The first of two Josephine Decker films to feature at this year’s Berlinale, Butter on the Latch follows a pair of young cosmopolitan New Yorkers on a strange trip. We quickly learn that their lives are a touch debauched – waking up in strangers’ beds and so forth – so we join them on a cleansing spiritual retreat to upstate New York. Odd things happen; little is explained. It might look all mumblecore indie on the surface, but sexualised pagan horror lurks below.
Butter on the Latch | Directed by Josephine Decker (USA 2013) with Sarah Small. Starts October 16.
Originally published in issue #131, October 2014.