MAKING A LIST, CHECKING IT TWICE // A FILM REVIEW OF "SHARP STICK"

BY MATEO MORENO

Lena Dunham's writing is something of an acquired taste. Her hit HBO television show Girls had as many detractors as it did massive fans. However, whether you're a fan of her style or not, I do believe she is a talented writer. Both her feature film Tiny Furniture and the HBO series Girls often showcased quite an original voice and she received a BAFTA, Emmy and Golden Globe (among others) for her efforts. So it's quite strange to see her follow it up with SHARP STICK, her bizarre and wildly unfunny new comedy. Debuting at Sundance Film Festival this year, it made headlines with a Twitter user accused the filmmakers of approaching her as an "autism consultant" but then ghosted her. The filmmakers responded back, saying that the main character Sarah Jo (Kristine Froseth) "was never written nor imagined as a neurodivergent woman." But after watching five minutes of this film, it very much seems as if the filmmakers are indeed writing Sarah Jo how they think a neurodivergent character behaves, even if it's never said. And it's an uncomfortable and borderline offensive watch. It's as if they got all of their character building tips from Sia.

Sarah Jo is a babysitter for a special needs child of a soon-to-be expecting couple (played by Jon Bernthal & Lena Dunham). It's clear that she has a crush on the man-child husband Josh (Bernthal) but doesn't know what to do with this information. She lives with her mother (Jennifer Jason Leigh) and sister (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), who both constantly talk about sex, yet somehow Sarah Jo has no idea what online porn is or what "going down" means. She also has never had any sexual experiences, or any real teenage experience, due to having an emergency hysterectomy when she was 15 (she's now 26). She helps her sister record sensual TikTok videos but has literally no idea what sex is or how to do it. Eventually she gathers the nerve to ask Josh if he finds her beautiful. After about 30 seconds of trying to "fight the urge," Josh succumbs to his emotions and the two begin an affair.

Things get quite uncomfortable from there. It's clear that Dunham is trying to make a sex-positive sexual awakening story, but since Sarah Jo's actions are so childlike, it's just icky to watch any of it. Watching Kristine Froseth make facial expressions that can only be described as "uncomfortable" and seeing her make a third grade looking art project that lists the A to Z's of all the different kinds of sex she's learning and wants to try is painful. N stands for "necrophilia" and she writes next to it, "Definitely not!" L stands for "Lesbian" and she writes something like, "No need!" Such comedy. It sadly doesn't get better. The writing is aimlessly terrible, with the subtlety of a dump truck. No one comes out of this disaster clean. The usually brilliant Jennifer Jason Leigh is saddled with a character that even she can't do anything with. Even if you're a huge fan of Dunham, it's best to stay far away from the puzzling Sharp Stick. Wait till she (hopefully) rebounds from this dumpster fire.

GRADE: F

WRITTEN & DIRECTED BY Lena Dunham STARRING Kristine Froseth, Jon Bernthal, Luka Sabbat, Lena Dunham, Taylour Paige, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Scott Speedman NOW PLAYING IN NEW YORK AND LOS ANGELES. OPENS NATIONWIDE FRIDAY AUGUST 5TH. AVAILABLE ON DIGITAL PLATFORMS AUGUST 16TH.

FRANCESKA'S LEGACY // A THEATRE REVIEW OF "THE FINAL VEIL"

BY MATEO MORENO

Franceska Mann was a Polish Jewish dancer who, in the late 1930's was considered one of the most promising dancers of her era. Her story, which has not often been told, is a bit shrouded in mystery, especially her final days. What we believed happened is that she boarded a train, along with 1,800 or so others, and they all were fooled into thinking that the train was leading them to freedom, as part of an exchange for German POW's. Instead, they were lead to Auschwitz. From that point, it gets a little hazy and since everyone who witnessed the next moments were killed, it makes sense that the stories slightly vary on what happened. The most popular story tells that they were told to undress and at that point, Mann noticed two soldiers ogling her. She then began a sudden, slow and seductive striptease. The men were transfixed, unsure of exactly what to do as she stripped down to everything but her heels. Suddenly, she took one heel and struck one SS officer in the head, stealing his gun. She fired and killed a soldier and injured another, who's injury would stay with him for the rest of his life. A riot ensued and more soldiers were called. Machine guns fired and everyone was killed, including Mann.

