It’s been over a decade since Gregg Araki has released a film, and he’s come back with a vengeance with I Want Your Sex.
I Want Your Sex follows Elliot (Cooper Hoffman), a naive graduate from college looking for a job. He lives with his quirky best friend Apple (Chase Sui Wonders) in a maximalist apartment in Los Angeles, and occasionally sees his studious and reclusive girlfriend Minerva (Charli XCX), who also seems to hate his guts. In his search for work, he comes across the renowned artist and provocateur Erika (Olivia Wilde), looking for potential assistants at her art studio. He promptly applies for the job and lands it after a rather strange interview, and is taken on the most unexpected journey of his life when she recruits him as her sexual muse.
I Want Your Sex is absurd and kinky, and that’s meant as a compliment. The satirical lens of the movie, with a murder mystery that begs to be solved from the get go, makes for a hilarious take on how prude Gen Z’s seem to be, and encourages them to let go and explore their sexual limitations.
Though, the movie isn’t all about sex, even though the name of the film heavily suggests it. While it does explore sex and modesty, and the exploration of that through kinks, it also speaks to art. Moreso, how the power of art gives people space for the exploration of people’s own sexual limitations, and how reputation in the art world has become less about the art itself but how culturally relevant an artist is in the current climate of a fast moving internet hellscape.
The movie also feels like it’s set in an alternate universe. With vibrant colours and caricatures of the worst type of people you’ll ever meet stereotyped to the extreme, it feels so synthetic stylistically, even through its characters choices. It’s a fun ride that takes you far from reality. And that’s not a bad thing.
Olivia Wilde and Cooper Hoffman are brilliant in the movie and just ooze charisma. In a role that is incredibly bold, for Hoffman to be taking such risks so early in his career is commendable and he takes it on so fearlessly. Wilde is on a generational run of movies this year, with The Invite, it truly feels like it’s her year. She’s sexy and alluring despite how horrible of a person her character is. Wilde is able to somehow mask the ugliness of her character through her charming demeanour.
The rest of the cast tie in the film together nicely, with an all star line up including Chase Sui Wonders who completely transforms into the eccentric roommate and best friend, Apple, Mason Gooding, the nonchalant co-worker named Zap living day to day on their trust fund money and a sexually active lifestyle, Charli XCX as Minerva, the studious yet indifferent girlfriend, and Daveed Diggs as Vikktor, the passive right hand man to Erika. Oh and Margaret Cho and Johnny Knoxville play the cops interrogating Elliot.
I Want Your Sex is a fantastic comeback from filmmaker Araki, who isn’t afraid to take things to the next level.
