2026, 90 mins., R
*** out of ****
Directed by Gregg Araki
Written by Karley Scirotino and Gregg Araki
Produced by Gregg Araki, Seth Caplan, Teddy Schwarzman, Michael Heimler, Courtney L. Cuniff, and Karley Scirotino.
Cast: Olivia Wilde, Cooper Hoffman, Mason Gooding, Chase Sui Wonders, Johnny Knoxville, Margaret Cho, Roxane Mesquida, Charli XCX, Daveed Diggs.
I wasn’t quite sure what to expect walking into “I Want Your Sex”. I hadn’t seen a trailer, heard any word about it, nor read a review. This was a completely blind experience save for having seen the poster, knowing that Olivia Wilde and Cooper Hoffman were in it, and that it was Gregg Araki’s first film in 13 years. I had no idea about anything and what I got was an experience that was filled with humor and that took a refreshingly anything goes attitude towards sex in a current culture that seems to be publicly uncomfortable with it. You could even sense the discomfort among many of the patrons in the theater.
The film begins like “Sunset Boulevard” with the discovery of a body floating face down in a pool. The discovery is made by Elliot (Hoffman) who frantically calls the police and is brought in for questioning. The film repeatedly cuts back to Elliot and his interrogators. We flashback to 9 ½ weeks earlier (get the reference) when Elliot is struggling to get a job and gets hired as an assistant by Erika (Wilde) at her art studio where she produces sexually explicit artwork. He befriends his co-worker Zap (Mason Gooding) who is homosexual, and together they perform thankless tasks like repeatedly chewing many pieces of bubble gum to stick on a canvas that has been sketched to resemble a vagina. The only good they get out of this is that they are contributing to the art.
Erika quickly calls Elliot into her office and commits what in a normal work environment would be multiple HR violations and get her arrested. She initiates a sexual relationship with him in which she dominates him. To show his submission she has him get on all fours on the floor and crawl towards her. This is the start of a very funny series of situations in which Elliot’s vulgar view of sex and eroticism will be tested.
Pretty soon Erika has Elliot performing favors for her that he is not up to the task for. He goes to meet a friend of Erika’s from France to have sex with the friend as a “birthday present”. He is almost immediately rejected on account of his indecent approach as he appears to know nothing about titillation. The movie takes its own subversive pleasure in seeing Elliot humiliate himself in his every attempt to have sex. That, of course, is our pleasure as an audience, too.
Throughout the movie Elliot repeatedly submits to Erika’s requests including one where he is asked to invite a friend over so they can have a three-way which doesn’t go as he thought it would. Even his attempts to have sex with his girlfriend deny him the simple pleasure of a good fuck because she grudgingly concedes to it and treats like work because she would rather be studying for her exams.
The movie stays on course for most of its runtime casually inviting us to laugh at the most uncomfortable situations and it is very funny and titillating to see Wilde have her way with Hoffman. Araki handles the material with a wild, infectious energy that elevates the humor and the sex into something that is appealing and exhilarating.
The movie goes completely off the rails with a third act twist that is so ridiculous and insane that it kind of makes you wonder if they should’ve quit while they were ahead. I didn’t buy one bit of the last fifteen minutes which lets the characters in a way that is both manipulative and a little lazy. Which is too bad because there’s a lot of enjoyment to be had from most of it.
