You can’t blame Sarah Jessica Parker for wanting to get away from her usual Manolo Blahnik--wearing roles, but Spinning Into Butter, based on the 1999 play by Rebecca Gilman, was a rotten choice. Sarah (Parker) is a dowdy dean at a liberal arts college in Vermont, whose campus is shaken by racist attacks. Enrolling in American History X isn’t an option; characters are reduced to cultural stereotypes, a bunch of bigoted WASPs frightened by scary African-Americans. The film feels like a smug pat on the back from one of the same pesky white liberals it attempts to deride.—Anna King
Opens Fri.