Lena Dunham infiltrate directly into the culture wars, whether she wants to or not.
Critics have X-rayed her HBO series, “Girls,” during its six-year run of all sorts of taboos and revelations about sex. She uses sexual metaphors to tell voters pull the lever for President Barack Obama in 2012.
And her recent clothing line for older women has been hammer in the press for not being alert enough.
Dunham’s latest project, “Sharp Stick,” is also moving in a similar direction. Except this time, it’s clear that the film’s co-stars and creators are cheering it on.
The film follows a 20-year-old woman named Sarah Jo (Kristine Froseth) discovering her sexuality for the first time. Critics describe the innocent character as someone with a virtual checklist of erotic adventures she wishes to complete.
Dunham plays a real estate agent whose husband (Jon Bernthal) is one of Sarah Jo’s sexual conquerors.
The “Girls” co-creator is no stranger to sexually adventurous characters, but it’s a new wrinkle in “Sharp Stick” that could cause a stir.
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Sarah Jo’s mother, played by veteran on-screen actor Jennifer Jason Leigh, throws her daughter an “abortion shower” at one point in the film.
It’s the next step from the pro-choice movement’s “scream abortion” battle cry.
Freelance film critic Roger Moore notes that this moment will certainly attract people’s attention, And it wasn’t an accident.
Yes, Miss Millennial knows how to attract attention and create a little shock with her branded version of sexual adventure.
Dunham describes The creative process behind the abortion bathroom sequence to TheFilmStage.com:
That’s one of the ideas I was thinking: can she do it and we still believe she’s doing it and believe it’s the job of a loving mother? It’s one of those things where at every stage, I keep going “will this go away?” And then it was like the idea was just enough to get me excited. Then when I wrote the scene, it was just enough to get me excited. When they act out scenes and deliver things that I can’t even imagine. Then it suddenly became a building block of the movie.
The film is receiving fierce reviews, at best. The AV Club calls it one of the worst movies of the year, while its Rotten Tomatoes score hovers around 47% following both its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year and a July 29 release date in select cities.
The film opens nationwide on August 5.
The film made its film festival debut before Supreme Court Roe v. Wade reversed recently. That change could help “Sharp Stick” promote progressive hamlets across the country.
Or, “Sharp Stick” could be Dunham’s latest commercial disappointment. Her HBO series “Camping” lasted but one season, as well as “Generation”.