How this story isn't more widely known is a mystery, but Mann gets her story told now in the new movement opera THE FINAL VEIL. Created by Cassandra Rosebeetle (who also co-choreographs and stars) and JL Marlor (who wrote the score and libretto), The Final Veil tells Mann's story through song and dance over the course of 60 minutes. The result is an often breathtaking and emotional piece of art that has sold out its entire run. With a four person string quartet, four singers and four dancers (including Rosebeetle), a kind of broken beauty is created on stage. It's an especially intimate experience at The Cell, where the audience is only a few feet away from all of the action on stage and thrust into the mist and stage smoke floating around the tiny space. The use of live singers and a four person quartet among the dancers truly enhanced the experience. The four singers (Katie Lipow, Abagael Cheng, Heather Michele, Katherine Lerner Lee) make up a haunting chamber sound, acting as the structure of the story & Mann's own inner monologue while the music and dance paint the picture. The four dancers are equally impressive and each have their own standout moments.

Rosebettle, as Franceska Mann herself, is devastating and magnetic. She begins the evening as a literal corpse, riddled with bullets and on display, starting the evening off in a very haunting fashion. We then travel back with her as she performs to adoring fans to her eventual fate within the Warsaw Ghetto and then into her final horrifying moments of life. Due to the lack of a large playing space, the choreography seems simplified but is none the less effective. The story that is told through the dance, song and movement is quite moving and although the intimacy forces the audience to not take their eyes off the action, I do yearn for a production with a much larger stage to truly let Rosebeetle, her co-choreographer Katherine Crockett and the rest of the dancers truly move across the stage while incorporating a bit more complex staging and choreography. As it stands, this production of The Final Veil is a worthy and honorable tribute to Mann and a reminder of the horrors of the past, horrors that are sadly not in the past at all.

GRADE: A-

CREATED BY Cassandra Rosebeetle and JL Marlor SCORE AND LIBRETTO BY JM Marlor ADDITIONAL TEXT/DRAMATURGY BY Kate Mulley DIRECTED BY Cassandra Rosebeetle CHOREOGRAPHED BY Katherine Crockett, Cassandra Rosebeetle FEATURING Cassandra Rosebeetle, Hallie Chametzky, Lauren Pagano, Lauren Barette, Katie Liptow, Abagael Cheng, Heather Michele, Katherine Lerner Lee. PLAYING NOW THROUGH JULY 31st AT THE CELL (338 W 23RD STREET, NYC). FOR MORE INFO: THE FINAL VEIL

INTO THESE WOODS // A FILM REVIEW OF "BLACKWOOD"

BY MATEO MORENO

BLACKWOOD, written and directed by Chris Danfield, is a mash-up of genres. It's a classic western, both in look and feel, but adds in horror elements while sprinkling in racial tensions of the old west. It's a lot to throw into an indie film with a micro budget. Some of it works, much of it doesn't, and that goes for the cast as well. Tanajsia Slaughter plays Dowanhowee, a Lakota woman on the move and headed to The Black Woods. She enters an old west town, killing a cowboy to get a horse for her travels. In that same town, Dutch Wilder (Bates Wilder) and his gang have a score to settle with a pair that owes him money. Instead of collecting it, the pair (played by Glenn Morshower & Kara Rainer) offer him something much more interesting: Gold, or at least the search for gold. Wallace Price (Morshower) joins them on the quest, which pretty quickly runs the same path as Dowanhowee.

In these woods lay a dangerous creature: The Wendigo. Dowanowee warns of the evil that surrounds them, and they end up having to work together, but can they work together while still on their original quest? The best thing about BLACKWOOD is the beautiful cinematography, which is lush and grand. Even on a small budget, the old west town has a charming feel to it and the costumes all look solid. But the horror elements is where it all goes to hell. Fight sequences seem to not have any urgency or excitement and the Wendigo itself is a failed vision from the start. Some of the more subtle performances, like Slaughter and Morshower, work fine and even though Wilder's range isn't exactly huge, he's often pretty effective. But most of the rest of the cast swing wild pitches with their performances and strike out one by one, especially Wilder's gang and the Native tracker Casey Birdinground who's working with the white gang. It's a shame, because there's some good DNA in the idea of BLACKWOOD. But in the end, it falters under its own weighted ambitions.

GRADE: C-

WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY Chris Canfield STARRING Bates Wilder, Glenn Morshower, Stelio Savante, Tanajsia Slaughter, George Thomas Mansel, Casey Birdinground, David 'Shark' Fralick. NOW PLAYING IN SELECT THEATRES AND ON DIGITAL AND ON-DEMAND.