I Want Your Sex – Movie Review
Gregg Araki’s films are often characterised by their rebellious energy, unapologetic sexuality, dark humour, and exploration of alienated young people searching for meaning in a chaotic world. It’s been twelve years since his last film White Bird in a Blizzard and a lot has changed for the current generation of young people in the current world. In the aftermath of the #MeToo movement and the porn-saturated digital world they find themselves in, Millennial and Gen Z attitudes to sex have wildly diverged from those of preceding generations.
I Want Your Sex feels like a generational queer filmmaker trying to reconcile sexual liberation with sexual limitation whilst trying to avoid sexual repression. On one end of the spectrum is a fearless Olivia Wilde as Erika Tracy, a renowned provocative artist whose work seemingly focuses solely on sexuality. She’s a dominant presence who commands her pleasure. Enter the adorkable Cooper Hoffman as Elliot, a naive young man who becomes Erika’s new assistant and sexual muse. Their forbidden workplace fling explosively expands Elliot’s experiences but also introduces increasing questions around consent, grooming, power and lust versus love. Blinded by infatuation, Elliot is unaware of the way Erika is using him creatively and carnally, until it’s too late. But he’s not innocent either as he objectifies and uses Erika with little emotional maturity to accompany his interest.
As he retells the story of their lurid love in a police interrogation room after Erika’s mysterious disappearance, Araki uses the police investigators played by Johnny Knoxville and Margaret Cho to question the legitimacy of their love and the appropriateness of their conduct. The result is neither a film that is conservatively sex-negative nor one that is exorbitantly sex-positive, but rather one that seeks to interrogate generational approaches to sexual freedom and intimacy in an increasingly sexually commodified culture. This spectrum is further exampled in Mason Gooding’s polyamorous gay Zap, to Chase Sui Wonders’ sheltered Apple (Elliot’s best friend and roommate), to Daveed Diggs’ scene stealing Vikktor, Erika’s assistant and scorned ex-lover, and lastly Charli XCX’s Minerva, Elliot’s seemingly libidoless and study-obsessed girlfriend. Each have different approaches to sexuality and intimacy that reflect shifting societal expectations for intimacy and eroticism.
Visually, the film’s stylish production design, bright colours and blown out cinematography reinforce the artificiality of the worlds Erika and Elliot inhabit, where sex is simultaneously an expression of intimacy, performance art, commodity and personal identity. And Araki’s direction helps the film oscillate between erotic thriller, dark comedy, BDSM romance and social satire, often within the same scene. The film is also playfully paced, with a great soundtrack and an energy that’s both youthful but also world weary. The film’s ending clearly examines the commercialisation of relationships, past, present and future with a wryly ironic end that’s bittersweet yet mischievous.
Overall, for fans of Araki’s, I Want Your Sex is a lustful, sexy, funny, campy, jestful erotic romp that entertains and arouses, with plenty of comedic entertainment and social commentary to spice up the cinema.
I Want You Sex is in Australian cinemas August 27
