What comes to mind when a group of beautiful teens is dubbed the “Slut Squad”? A gang of promiscuous, scantily clad trollops roaming the hallways? In Slut, it’s actually the name of a high-school dance troupe—but reclaiming the word slut does not insulate its members from the continued power of shaming. Katie Cappiello’s powerhouse script examines the double standard that celebrates sexual activity by boys but denigrates it for girls. There are echoes of the Steubenville rape case as dancer Joey (Winnifred Bonjean-Alpart) shares a taxi ride home with three male friends after a party; two of them sexually abuse her in the backseat, while the third ignores it. Joey gets blamed for the incident—“She was sloppy-drunk,” “Look at the way she dresses,” “She bought flavored condoms”—and becomes a victim of classmates’ attacks on social media. The girls’ realistic dialogue makes the audience feel as though it were sitting in the gym locker room, overhearing painfully intimate conversations; Joey reveals graphic details of the sexual act that are uncomfortable but important for us to hear. Compelling and heartfelt performances by the impressive all-female cast fill out this insightful look at the sensitive issues of rape and cyberbullying. To miss it would be a shame.—Valerie David
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