Robin Hood: Slings & Arrows

Oh those bows.
Oh those arrows.
Oh those bow-and-arrow battles.

If you want to see two hours of the above, then by all means, buy a tic for Robin Hood. On the other hand, if like the Movie Slut, you think one such scene is enough, then wait for the sequel.

Oh yes, there will be a sequel. In fact, this entire flick is nothing more than a prequel to the real Robin Hood story. You know, the one in which Robin, Maid Marian, and the Merry Men, are hiding out in Sherwood forest when they're not swooping into Nottingham to redistribute the wealth.

Taron Egerton makes a serviceable, smart alecky Robin. Returned from the Crusades to find his castle a shambles and his city taken over by a corrupt sheriff, he teams up with Jamie Foxx (Little John) and Eve Hewsen (Marian), and does his best to bring some fun into this dark, brooding film.

The Front Runner: The first shall be last

It's difficult to like a movie with characters who are unlikable. And that's not the biggest problem with The Front Runner.

Anyone over the age of 50 is well aware of the Gary Hart story. In 1987, he had the Democrat nomination for president all but locked up. And then there was a boat called Monkey business and a broad named Donna Rice.

So what did the Movie Slut want from this movie? How about an understanding of why he did what he did. Was it rampant lust? Love? A self-destructive tendency that coursed through his psyche?

Alas, this flick offers no insights. Meanwhile movie goers are subjected to a whimpering Donna Rice with mascara dripping down her face; a mawkish Mrs. Hart barking at her philandering hubby; and a peevish, petulant, utterly arrogant Hart (Hugh Jackman).

Call her crazy, but MS thinks she deserved more than that.

Green Book: Driving Dr. Shirley

The Movie Slut can understand comparisons between Green Book and the 1989 flick, Driving Miss Daisy. Only here there's a white guy behind the wheel and a black guy in the back seat.

But the Movie Slut thinks this new movie has more in common with A Walk on the Moon. Both films are set in the 1960s, an era when the times were a-changing and changing with the times proved more difficult for some people than others.

The movies have another commonality: Viggo Mortensen. He stars in both films.

Here Mortensen is a lovable thuggish bouncer who takes a job driving and protecting an African-American piano virtuoso ( Mahershala Ali) on on tour of the Deep Douth. Along the way this odd couple finds their common humanity.

Some critics complained about the predictability of it all. The Movie Slut does not agree. She thinks like A Walk on the Moon, Green Book is a must-see.

A Private War: Doesn't live up to its title

War is hell.
And so is this flick starring Rosamund Pike as British war correspondent Marie Colvin.

It takes viewers into most of the contemporary war zones. Bosnia. Afghanistan. Sri Lanka. Syria.

After losing an eye when she's hit by a grenade, Marie soldiers on. Maybe if the Movie Slut learned more about Marie's early life, she would have been more involved in her story and more impressed by her devotion to bring news of war atrocities to the citizens of the peaceful world.

But lacking context, Marie comes across as a woman motivated less by righteous courage and more by foolish risk-taking.

Widows: Girls just wanna have some

Cynthia Erivo, Michelle Rodriguez, Viola Davis, Elizabeth Debicki

So you think politics has become an unbreachable chasm. In Steve McQueen's new thriller that's nothing compared to the gender divide.

After their thieving husbands are killed in a heist gone bad, the innocent wives are left to pay the debt owed to a murderous thug.

And they prove more than up to the task.

With Liam Lesson, Colin Farrell and Robert Duvall rounding off the exceptional cast, the viewer quickly learns there's not a good man among them. And not a woman who can't do it better if she has to.

Go grrrls!

Halloween: Trick or Treat?

Somewhere between a trick to get viewers to the sequel to a 40-year-old movie and a treat that can be compared to a Payday candy bar, Halloween, the 2018 edition, is a serviceable slasher flick.

Four decades after her world was upended by a knife-wielding lunatic, Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) is busy with her daughter and granddaughter and living in Haddonfield in a fortress-like home. Now, the day she's dreaded, and prepared for, has come. Michael Myers has escaped and he's coming to get her. And everyone else.

Like any horror movie worthy of the genre, Halloween has its hokey moments. The police know the maniac is at lodge. But hey, let's not ruin the kiddies' fun by alerting the community.

And so the stage is set for a bloody, gory frightfest. Enjoy

The Girl In the Spider's Web

The Movie Slut met Lisbeth Salander in 2005 in Stieg Larsson's riveting bestseller, The Girl With the Dragon tattoo. She was, and still is, one of the most intriguing fictional characters of all time.

A wisp of a woman who's a crackerjack hacker and a physical force who can take out men three times her size, she's a tattooed, pierced, bisexual with a moral code of her own. A traumatic childhood molded her. A harrowing adulthood reinforced her alienation. Now she is the avenging anti-angel— the woman who hurts men who hurt women.

