Spinning Into Butter

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Spinning Into Butter

R

2009

1h 26m

Drama

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

16%

Tomatometer

32 Reviews

33%

Popcornmeter

250+ Ratings

Amid charges of racism, Sarah Daniels (Sarah Jessica Parker) leaves the school where she's been teaching and relocates to a small college in Vermont. There, she becomes dean without informing anyone of her past. After African-American student Simon Brick (James Rebhorn) becomes the victim of a hate crime, Daniels must confront her attitudes about race when she's called upon to resolve the situation and come up with a plan to defuse tension at the school.

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Critics Consensus

Both leaden and stilted, Spinning into Butter is an unsubtle drama with stagy direction and lackluster dialogue.

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Cary Darling

Dallas Morning News

Apr 17, 2009

C+

The biggest lesson from Spinning Into Butter has nothing to do with the ethics of race and more with realizing that every hit play doesn't need to be turned into a movie.

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Peter Rainer

Christian Science Monitor

Mar 30, 2009

D+

The staging by theater director Mark Brokaw, in his first feature, is, well, stagy. I don't mind a movie where people spend a lot of time jawboning, but what they say had better be interesting.

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Glenn Whipp

Los Angeles Times

Mar 27, 2009

2/5

The foils have no compunction about hurling ugly truths at each other, most of the time much too literally to work on screen.

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Sonny Bunch

Washington Times

Aug 30, 2009

1.5/4

Spinning Into Butter is the perfect example of a movie taking an interesting premise and, through incompetence of acting, writing and directing, turning it into an unwatchable mess.

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Kevin Carr

7M Pictures

Jun 15, 2009

2/5

if you're not interested in a sermon, you'll want to skip this one

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Brian Orndorf

DVDTalk.com

May 5, 2009

D

Butter makes a disastrous transition to film, aiming to salvage pertinent points on the witch's brew of racism through a filmmaking undertaking perhaps best described as "total clown shoes."

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Jun 8, 2013

Probably watched this movie for the wrong reason. This movie does make you think. Not all individuals think in terms of stereotypes. The reason the situation happened is really messed up. But, it's like people say, when you go looking for trouble, or you always expect it, you shouldn't be surprised when it finally happens.

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Apr 29, 2013

it has this play feel to it and that doesn't translate well into being a movie. wanted to like it but ended up boring me.

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Jan 14, 2013

?? film ???? ????? ?? ??? ???? ???????? ??? ?? ????????!!! ??? ??? ??? S.J.Parker...... ???????? ?? ??? ????? ???? ???????? ???? ??? ?? sex and the city......!

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May 14, 2012

This movie gets you thinking I just wish the plot was thought out a little more

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May 10, 2011

there are good racism movies. this is not one of them. this isn't much of good movie, period. incredibly stale and wooden performances from the entire cast, with the possible exception of Mykelti Williamson. the characters aren't sympathetic, the story is mired in political correctness, and the dialogue is so forced you almost have to wonder if it'd be a different film if people could say what they would naturally say instead of lines off a script. Rebecca Gilman's play is at least somewhat tolerable because it involves a bit of thinking on the audience's part. this does all your thinking for you, and it does a very poor job of it.

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May 10, 2011

there are good racism movies. this is not one of them. this isn't much of good movie, period. incredibly stale and wooden performances from the entire cast, with the possible exception of Mykelti Williamson. the characters aren't sympathetic, the story is mired in political correctness, and the dialogue is so forced you almost have to wonder if it'd be a different film if people could say what they would naturally say instead of lines off a script. Rebecca Gilman's play is at least somewhat tolerable because it involves a bit of thinking on the audience's part. this does all your thinking for you, and it does a very poor job of it.

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Mark Brokaw

Director

Sarah Jessica Parker

Sarah Daniels

Miranda Richardson

Catherine Kenney

Victor Rasuk

Patrick Chibas

Paul James

Simon Brick

Beau Bridges

Burton Strauss

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Synopsis

Amid charges of racism, Sarah Daniels (Sarah Jessica Parker) leaves the school where she's been teaching and relocates to a small college in Vermont. There, she becomes dean without informing anyone of her past. After African-American student Simon Brick (James Rebhorn) becomes the victim of a hate crime, Daniels must confront her attitudes about race when she's called upon to resolve the situation and come up with a plan to defuse tension at the school.

Director: Mark Brokaw
Producer: Ryan Howe, Norman Twain, Lou Pitt
Screenwriter: Rebecca Gilman, Doug Atchison
Distributor: Screen Media Ventures
Production Co: Norman Twain Productions, Whitsett Hill Films
Rating: R (Language)
Genre: Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Mar 20, 2009, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Dec 9, 2009
Box Office (Gross USA): $5.5K
Runtime: 1h 26m
Sound Mix: Dolby

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