Legendary indie director Gregg Araki attracted an amazing cast for his latest film I Want Your Sex, a sexy comedy parody of the art world with some BDSM thrown in for good measure. The movie’s success rests largely on the delightfully jarring production design and on the down-for-anything performances of Cooper Hoffman and Olivia Wilde. (In a time when movies about sex are dying out, the latter has now been involved in two of them!)
Hoffman plays Elliot, a disheveled Gen Zer whose roommate and best friend Apple (Chase Sui Wonders) has been covering his share of the rent. But fortunately, he’s about to land a job, working at the art studio of Erika Tracy (Wilde). Erika flirts with Elliot during the interview and immediately offers him the job. Before long he becomes her sex partner, and sub to her dom. The relationship is tumultuous, subject to Erika’s artistic whims, and Wilde is positively intoxicating in the role.
Other recognizable names don’t have much to do, but were perhaps attracted to the script, by Araki and Karley Sciortino (an expert on sex and sexuality), or maybe the chance to work with Araki. (Could he be the new Woody Allen?) Daveed Diggs has a somewhat thankless role, although he brings to it a certain gravitas, as Erika’s assistant Vikktor. Charli XCX plays Elliot’s surly girlfriend who couldn’t possibly care less that he’s having an affair. Mason Gooding (from Scream 5-7 films) is funny as Elliot’s gay work bestie, whose name is “Zap.” Johnny Knoxville and Margaret Cho play a couple of police detectives who really could have been played by anybody, so they’re a nice bonus.
But I Want Your Sex is a terrific, rambunctious, rebellious comedy bold enough to explore sexuality from different viewpoints, as well as generational malaise.
