By Geno McGahee
Breaking Glass Pictures is bringing BUTTWHISTLE to cable VOD on April 29th and on DVD on May 27th, but don’t be put off by the name of the flick. Written and Directed by Tenney Fairchild, BUTTWHISTLE is a lesson that no good deed goes unpunished and that when a gap is left, you have to be careful what you will it with.
Ogden Confer (Trevor Morgan) is a college student that has taken every day in stride. His personality is very open and happy, not allowing the troubles of the world to keep him down. When he loses his best friend, Rose (Analeigh Tipton), he does some soul-searching and stumbles across Beth (Elizabeth Rice), attempting to kill herself. He saves her and the two become friendly, but things begin to get rocky.
Ogden introduces Beth to his parents, and his parents just seem too happy and accepting. In one scene, he notes that his new name is an air horn sound. So he blows an air horn at the kitchen table and his parents proceed to do the same when they speak to him. This is when Beth notes that he said his name was “Buttwhistle.” I’m not entirely sure why, but she gave him that nickname, and he was cool with it. He was cool with everything in this film because all people are good…
The more time the two spend together, the more that Beth gets possessive and it begins to get really ugly. The ghost of Rose haunts Ogden and he is having a world of trouble overcoming the loss. The relationship with Beth is exposed for what it is. She was there to fill the gap and she came to realize that and we end up where we began.
BUTTWHISTLE has great acting across the board. The cast is very impressive and the story is pretty interested. Some things I could have done without was a talking bar of soap and the air horn, but otherwise, I really enjoyed this film. It was shot well and it was really believable and endearing. As messed up as Beth was, she was very likable and you have to feel sorry for her as you do the main character, Ogden.
I recommend BUTTWHISTLE. It had its share of problems, but the good heavily outweighs the bad.
Rating: 6.5/10
