Film

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NFL PREVIEW ISSUE

September28-October2021 4 Volume42 Number38

ADSPACE AUG 26 ISSUEDATE SEP6

Ad Director Sandy Stein 504.483.3150 or sstein@gambitweekly.com

Comingofage

by Will Coviello

ANINGENUEBABYSITTER TRYINGTOSEDUCETHE CHILD’S

FATHER while mom’s away is a ripe-for-Hollywood scene — or cliche. In the hands of director Lena Dunham (who also plays the mom), it gets turned into Josh, a pandemic stay-at-home father of a special needs child, being approached by Sarah Jo, a young woman who cares for the boy while the mother, who is pregnant, works outside the home. It’s awkward, tantalizingly slow in its bizarre arc, and one of the more riveting scenes in her latest film, “Sharp Stick.”

The drama is about Sarah Jo’s odd personal odyssey, and the offbeat film features an array of stars playing entertainingly quirky characters. Dunham has a knack for inverting Hollywood tropes, and though this story isn’t always workable, her unconventional perspectives and experiments are her trademark, for better or worse.

Sarah Jo, played by Kristine Froseth, lives with her sister and mother on the outskirts of Hollywood. They operate a small run-down apartment complex, where her mother holds court, sharing all the wisdom she’s acquired from numerous marriages/divorces and other liaisons.

Jennifer Jason Leigh is excellent as Marilyn, a hilariously jaded and world-weary woman who drinks white wine and downs antihistamines as she recounts stories about her daughters’ different fathers and other conquests. Marilyn holds back nothing, as when she talks about one man who she says had a penis wider than it was long, for which they all chime in the same slang term.

The sister, Treina (Taylor Paige), spends her days posting glamour shots and dancing videos online, lusting for more and more attention.

Sarah Jo chooses incredibly mousy outfits, with plenty of plaids, girlish looks and thick barrettes. At first glance it might look like an ironic or retro style, but it’s a clumsy way of reflecting how naïve she can be. She’s a 26-year-old virgin, and it’s hard to make sense of that given how open and comfortable her mother and sister are about their sexuality. There are a couple of clunky jokes about slang Sarah Jo apparently doesn’t understand.

Sarah Jo is like a millennial Mary Poppins in her affection and skill with Zach, Josh’s son. That competence also makes her radiant innocence seem less believable, but it’s how she becomes attracted to Josh, who is a very attentive and playful father.

There is a reason why Sarah Jo’s sexual development has lagged. Here, it’s the premise to have a young woman pursue her own sexual awakening in an unconventional way, as a mature woman who’s wildly inexperienced. When she turns to the porn industry for information, it echoes her mother’s candor and is somewhat clinical, though also absurd.

Dunham is best known for her award-winning TV comedy/drama series “Girls,” in which young women living in New York lurch from one mistake to another as they negotiate their desires and ambitions. Dunham starred in that, and it reflected her own experiences. She did the same with her 2010 breakout movie “Tiny Furniture,” in which she played a young college graduate who returns home to live with her mother and sister.

“Sharp Stick” also draws its inspiration from Dunham’s own experiences. The film is funny at times but not really a comedy. As a drama about a young person determined to lose her virginity, it plays with Hollywood conventions, but with no boundaries, such as the unabashed plunge into the city’s adult movie scene. It’s amusing that the two most reasonable and grounded characters in the story both work in the porn industry.

Sarah Jo pursues her path beyond the point she seems to need to, but Dunham remains committed to the idea, which makes the project seem more allegorical than realistic. But the movie’s performances are very good, especially where the characters are not particularly likable. It doesn’t offer the bigger laughs of Dunham’s best work. But she cleverly plays on familiar and tired movie schemes and doesn’t shy away from people’s awkwardness or restrain their impulses. “Sharp Stick” is running at Zeitgeist Theatre & Lounge.

PHOTO PROVIDED BY CIRCLE COLLECTIVE