“Oh yeah, I DID see Sharp Stick at Sundance.”
Probably not the reaction Lena Dunham was going for with her big debut to directing, but I honestly forgot about the film until this morning. This is actually turning out to be an important year for Dunham behind the camera, as she also has the medieval comedy Catherine, Called Birdy coming in a few months. But as for Sharp Stick, the provocative sex comedy is only a couple of months away.
Kristine Froseth stars as Sarah Jo, an innocent young 26-year-old woman who had a hysterectomy at 17 and experiences a sexual awakening after losing her virginity to an older, married employer.
Dunham has stacked the cast around Froseth, as Jennifer Jason Leigh, Jon Bernthal, Luka Sabbat, Scott Speedman, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Taylour Paige, and Dunham herself round out the ensemble. It’s a film that I did not care for, writing in my review “Sex is a favorite topic of Dunham’s, but she doesn’t seem to have anything special to say about it. She just likes it as a topic. And that about encapsulates her later feature, Sharp Stick.”
Sharp Stick opens in NY and LA on July 29th, followed by theaters on August 5th. It’ll then hit digital platforms on August 16th.
Sarah Jo (Kristine Froseth) is a sensitive and naive 26-year-old living on the fringes of Hollywood with her disillusioned mother (Jennifer Jason Leigh) and influencer sister (Taylour Paige). Working as a caregiver and just longing to be seen, she begins an exploratory affair with her older, married employer (Jon Bernthal) and is thrust into a startling education on sexuality, loss, and power.
