Even as Sharp Stick deals with extremely adult material, it adopts a purposeful innocence that makes Dunham’s latest work less counterintuitive than it might seem.

| Oct 11, 2022

Even when Dunham seems intent on driving them all into a narrative ditch, it’s worth the rubbernecking.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 3, 2022

It’s nearly impossible to make anything good when the internet is telling you to kill yourself on a daily basis. The fact that Dunham persists is accomplishment enough.

| Aug 16, 2022

For a filmmaker known for her transgression, Dunham has a weird underlying conservatism...

| Aug 8, 2022

Sharp Stick is hardly a film by an artist who’s in the clear, culturally -- and it’s a better movie for embracing vulnerability anyway, whether the knives out or not.

| Aug 8, 2022

Where is this all going, and what does it all mean? Every main character in “Sharp Stick” is hopelessly lost on one level or another, but nobody really grows or reaches any kind of self-actualization.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Aug 5, 2022

A collection of interesting ideas that don't cohere into a compelling movie.

| Aug 5, 2022

Uneven, ambiguous and unnerving, “Sharp Stick” undoubtedly has a point to make. What that is, precisely, might be subject to debate.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Aug 4, 2022

“Sharp Stick” doesn’t gel as a whole — it drifts in narrative and tone, and one can’t help but feel jarred by how far Sarah Jo’s sexual odyssey strays from the power dynamics that underpin her dalliance with Josh.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Aug 4, 2022

For all the sex in the story, Dunham’s main concern is emotional intimacy and the construction of a self-image; the cast... brings the substantial conceit to life, overcoming its somewhat rushed treatment.

| Aug 1, 2022

It is a study of women’s sexuality, desire and autonomy that succeeds just as much as it stumbles, a method of feminist storytelling that privileges the pursuit of desire over an evenness of narrative.

| Aug 1, 2022

Sharp Stick has all the hallmarks of a Dunham production. That’s the problem.

| Jul 29, 2022

[O]ne of the worst movies of 2022.

| Original Score: D- | Jul 29, 2022

[Sharp Stick] pokes at youthful curiosities and appetites with verve and gusto.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jul 29, 2022

Dunham’s provocations here feel as unsubtle as the pokey implement of the title.

| Jul 29, 2022

One of Dunham’s talents is her ability to capture the allure of heartbreakers, scuzzballs and dopes.

| Original Score: B- | Jul 28, 2022

Because other viewers will find that, with its explicit age play in service to daddy lovers everywhere, this is a strange, sexy, strangely sexy movie...

| Jul 25, 2022

Dunham has a niche all her own.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Feb 8, 2022

Dunham's film blossoms into something beautifully strange and brutally honest, sharing its infectious love for Sarah Jo and anyone out there who may feel like her.

| Feb 1, 2022

Although she is a fairly inscrutable figure, and Dunham's script never quite arrives at a larger point, these sexual misadventures are full of frankness and humor.

| Jan 28, 2022