Lena Dunham Is Back In Theaters With Sundance Sex Romp ‘Sharp Stick’ – Specialty Preview
29.07.2022 - 20:15
/ deadline.com
Lena Dunham is back. Sharp Stick — the writer/director/actor’s follow to HBO series Girls and her first film since Tiny Furniture (2020) – opens in LA at Landmark’s renovated single-screen NuArt Theatre and at the Quad Cinema in NYC. It expands to 40 to 50 screens next weekend, heading to about 100 thereafter – a mix of AMC, Alamo, Laemmle and Harkins circuits and top U.S. arthouses.
Presales have been strong, said Utopia’s marketing and distribution VP Kyle Greenberg. A handful of showings with Dunham Q&As are sold out, natch. The film, which Utopia acquired out of Sundance, releases on PVOD August 16. Deadline review here.
Dunham writes directs, produces and stars with Kristine Froseth, Jon Bernthal, Luka Sabbat, Scott Speedman, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Taylour Paige and Jennifer Jason Leigh.
Sarah Jo (Froseth) is a sensitive and naive 26-year-old living on the fringes of Hollywood with her disillusioned mother (Leigh) and influencer sister (Paige). Working as a caregiver and just longing to be seen, she begins an exploratory affair with her older, married employer (Bernthal).
No surprise Girls fans, there’s quite some sex. Greenberg said marketing required a “quick and agile social campaign” in the face of what he called “surprising” and “increasingly puritanical policy standards across a number of key social advertising platforms” (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter) as algorithms flagged marketing materials. “It’s no secret that Utopia has played with risky material. We are happy with that.” he said. In The Scary of Sixty-First, two roommates are haunted by the spirit of Jeffrey Epstein after unwittingly moving to a Manhattan apartment he once owned. Sharp Stick’s social campaign targets mainly younger millennial and older