Slut. Movie Review

The thing I hate about so many "issue" documentaries is that they have a painful tendency to start out by the filmmakers introducing themselves, then the filmmakers explaining why the issue is so important to them, then explaining that they decided to make a movie about the issue. In the case of the well-intentioned Slut., Rina Barone and Patricia DiTillio interview a gaggle of feminists and a few notable oddities (Ron Jeremy and a "Ramones-inspired punk band") about their opinion of the word "slut." Their ostensible plan is to try to get the word "banned" a la cocksucker and asshole, though the thesis is decidedly weak. Mainly, no one interviewed has that strong of an opinion about the issue. Their strongest contender, who thinks the word should just "go away," actually wrote a book called, you guessed it, Slut! Not a great plan there, ma'am. And some of those interviewed border on sad, including one poor woman who shows off the scrapbook of words that describe her which she cut out of magazines. This isn't poor filmmaking, per se, but it certainly isn't even close to great.