This goes from tedious to painful in the third act, when some inevitable ugly developments eventually lead everyone to learn, apologize for shortcomings, and promise to be better to each other. Kaufman, a TV veteran whose last three directing credits were Christmas films, proves extremely literal-minded as the story progresses, spelling every development out for us. And while the script acknowledges it, the film doesn’t dramatize Butter’s complicated feelings for his mother ( Mira Sorvino), who is torn between preparing meals that could help him lose weight and fixing heaps of every sugary thing he craves. There’s no friction in, say, the generically friendly way Anna treats Butter as they spend more time together.
Viewers spend a lot of time waiting for the other shoe to drop, which is not the same thing as being kept in suspense. A movie like Marc Meyers’ My Friend Dahmer demonstrates how teenage social groups can surprisingly embrace an awkward kid they might otherwise mock even when happy, though, these developments are rarely uncomplicated. That’s one of several ways in which Butter fails to convince us what we’re seeing is real. He’s perfectly, implausibly relaxed being the center of attention.
Though his voiceover (an overused device here) reveals that he’s confused by the attention, Butter exhibits none of the awkwardness you’d expect. Two popular boys take him under their wings, introducing him to the cool kids and showing an interest in his life. Oddly, when he arrives at campus the next day, people are going out of their way to be nice to him. (Nobody around seems to be old enough to make a Monty Python joke about the premise.) He declares that, a month from now on New Year’s Eve, he’ll live-stream his final meal - a splurge so over-the-top it will kill him on camera.
After his most recent lunch-hour humiliation, Butter builds a website to share with those who troll him.
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