By Cara Nash
“A lot of my movies are about people on the outside of society,” writer/director, Stuart Blumberg, mused to FilmInk on the line from his home in New York back in 2012. “Whether they’re lesbians, porn stars, or sex addicts, they’re looked on as beyond the pale and not like us – whatever ‘us’ is. I’ve always been interested in showing the shared humanity in different people and communities.”
Indeed, delve into Blumberg’s body of work as a screenwriter – which includes Edward Norton’s 2000 religious comedy, Keeping The Faith; the raunchy 2004 teen flick The Girl Next Door; and the 2010 Oscar-nominated comedy drama The Kids Are All Right – and his penchant for crafting unconventional characters and lifestyles quickly becomes apparent. It’s a trait that continued with Blumberg’s 2012 directorial debut, Thanks For Sharing, which zeroes in on an eclectic fistful of characters struggling with sex addiction. “I’ve always wanted to direct,” Blumberg told FilmInk. “After writing The Kids Are All Right, I knew that was the best shot that I was going to get to make the transition, and I did it. I’d tried to direct something eight years before with Philip Seymour Hoffman. It fell through a couple of times, and it broke my heart, so I gave up the dream for a bit. But then I picked it up again.”
It’s proved to be an impressive transition for Blumberg, who brought his trademark wit and warmth to a potentially controversial issue. Co-written by Blumberg and his friend, Matt Winston, Thanks For Sharing explores the relationships within a sex addiction support group. “I’d gone to twelve-step meetings with friends,” Blumberg recalled. “What’s interesting about these groups is that they bring people together who would not necessarily hang out, and they forge these really tight relationships. It was a fascinating world that I had never seen explored in a nuanced way in a film. Sex addiction was also starting to become a really interesting topic in America. Celebrities were coming out as sex addicts, and it was met with a lot of skepticism, so I wanted to explore that. I’ve come to understand that it’s very similar to many other addictions, and in some ways, it’s much more painful and harder to quit.”
One of the recovering sex addicts in the film is Adam (Mark Ruffalo), who has been sober for five years, but finds his confident resolve tested when he falls for the stunning Phoebe (Gwyneth Paltrow). “This addiction is often called ‘the intimacy disorder,’” Blumberg explained. “People think that it’s purely about sex, but a lot of it is about the inability to put sex and intimacy together. That’s something that Adam struggles with.” On the topic of intimacy, the film also asks broader questions that pull the audience into the mix. “Sex is so prevalent now. You’re being bombarded with imagery. It’s a sensory overload, and it desensitises you to the fact that those images have real people behind them. What’s interesting in society today is that we all have these relationships with our computers, images and videos, and they’re often replacing real relationships.”
For his directorial debut, Blumberg recruited a stellar cast of talent. Along with Ruffalo (who the filmmaker became close to on the set of The Kids Are All Right) and Paltrow, the feature also includes Tim Robbins, Josh Gad and Patrick Fugit as recovering addicts. One of the revelations in an exceptional cast, however, is pop star, Pink, who delivers an affecting turn as the lone female addict in a swarm of males. “In my research, I saw these tough women who could probably get whatever they wanted. Pink has such a magnetic persona. She’s a badass, but it was an interesting character for her as she’s tough on the exterior, but has a real vulnerability underneath. I wrote the role with her in mind, and it was awesome that she decided to do it.”
It’s easy to see why Pink was pulled in by the screenplay, which laces its pain with laughs, a combination that Blumberg perfected with The Kids Are All Right. It’s refreshing, however, to hear the filmmaker admit that it’s a dynamic that doesn’t come effortlessly. “It’s an approach that I gravitate toward, and I like a lot, but it definitely requires a deft touch and lots of reworking,” Blumberg said. Similar to balancing this tonal tightrope, Thanks For Sharing also hits that sweet spot between an indie and mainstream flick. “We set out to make a commercial indie with The Kids Are Alright, and I tried to do that again with Thanks For Sharing,” Blumberg said. “In changing economic times, it’s a model that I feel can thrive, and they’re also the type of movies that I like to see.”
Disappointingly, Stuart Blumberg is yet to follow up Thanks For Sharing, but he remains one of the freshest, most endearingly idiosyncratic – and most underrated – talents on the American film scene.
If you liked this story, check out our features on other unsung auteurs Stewart Copeland, Harriet Frank Jr & Irving Ravetch, Angelo Pizzo, John & Joyce Corrington, Robert Dillon, Irene Kamp, Albert Maltz, Nancy Dowd, Barry Michael Cooper, Gladys Hill, Walon Green, Eleanor Bergstein, William W. Norton, Helen Childress, Bill Lancaster, Lucinda Coxon, Ernest Tidyman, Shauna Cross, Troy Kennedy Martin, Kelly Marcel, Alan Sharp, Leslie Dixon, Jeremy Podeswa, Ferd & Beverly Sebastian, Anthony Page, Julie Gavras, Ted Post, Sarah Jacobson, Anton Corbijn, Gillian Robespierre, Brandon Cronenberg, Laszlo Nemes, Ayelat Menahemi, Ivan Tors, Amanda King & Fabio Cavadini, Cathy Henkel, Colin Higgins, Paul McGuigan, Rose Bosch, Dan Gilroy, Tanya Wexler, Clio Barnard, Robert Aldrich, Maya Forbes, Steven Kastrissios, Talya Lavie, Michael Rowe, Rebecca Cremona, Stephen Hopkins, Tony Bill, Sarah Gavron, Martin Davidson, Fran Rubel Kuzui, Elliot Silverstein, Liz Garbus, Victor Fleming, Barbara Peeters, Robert Benton, Lynn Shelton, Tom Gries, Randa Haines, Leslie H. Martinson, Nancy Kelly, Paul Newman, Brett Haley, Lynne Ramsay, Vernon Zimmerman, Lisa Cholodenko, Robert Greenwald, Phyllida Lloyd, Milton Katselas, Karyn Kusama, Seijun Suzuki, Albert Pyun, Cherie Nowlan, Steve Binder, Jack Cardiff, Anne Fletcher ,Bobcat Goldthwait, Donna Deitch, Frank Pierson, Ann Turner, Jerry Schatzberg, Antonia Bird, Jack Smight, Marielle Heller, James Glickenhaus, Euzhan Palcy, Bill L. Norton, Larysa Kondracki, Mel Stuart, Nanette Burstein, George Armitage, Mary Lambert, James Foley, Lewis John Carlino, Debra Granik, Taylor Sheridan, Laurie Collyer, Jay Roach, Barbara Kopple, John D. Hancock, Sara Colangelo, Michael Lindsay-Hogg, Joyce Chopra, Mike Newell, Gina Prince-Bythewood, John Lee Hancock, Allison Anders, Daniel Petrie Sr., Katt Shea, Frank Perry, Amy Holden Jones, Stuart Rosenberg, Penelope Spheeris, Charles B. Pierce, Tamra Davis, Norman Taurog, Jennifer Lee, Paul Wendkos, Marisa Silver, John Mackenzie, Ida Lupino, John V. Soto, Martha Coolidge, Peter Hyams, Tim Hunter, Stephanie Rothman, Betty Thomas, John Flynn, Lizzie Borden, Lionel Jeffries, Lexi Alexander, Alkinos Tsilimidos, Stewart Raffill, Lamont Johnson, Maggie Greenwald and Tamara Jenkins.
