Halle S

I found Sharp Stick to be a fresh, funny take on sexual awakening that amounts to a poignant, clever and ultimately empowering film, one that broaches taboos normally reserved for “guy humor”… Part of what it does brilliantly is satirize society’s seeming acceptance of men desiring very young, virginal women - in pornographic films and elsewhere. With the character of Sarah Jo, Dunham turns a sharp focus on this idea as well as the idea of the male gaze, and Sarah Jo becomes kind of an embodiment of a women taking that idea, utilizing it, and ultimately rising above it. These concepts might be lost on some, but I think the darkly funny and at times hilarious film is unique, original, and intelligent.