Screening at Sundance: Gregg Araki’s ‘I Want Your Sex’
Cooper Hoffman and Olivia Wilde in Gregg Araki’s I Want Your Sex. Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Lacey Terrell
While not exactly a return to form, Gregg Araki’s first feature in a dozen years is nonetheless a welcome comeback. A kindly workplace sex farce, I Want Your Sex is crafted in the vein of Halina Reijn’s more serious erotic drama Babygirl, which Araki claims to have found too “sex negative.” Its story, penned alongside Karley Sciortino, sees introverted college graduate Elliot (Cooper Hoffman) ensnared by the advances of his seductive older boss, the provocative art magnate Erika Tracy (Olivia Wilde), who turns his world and relationships upside down.
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See all of our newslettersThe film is a wonderful performance showcase that begins with a campy mystery. Elliot, nose bloodied and clad in women’s lingerie, stumbles out in a daze to the mansion swimming pool of his employer, only to find her naked and face down in the water. As he’s interrogated by a pair of straight-laced detectives (Margaret Cho and Johnny Knoxville, who try to suss out binary motives), his recollections return to a few months prior—specifically 9½ weeks prior, a cheeky tribute to erotic thriller maestro Adrian Lyne—and acquaint us with the movie’s major players.
Desperate for a job, Elliot applies to be Erika’s........
