call him "Butter". He weighs in at 423 pounds at the dietician's office, and he's catfishing Anna (McKaley Miller), his secret crush at school. Online, he's posing as JP, a soccer star at a private school, and Anna confides secrets so that he can provide sage advice. At home, his mother (Mira Sorvino) enables him with her 'food art', while his dad (Brian Van Holt) barely acknowledges the presence of his fat son.

There are no heroes in this story, and despite being partially described as a comedy, this is in fact a dark commentary on how people behave. Butter is so fed up (unintended pun) and desperate to be seen, he devises a plan to go out with a bang. He creates a website and announces online that he will literally eat himself to death. Yep, suicide by smorgasbord at midnight on New Year's Eve via live webcast. The reaction of his fellow students catches him off guard. Butter becomes popular overnight. People talk to him ... while at the same time placing bets and serving up menu suggestions for the final feast.

Butter also provides the narration to his own story, and along the way we meet his doctors played by Ravi Patel and Annabeth Gish, and a supportive teacher played by Mykelti Williamson who encourages Butter to expand his musical talents. We note how attitudes change once communication and interactions replace withdrawal and ignoring. Some of the heavy topics handled here include bullying, suicide, depression, eating disorders, low self-esteem, a lack of empathy and compassion, and body-shaming. It's interesting to watch as the classmates and Butter get to know each other, how Anna shows there is more to her than a pretty face, and how Butter's parents seem oblivious to their son's internalized feelings. The film does get a little preachy near the end, but for the most part, it's a pretty effective look at what it's like being an outcast.

In theaters February 25, 2022.