Utopia on Thursday released the trailer for “Sharp Stick,” Lena Dunham’s dramedy that debuted to controversy at Sundance earlier this year.
The film, in theaters nationwide on Aug. 5 following a limited release on July 29, follows 26-year-old Sarah Jo (Kristine Froseth), a socially and sexually stunted caregiver living on the outskirts of Hollywood with her mother (Jennifer Jason Leigh) and sister Treina (Taylour Paige). She longs for connection after a hysterectomy in her teenage years kept her from finding romance, and begins an affair with Josh (Jon Bernthal), the parent of the special-needs child she looks after, who is married to Heath, Lena Dunham’s character.
The film explores Sarah Jo’s sexual coming-of-age, a central conceit that has drawn controversy in its portrayal. Amy Gravino, an autism sexuality advocate who said Froseth asked her to be a consultant on the film before she was “ghosted,” said Sarah Jo’s...
The film, in theaters nationwide on Aug. 5 following a limited release on July 29, follows 26-year-old Sarah Jo (Kristine Froseth), a socially and sexually stunted caregiver living on the outskirts of Hollywood with her mother (Jennifer Jason Leigh) and sister Treina (Taylour Paige). She longs for connection after a hysterectomy in her teenage years kept her from finding romance, and begins an affair with Josh (Jon Bernthal), the parent of the special-needs child she looks after, who is married to Heath, Lena Dunham’s character.
The film explores Sarah Jo’s sexual coming-of-age, a central conceit that has drawn controversy in its portrayal. Amy Gravino, an autism sexuality advocate who said Froseth asked her to be a consultant on the film before she was “ghosted,” said Sarah Jo’s...
- 6/23/2022
- by Sasha Urban
- Variety Film + TV
Following the 2022 Sundance premiere of Lena Dunham’s third feature, “Sharp Stick,” autism activist Amy Gravino took to Twitter to allege that she was approached to be a consultant during production, though her services were never utilized. Gravino, who specializes in de-stigmatizing autism sexuality, tweeted on January 20 that she “was asked to consult on #SharpStick, because the main character was written to be (yet never identified as) autistic.”
“Right before I was set to meet with the lead actress [Kristine Froseth] and [writer-director] Lena Dunham, a decision was made to no longer have the character be autistic,” Gravino wrote in her Twitter thread. “What also surprised me about the change of course was that I was told Lena Dunham had done research on me and was excited to meet me.”
Gravino, who was diagnosed with autism at age 11, is on staff as a relationship coach for students with autism at Rutgers...
“Right before I was set to meet with the lead actress [Kristine Froseth] and [writer-director] Lena Dunham, a decision was made to no longer have the character be autistic,” Gravino wrote in her Twitter thread. “What also surprised me about the change of course was that I was told Lena Dunham had done research on me and was excited to meet me.”
Gravino, who was diagnosed with autism at age 11, is on staff as a relationship coach for students with autism at Rutgers...
- 1/28/2022
- by Samantha Bergeson
- Indiewire
After Lena Dunham’s new movie “Sharp Stick” was criticized on Twitter by an autism activist who claimed she was approached to be a consultant on the project, the filmmaking team behind the Sundance film says that the central character, Sarah Jo, was never written to be on the spectrum. Producers say the drama about a young woman’s sexual awakening was inspired entirely by creator Lena Dunham’s personal journey, dealing with severe endometriosis which resulted in a hysterectomy.
“Sarah Jo was never written nor imagined as a neurodivergent woman,” a spokesperson for the film says, in part, in a statement to Variety. “Nothing about Sarah Jo was coded to suggest or convey neurodivergence. In drawing this very personal portrait mined from her own experience, Lena did recognize that audiences would identify with Sarah Jo in myriad ways. This is the power of art, in this case, film. It...
“Sarah Jo was never written nor imagined as a neurodivergent woman,” a spokesperson for the film says, in part, in a statement to Variety. “Nothing about Sarah Jo was coded to suggest or convey neurodivergence. In drawing this very personal portrait mined from her own experience, Lena did recognize that audiences would identify with Sarah Jo in myriad ways. This is the power of art, in this case, film. It...
- 1/28/2022
- by Elizabeth Wagmeister
- Variety Film + TV
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