That's what she's doing when we first see her in this movie, based on the book by David Lagercrantz written after Larsson's death. The scene is classic Salander. But the film moves on from there and while it held the Movie Slut's interest, a niggling question crawled through her mind. What's missing?

The answer: Lisbeth. She's lost her edge. Claire Foy (The Crown) is too pretty for the part, not tough enough, and isn't given material to work with that would reveal her genius or explore her tortured soul. She could be any action character. But she's not.

She's Lisbeth Salander and we need to hear her roar.

Boy Erased: An indelible expeience

Nicole Kidman, Lucas Hedges, Russell Crowe

  Boy Erased isn't the first movie about the bogus conversion therapy that some people mockingly call "praying away the gay." Earlier this year, Chloe Grace Moretz starred in "The Miseducation of Cameron Post."

The Movie Slut has now seen both films and believes the subject warrants a double take. Of the two, Boy Erased, based on a memoir by Garrard Conley, about his teenage years as the son of a Baptist Minister and homemaker mom living in the deep south is the unforgettable one.

The misguided, uninformed, unscientific notion that sexual orientation is a choice that can be changed is resonant in both films, but what makes Boy Erased the standout is the bottomless motherly love that saves Jared (his movie name) from the clutches of the ignorant "therapists" who claim they can "fix" him. While his father takes more time to accept his son due to his deep religious belief, even he, after a mighty struggle, comes around.

This is not only a movie about the stupidity and danger of gay-conversion therapy. It's also a film about the triumph of love. 

 

Wildlife: Sad but True

When we meet Jeanette (Carey Mulligan) and Jerry (Jake Gyllenhaal) it's 1960 and they live in small-town Montana with their 14-year-old son. Jerry is a golf pro. Jeanette is a housewife. They seem to have a good marriage and happy family.

But problems arise and their relationship splinters. What's interesting about this sad, but realistic, film is that neither husband nor wife is at fault— or faultless— for the unraveling of this family.

Watching Wildlife, which is based on a novel by Richard Ford (one of the Movie Slut's faves—The Sportswriter, Independence Day) feels like stepping into an Edward Hopper painting. It's as Jeanette and Jerry are created on canvas and have as little control over their actions as the subjects in a painting.

Their loneliness and unhappiness are in the strokes that make them who they are. It's Mulligan and Gyllenhaal's performances that give this movie depth and meaning. 

Bohemian Rhapsody: A Royal Flush

Even if you weren't a Queen fan in the 1970s and 80s, you're sure to love the rousing beat of "We Will Rock You," the sweeping sounds of "We Are The Champions," and the operatic flourishes of this rockin' bio-flick's title song, "Bohemian Rhapsody.

Rami Malek (Mr. Robot) brings Queen's lead singer, Freddie Mercury, back to life and we accompany him as he meets the band and makes the music.

So it's a little kitchy now and then. So was the band. But that doesn't take away from the brilliant music, which generously punctuates this film. All is a build up to the final scene, a mini-concert that recreates the band's 1985 Live Aid performance.

Movie-goers will be excused for foot stomping, hand clapping or jumping out of their seats to dance to this.

Can You Ever Forgive Me?

Melissa McCarthy is Lee Israel. She doesn't merely play the part of the down-on-her-luck celebrity biographer, she invades the character. And if she doesn't get an Oscar nomination, the Movie Slut will be pissed.

But back to Lee. We meet her when she can't pay the rent, when she drinks like a lush, when she's alone and friendless (except for her cats) in Manhattan, when her agent tells her to find another way to earn a living. And that's exactly what she does.

Sadly, her new "job" is not exactly on the up and up.

Based on a memoir of the same title, we follow Lee as she gets deeper and deeper into her shady endeavor encouraged by her new, and equally morally challeged pal (a terrific Richard E. Grant).

You'll want to see this movie to find out what happens. 

Free Solo: Takes you to new heights

For those not versed in the art and science of rock climbing, here's a primer.

"Free" means no ropes attached.
"Solo" means no climbing companions.

Scary? You bet.

But that didn't stop Alex Hannold, who became the first free solo climber to make it to the top of El Capitan, the 3,000-foot rock wall in Yosemite National Park.

Twenty-five climbers lost their lives trying to maneuver their way up the sheer granite wall and this National Geographic documentary never lets the viewer forget how dangerous the undertaking it. The doc also tries to shed some light on why Alex climbs.

A team of photographers, strategically-place on El Cap, take viewers through his meticulous preparation and practice sessions (with ropes). And then they treat us to his grand finale, a spectacular hand-by-hand, foot-by-foot ascent to the summit.

Wow!