‘Sharp Stick’ filmmaker Lena Dunham embraces naturalistic performances and cinema verité style for a powerful tale of family, sexuality, and womanhood.
Topics of family, sexuality, and womanhood power filmmaker Lena Dunham’s cinema verité drama ‘Sharp Stick.’
In the fantastic female drama Sharp Stick, debuting in the Premieres section of Sundance Film Festival 2022, twenty-six-year-old Sarah Jo (Kristine Froseth) uses colored cardboard paper and markers to decorate her bedroom with wall-sized checklists. Sarah Jo’s lists identify the sexual acts she wants to try. Her recent affair with a married man named Josh (Jon Bernthal) is unsatisfying. Sarah Jo’s mom, Marilyn (Jennifer Jason Leigh), and sister, Treina (Taylour Paige), are busy with Treina’s efforts working as a paid influencer. Ignited by newfound fandom for veteran porn star Vance Leroy (Scott Speedman), Sarah Jo sets out on an independent journey of womanhood and sexuality.
Actress and filmmaker Lena Dunham may reference director Luis Bunuel’s 1967 film Belle de Jour in a festival Q&A panel. Still, Sharp Stick is cinematic kin to another Sundance storyteller, Todd Solondz, the director of art-house classics like Happiness and Welcome to the Dollhouse.
Sharp Stick is a Sundance movie in the best sense. Like Solondz, Dunham skillfully…
