THE NEW YORKER - #9 Best Films of 2014
TINY MIX TAPES - #9 Top 30 Films of 2014
INDIEWIRE - 2014 Critics Poll - Best First Feature

Former performance artist Josephine Decker’s stunning debut feature is a deeply subjective, mysterious and erotic portrait of a frantic young woman, Sarah (Sarah Small) who leaves the city for the apparent safety of a Balkan music camp hidden deep in the California woods. Once there she reconnects with a former friend, Isolde (played by Korean-American puppeteer Isolde Chae-Lawrence) and does some hilariously foul-mouthed female bonding – until she finds herself growing attracted to a hunky male camper, Steph (Charlie Hewson). Gradually her already-frayed grip on reality starts to unravel, as cinematographer Ashley Connor’s superb, disorienting camerawork and the swirling Balkan music become darker and more disorienting. Her personality finally shatters in a moment of transcendent violence that causes us to question whether we too have become lost in the deep, impenetrable forest of fear and desire.

Part Bergman’s PERSONA, part early David Lynch, BUTTER ON THE LATCH is a tour-de-force of intensely visceral filmmaking intercut with moments of serene, startling poetry.
“the kind of feature debut the film industry simply doesn’t support, but would do well to encourage: a visually poetic, virtually free-form groove in which emotion, rather than narrative, guides viewers through a young woman’s visit to a Balkan folk music camp”
Peter Debruge – Variety

“I was putty in Decker’s hands…”
Mark Lukenbill – Hammer to Nail

“Elegant and elliptical, Josephine Decker’s psychodrama is a blurring of the line between waking and dream states.”
Michael Nordine – The Village Voice

“an utter exhilaration of cinematic imagination, a pure high of invention”
Richard Brody – The New Yorker

“a sexy, wild romp you have to see to believe”
Eric Kohn – Indiewire

“Butter on the Latch thrives on its casually true snapshots of confusion and connection.”
Nicolas Rapold – The New York Times

“a fascinating and truly original work of art”
Christopher Bourne – TwitchFilm