Spinning into Butter (2007)

This is day two of our week of horrible films- so bad that even we at Unseen can't find a reason to recomend them. These are the real trash films that should have remained under the stunking cheese and rotten meat cake.

If you ever want to know if I can be offended, and trust me its not an easy thing to do. Sit me down and have me watch this film and have me try not to get up and punch out the filmmakers. I'm not so much offended as disbelieving that anyone could be stupid as the makers of this film are.

Rebecca Gilman's wrongheaded play about racism at a small college is an even more wrongheaded film. This film started out as a well intentioned but misguided play that equated not sitting next to a person of a different race on an empty subway car as racism and it was turned an even more off the mark film. The racism remark came in the middle of what is more or less a twenty minute monologue and was the sort of statement that comes from someone who never rode the New York City subway or knows nothing about personal space. But the play was the play and the film is something else entirely.

The plot has to do with the aftermath of a racial incident and how the rich white head of the college who is suppose to be so liberal maybe isn't, and how political correctness maybe more prejudicial to everyone. I didn't care for the play all that much, which while not bad, managed to over state its position and there by lose its argument. This film version open the play up and manages to do everything wrong from the get go which is the opening credits over a cartoon version of Little Black Sambo. From there the film makes it clear that this film is about "something" and then goes on to hammer home its points like a barbarian with an ax handle in a brawl.

So much is wrong with the basic premise and the movie itself that its hard to pick a point where it's the most wrong. Perhaps its best to first ask the question "How can you even hope to relate to the lead character when she is clearly condescending to everyone?" As much as I didn't care for the play, the one thing that it managed to do was not have you hate the lead character at any point, especially at the start. I mean give the play a few points simply because you don't have questions about her until a good way into the show. Here Sarah Jessica Parker is clearly a twit from her first appearance. I'm guessing its because in opening up the play they trip themselves up.

After a troubled production the film sat on the shelf for a few years and its easy to see why (I mean beyond the fact that the producers apparently didn't pay most of the people connected with the film), the movie isn't much good and its becomes an endurance test to get through.

I'm sure that everyone who made the film has their hearts in the right place, but at the same time, they are like their main character, clueless about how abrasive they are in showing us how wrong the world is. If you haven't guessed it I really hate this film and think you should stay as far way as possible. I'd like to say more bad about the film but doing so will probably just make you want to see the film and frankly that isn't my intention.