Images courtesy of Magnolia Pictures
I WANT YOUR SEX— 3 STARS
Around the middle of director Gregg Araki’s incisive farce I Want Your Sex, Olivia Wilde’s taboo-destroying character takes a rant directed at the sexual partner nearly half her age before her, played by Licorice Pizza’s Cooper Hoffman, and calls out an entire generation. Citing an article she’s read (maybe even this one), contemporary artist Erika Tracy chides what she calls the “retro sex negativity” of current twentysomethings mired in low confidence, lacking social courage, and eschewing sexual relationships at a record level. As off the cuff as Erika has shown herself to be, she’s not wrong. Her erotic pushback rattles Hoffman’s young Elliot and shouts through the screen itself.
LESSON #1: BEING OUTSIDE YOUR COMFORT ZONE IS THE WHOLE POINT— Erika Tracy refuses to squelch or apologize for her unbridled hedonism in comparing her generation against Elliot’s. The demonstrative thesis of her diatribe is “being outside your comfort zone is the whole point” of a healthy sexual experience. That’s another shot fired across the bow by Erika, in showing that it’s not the sex addict who’s off track. She knows what she wants with complete and shared clarity. Rather, it’s the supposedly normal guy who can’t get out of his own head. Spun in this way in I Want Your Sex, it’s very difficult, no matter your personal peccadillos, to call Olivia Wilde the villain of the film, and that’s a fascinating trip to ride.
I Want Your Sex is even more audacious considering how it opens. Nursing a bloody nose, Elliot is coming out of a hazy fog of unconsciousness wearing satin pink women’s lingerie to find a naked woman floating lifeless in a swanky swimming pool. This sly nod to Sunset Boulevard shifts to a detained Elliot being questioned by two police detectives (Jackass star Johnny Knoxville and comedienne Margaret Cho, two great gets). This kicks off Elliot spelling out the whole story via flashbacks and the drop of another cinematic wink with the timecard of “9 ½ weeks earlier.”
After an interview where his innate and overflowing awkwardness was deemed charming, 23-year-old Elliot gets a job joining the team of personal assistants under the eccentric and sneaky business manager Vikktor (Tony Award winner Daveed Diggs) for Erika Tracy in Los Angeles. He comes to the office daily from a long-term relationship with his grad student dullard girlfriend, Minerva (recording artist Chari XCX, adding to her movie parade after doing the music for “Wuthering Heights”), and a platonic living situation with his equally dry bestie and roommate, Apple (Chase Sui Wonders of Bodies Bodies Bodies). Erika’s prized art, spanning multiple mediums and disciplines, focuses on the carnal and noisy excitement of sexual exploration. For example, Elliot and his hunky gay co-worker Zap (Mason Gooding of the Scream series) are tasked at this “hipster sweatshop” with chewing and placing globs of pink gum on a large canvas into the shapes of vulvas and labias.
LESSON #2: DON’T SCREW YOUR BOSS— Call that…ahem… piece… the titillating tip of the iceberg as Erika flies past modern workplace ethics to pursue a casual sexual relationship with the wide-eyed and gobsmacked Elliot. But we’re not talking about cute quickies in the company breakroom. This is a full-on BDSM, with Elliot as the sub, shown in all sorts of tawdry montages of dirty deeds. Like Benjamin Braddock before him, the shaggy young guy begins to glow from this liberation and attention. As unlocking and enlightening as the experiences are for Elliot, creating energy he thinks he can bring home to Minerva, it’s all wrong. Folks, don’t screw your boss and save yourself all kinds of trouble.
That lesson aside, the cast of I Want Your Sex is clearly having a ball living it up as these ridiculous characters and detonating the minefield of stereotypes. In supporting roles, Mason Gooding never skips a chance to raise the temperature with zingers and screen presence, while, in the opposite fashion, Charli XCX hilariously freezes every scale of her cold fish girlfriend. Cooper Hoffman plays the in-over-his-head dolt to perfection with clever exasperation and unexpected physical comedy. However, the gem of the entire costume jewelry collection of busted tropes is Oliva Wilde. Grabbing toys, appendages, and every opportunity to chew scenery, she’s an uncontrollable force of nature that drives the entire hurricane of a wild tale with dialogue that pushes more envelopes than postal workers.
Remember, Elliot is still the one sitting in a police station spilling his sordid guts to the cops in hopes of clearing his name from wrongdoing. With this overarching criminal investigation as a framing device, I Want Your Sex stirs a potentially violent undercurrent alongside the filterless frolic happening on-screen. By planting and probing the implication of manslaughter, murder, or, at the very least, the accidental death of Erika Tracy, the script from Gregg Araki (Mysterious Skin and The Doom Generation) and Vogue web columnist Karley Sciortino zooms past the adage of “It’s all fun and games until someone gets hurt.”
LESSON #3: WHO IS BOUND TO GET THEIR FEELINGS HURT?—Blood is on someone’s hands, but what’s even worse than potentially criminal crimson stains are the hurt feelings. Elliot’s active imagination and manipulated emotions have him seeking an exclusive and real relationship with Erika and ardently believing that romantic desire is mutual, which couldn’t be farther from the case and her full control of the entire ordeal. How Araki and Sciortino address the notion of “love” in all his mayhem is quite forthright and interesting.
For more traditional viewers, their approach or conclusions might be deal-breaking, but, if that’s the case, you came to the wrong movie in the first place or for the wrong kinks. In many ways, there is no amount of “What the fuck is wrong with you?” questions, bellowed from both sides of this dichotomy with the bright lights on, that will ever get to the bottom of the dirty depth being scooped in I Want Your Sex, and that’s a complete plus to the film’s appeal and to the social commentary sweating out of its pores. Splicing comedy to sexual awakening in this day and age is a tall task, and scrambling brains with the jeopardy of fantasy fulfillment is even bolder.
LOGO DESIGNED BY MEENTS ILLUSTRATED (#1416)
