Country Strong: Go Gwenny

You don't have to be country to love country. Even if you never lived in a trailer, had a daddy in prison and a mommy who's drunk, you can identify with the struggle to survive and thrive in a cold world.
In "Country Strong," Gwenyth Paltrow is Kelly Canter, a country star with a prodigious talent, marred by a hard-scrabble childhood and recent tragedy. She's plucked from rehab by her manager/husband to go on tour. But is she ready?
Sound predictable? Well, not so much. But the Movie Slut never gives away the end.
The strength of this two-tissue-box movie is that audiences really care about the characters. Not only Kelly, but her husband, her lover, and her competition. All of these people are flawed. No good guys or villains, here. Just folks leading messy lives. Most of us can relate to that.
And Paltrow's singing is superb. Don't listen to that snarky New York Times review.

True Grit:

Are you nostalgic for the old Westerns? Did you grow up watching that Masked Man? If so, "True Grit" will satisfy your longing for the old days, when movies were slow, lives were cheap and gunslingers hoofed around the red rocks and canyons.
If nothing else, "True Grit" is a Western. A big, beautiful Western.
The New Mexican scenery is magnificent. The simple hymns that dominate the soundtrack are haunting. The characters even speak in the stilted style you might expect of men and women in the latter part of the 19th century.
The trouble is that this movie is more of a tableau than the real Old West, where lives were short and people bled and suffered. It keeps you at a distance.
The critics have been orgasmic in their praise for everyone involved, especially Jeff Bridges, who swallowed half of his lines. And oh, yes, they're shouting "Oscar."
The MS has two words for them: Colin Firth.
Movie Slut Rating: Three out of five lipsticks.

Little Fockers: Get Fockerized

Does the world really need another Focker flick? Number 3. The Movie Slut thought not — until — she laughed her way through "Little Fockers." Okay, she didn't LOL, but was amused from beginning to end.
If you've ever noticed that you're the last sane person on Earth, you'll recognize the humor in this movie. Ben Stiller is Normal Guy, surrounded by a world of wackaloons, including his paranoid father-in-law (Robert De Niro); his Mother, a TV sexpert, (Barbra Streisand) his father, who's discovered Flamenco dancing (Dustin Hoffman); his new-agey best friend (Owen Wilson); and a gorgeous, morally-challenged drug salesperson (Jessica Alba.) And they're not the only loony birds fluttering across screen in this funny, funny film.
Movie Slut Rating: Five out of five lipsticks.

How do you know: Like pornography, you will

With a cast like this, how can you go wrong? And despite some snarky reviews, the Movie Slut knows you will love this rom-com.
So what if it's as profound as a Chinese fortune cookie.
So what if it's chock full of inane platitudes. "Don't drink to feel good. Drink to feel better." Or something like that.
So what if the plot is as inspiring as one of those new James Patterson alleged thrillers.
This movie works because Reese Witherspoon, Owen Wilson, Mark Rudd and Jack Nicholson make it work. And then there's Tony Shalhoub — hiding under a beard — and playing a psychiatrist. A psychiatrist! That's like Madonna playing the real Virgin Mary. (For those who don't remember, Shalhoub is the obsessive, compulsive sleuth on the TV series "Monk".)
Oh yeah. There's lots of fun to be had at this movie.

The Fighter: No Knockout

"The Fighter" is one of those movies that has audiences blown away by an actor's performance. "He's amazing," they find themselves saying. (Hopefully, not out loud.)
The MS is not fond of those movies. "They're like eating a dish overpowered by uncooked onions."
In this flick, it's not even the star, who has audiences enamored. It's the alleged supporting actor Christian Bale.
As for Mark Wahlberg, the fighter in "The Fighter," he takes to the ropes, not only with Bale, but with most of the other actors. And that includes Amy Adams, playing against type, as his hard-drinking, potty-mouthed girlfriend. And then there's his toxic mom, the excellent Melissa Leo. Still, The Movie Slut kept thinking how much better this dynamic played out in "Animal Kingdom," reviewed in this blog on Sept.9, 2010.
"The Fighter" throws a few good punches. That's it.

Inside Job: Crime without Punishment

The stock market crash of 2008 has been considered too complex for average Janes and Joes to understand. Charles Ferguson aims to crush that myth with his new documentary, "Inside Job."
OK, so the Movie Slut still doesn't know what a derivative is, but Ferguson did a yoeman's job of explaining the mess, while not putting his audience to sleep. (Excluding the MS's companion, who did nod off but won't admit it.)
Ferguson takes us back to (yuk!) Reaganomics. But the blame doesn't stop with Ronnie. Goerge 1, Bill, George 2 and, yes Obama, all come out smelling like pig poop. The latter for hiring some of the same creeps who got us into the mess.
Ferguson livens up the doc with lively music and entertaining interviews with a Washington madam, who spills more than beans about the lives of the rich and greedy.
If you don't walk away from this movie foaming with outrage, check to see if you have a pulse.

The King's Speech: Leaves You Speechless

The Movie Slut is still pissed. Don't tell her that Colin Firth didn't deserve the best actor Oscar last year for his role in "The Single Man." Now the Academy can redeem itself by awarding him the Oscar for "The King's Speech."
Firth plays King George VI, the stammering monarch. Most of the movie takes place when his father is still alive, and before his brother abdicated the thrown "for the woman he loved." Still, the speech impediment dominated his life.
Enter Geoffry Rush, a self-proclaimed (quack?) speech pathologist, and the movie is off. Much of the film revolves around the relationship, based on mutual respect and affection, which is forged between the royal and the commoner.
Helena Bonham Carter is pitch perfect as the king-to-be's ever-supportive wife.
The scene in which the new king delivers a BBC speech on the eve of WWII will stand out in the Movie Slut's memory as a high point in big-screen entertainment.
It doesn't hurt that it's set to the second movement of Beethoven's 7th Symphony.
Movie Slut Rathing: Five out of five lipsticks.