What can a provocateur steeped in youth culture do when life takes him to late middle age? Gay director Gregg Araki’s influence can be seen all over recent queer films, but 12 years after his last movie, one wondered how he would respond to present-day culture. At first, “I Want Your Sex” threatens to turn into a New York Times op-ed wagging its finger at Gen. Z not having enough sex, just delivered by a pansexual dominatrix. Elsewhere, it risks becoming a simple kinky fantasy. But ultimately, it delves into something riskier: a look at the difficulty of keeping emotions away from sex.
Interrogated by two cops (out bi actor Margaret Cho and Johnny Knoxville) over the death of his former boss and lover Erika Tracy (Olivia Wilde), Elliot (Cooper Hoffman) looks back at their relationship. He first met her when he applied for a job as an assistant to the artist. A week later, she calls him into her office for a flirtatious conversation. Dressed in devilish red, Erika behaves wildly inappropriately. She hired Elliot only because she wants to have sex with him. Stuck in an unhappy relationship with his busy girlfriend Minerva (Charli XCX), he finds himself turned on by Erika’s domineering attitude. He masturbates to the thought of her ordering him around. As Erika prepares for a big new show, she has her assistants chew gum and stick it on canvas, creating the image of an enormous vagina. She plans another one with photos of nude men putting on makeup. Although she’s only interested in sex, Elliot starts falling for her, while he also begins to realize how much she’s abusing her position as his employer. His excitement shifts to disenchantment.
Calling back to Madonna at her heyday of outrage, Wilde keeps any trace of vulnerability out of her performance. Erika exists at full volume all the time. For her, every moment of life is a performance. Even if her attitude was once a posture designed as self-promotion — after all, she’s the author of “Confessions of a Slut: How To Get Laid and Conquer The World At The Same Time” — she acts the same way behind closed doors.
“I Want Your Sex” comments on the film noir and erotic thriller, lifting its poolside opening from Billy Wilder’s “Sunset Boulevard.” With talk of grooming and the age gap between Erika and Elliot, the cops become “the woke police,” to use her words. The mystery of Erika’s death is the most undercooked aspect of “I Want Your Sex.” The film ends by piling on twists to explain something it barely cares about.
Women tempting men into dangerous behavior were a key part of both these genres. In the ‘90s, films like Paul Verhoeven’s “Basic Instinct” and John Dahl’s “The Last Seduction” returned to the trope with a new sexual frankness. Despite a heaping of conservative male fantasy (with homophobia and transphobia), the erotic thriller celebrated the charisma and strength of its anti-heroines. Part of the genre’s lingering attraction — and one of the reasons it’s been so difficult to revive — is the place danger occupied in its vision of sex. Attempts to make more progressive erotic thrillers have generally faltered by trying to work around it. “I Want Your Sex” allows Elliot to get turned on by that danger, relishing his submissiveness till he realizes just how real the power imbalance is. His excitement only last so long.
“The Doom Generation,” made in 1995, proclaimed itself “A Heterosexual Movie By Gregg Araki.” “I Want Your Sex” is one too, but only up to a point. Its only gay character, Zap (Mason Gooding), is defined by femme mannerisms and insatiable horniness. Critic Nolan Kelly wrote “Zap is a kind of caricatured token of what straight people imagine or assume gay relationships to be like, assisted by the mainstreaming of queer visibility and the options made available through Grindr and Feeld.” But as Kelly goes on to suggest, Zap’s happy about sex, untroubled by his libido, while heterosexual desire confuses Elliot. Erika’s attraction to “men, women, other,” as she describes it, is part of the all-consuming importance of sex to her life. During an unhappy threesome, she makes out with Elliot’s female roommate Apple.
“I Want Your Sex” could have remained a campy lark, but for all its relish of Erika’s bravado and shock tactics, it’s clearsighted about how a rhetoric of sexual liberation can become justification for exploitation. Nor does it respect her as an artist. She’s a lazy cynic who runs a hipster sweatshop, as Zac calls it, and makes explicit work to grab attention. Despite all this, Elliot can’t fully leave her behind, and neither can the film.
“I Want Your Sex” avoids punishing its characters, but even as it longs for sex positivity, it understands why heteropessimism looks so justified.
“I Want Your Sex” | Directed by Gregg Araki | Magnolia Pictures | Opens July 31st
