Sarah Jo is a naive 26-year-old living on the fringes of Hollywood with her mother and sister. She just longs to be seen. When she begins an affair with her older employer, she is thrust into an education on sexuality, loss, and power.
Full disclosure: I am a guy. I have lived as such for 37 years. There may be some things about growing up as a female that I may not be privy to or deeply understand. Regardless, some aspects of childhood and growing up are, to some extent, universal.
Lena Dunham’s “Sharp Stick” has a lot to like. Some scenes rely on traditional comic setups and great performances from Kristine Froseth, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Jon Bernthal. But there’s also the sense that it’s inherently dishonest and smug, the same kind of self-satisfied left-wing arrogance that Dunham is often accused of – the kind that makes even people agree with her cringe. The moment comes early, as Sarah Jo (Froseth) is helping her mother evict a tenant in her L.A. apartment during the height of the pandemic. It’s alright, though, because the tenant has an NRA sign in his window. Sarah Jo also wrote the eviction notice very politely, so no bigs, guys!
But Sarah Jo is an innocent; in fact, one would mistake her for a puritan because of how she dresses and speaks about sex. Trapped in extended adolescence due to a tragic emergency hysterectomy at 17, Sarah Jo possesses only the most basic understanding of the act. She explains as much to Josh (Bernthal), the married, hip-hop-loving suburban dad to whom she’s elected to offer her virginity at 26. After the relationship crumbles, Sarah Jo blames her sexual inexperience and creates a bucket list of sex acts she wants to complete. It’s no different a plot than any given Judd Apatow production circa 2008 or even a lesser Josh Hartnett vehicle from the same era, and it doesn’t conclude much differently.
Froseth is a fine actress, and she makes some sense out of the character, and while it’s beyond understandable that Sarah Jo’s condition has left her with misconceptions and severe inhibitions about sex, it’s just not believable that she wouldn’t know the most basic slang terms for specific acts. She’s managed to maintain this naivete with an ex-Hollywood socialite mother (Leigh) who has taught her what the word “chode” means and an adopted sister (Taylour Paige) who she helps film dancing on Tik Tok and talks about her boyfriend’s penis. She wasn’t raised in a soundproof room; she’s an L.A. kid. She has no conservative or religious blinders, leaving a vacancy in the character that is usually filled with a reveal. Alas, Sarah Jo isn’t hiding anything. This is in no way to discount what could only be the horrors of having a forced hysterectomy at a young age – something Dunham had at 30 due to an ongoing battle with Endometriosis. It could doubtlessly create a warped understanding of sex. It doesn’t make you deaf around the house. Being a willing COVID evictor, regardless of how nice you write the notice, doesn’t make her particularly sympathetic. In fairness, Seth Rogen never really was, either.
“Sharp Stick” recently had its Canadian Premiere at the 2022 Fantasia International Film Festival
