Film Review: SHARP STICK: Upbeat Sex Romp is Surprising, Honest & Stays Positive [Sundance 2022]

Sharp Stick Review

Sharp Stick (2021) Film Review from the 45th Annual Sundance Film Festival, a movie directed by Lena Dunham, starring Kristine Froseth, Jon Bernthal, Scott Speedman, Lena Dunham, Taylour Paige, and Jennifer Jason Leigh.

This upbeat movie exploring the sexual awakening of a naive young woman, Sarah Jo (Kristine Froseth), is fresh, honest, and full of surprises.

When it becomes clear that Sarah Jo is allegedly disabled, and considering the title, it’s tempting to assume that a revenge pot-boiler is in the making. But nothing could be further from the truth. Contrary to being a resentful dullard, Sarah Jo’s naiveté allows her to see naked opportunity or adversity for what it is, discard all the complicating angst to find the simplest and most effective solution, and bounces to her next adventure.

Sarah Jo lives at home with her half-sister Treina (Taylour Paige) and their mother, Marilyn (Jennifer Jason Leigh), a sort of hippie full of practical aphorisms about getting through life. Apart from the typical,  breezy quasi-catty nitpicking between sisters, this is a loving, supportive household.

By day, Sarah Jo provides day care for Zach (Liam Michel Saux), who dotes on her. She is a natural caregiver with dead-on intuition. She is equally popular with his parents, Josh (Jon Bernthal) and Heather (Lena Dunham), who depend on her readiness to be there.

For Sarah Jo, her idyllic life lacks one thing above all: a boyfriend. Innocently, she chooses whom she considers as the perfect man — darkly and scruffy-hot, optimistic and (apparently) guileless–Josh, who’s almost like a teenaged kid himself. In terms of pure personality, it makes perfect sense. Josh rebuffs her advances in the gentlest way, but eventually, reluctantly, he gives in, and they bebop on the laundry room floor. (Twice, because Josh finished too soon, and Sarah Jo insisted.)

Josh confides that he has done without because of Heather’s pregnancy. Ever sympathetic and helpful Sarah Jo offers him respite, and after Josh suffers a guilt trip or two, the game is on. The sex scenes are truly a rarity. These are essentially romps, wonderfully sensual and intimate as Josh expands her horizons, and to which she responds with ingenuous enthusiasm.

But here’s the twist. Prior to these trysts and then throughout, Sarah Jo has occasional bouts of articulation that go beyond disability or rote repetition. She furnishes thorough details about her hysterectomy at the age of 17 due to abdominal adhesions. At this point, one begins to wonder if her ‘disability’ is due to as much, or more, chronic post-traumatic stress disorder than deficiency. It’s not so far-fetched considering the impact of such a radical surgery in a woman recently past puberty suffering menopause.

But whatever the rationale, she reacts as a 17-year-old would. When Josh confesses he’s in love and gives her a necklace to prove it, it’s easy to believe in him; a bit too easy, as it turns out. When Heather goes into labor at home, she notices Sarah Jo wearing Josh’s necklace. Heather confronts Josh when he comes home to escort her to the hospital. Only then does Sarah Jo realize, as does the audience, that this is Josh’s typical ploy used with a host of other playmates. Josh fires Sarah Jo on the spot, and harshly, hoping to win back Heather’s trust with tears and determination. Like the other women, he swears, Sarah Jo means nothing to him; in fact, she exploited his weakness. (It works.)

At this point one expects Sarah Jo to perpetrate the worst kind of gruesome payback for Josh’s duplicity; to be as abandoned in revenge as she had been in the sack. But that’s the charm of this film. While she did later confront the couple later in a sort of childlike rage, she was done with it and gleefully indulged in one of Josh’s ‘lessons’ about love: on-line pornography. She made a comprehensive construction paper bucket list of kinks and fetishes pasted on the wall, complete with check-box, using an unfinished room at home as her ‘research lab.’ She kept a journal of letters to her favorite porn actor, Vance Leroy (Scott Speedman), whom she eventually met through one of her guests, who eventually became what she had wanted all along: a boyfriend.

A novel entitled ‘Candy’ written in 1958 by Terry Southern and Mason Hoffenberg scandalized just about every country where it could find a publisher. It was full of peculiar and taboo sexual escapades, but these were overshadowed by heroine’s sweetness, guileless curiosity, and genuine empathy with her partners. In terms of personality, Sarah Jo could be considered this century’s ‘Candy,’ but she embodies more than that. She rallies her courage and refuses to be a victim of her past. In an important way, Sarah Jo is truly liberated and, more importantly, empowered.

The performances are terrific throughout, particularly Kristine Froseth’s Sarah Jo. Jennifer Jason Leigh racks up another great performance, but a subtler one. (Lena Dunham’s portrayal as Valerie Solanas in American Horror Story: Cult is a must-see.)

Rating: 8/10

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