Sorry Gregg Araki, I don’t want your ‘Sex’
Outrageous for the sake of outrageousness, Gregg Araki’s Sundance darling, “I Want Your Sex,” is an empty vessel masquerading as a satirical slap on the untouched tushes of celibate Zoomers. It’s equally a crude, vulgar homage to Billy Wilder’s classic “Sunset Boulevard,” in which a naive young man is sucked into the domineering clutches of a faded female celebrity with murderous results.
It does boast a terrific turn by Olivia Wilde in the Gloria Swanson role of the delusional artist in danger of losing the last vestiges of her fast-fading fame. But Wilde’s fine work is laid to waste by a script Araki co-wrote with Karley Sciortino that seeks to provoke and titillate but succeeds only at rendering kinky sex with the boss boring.
As the lad being sexually harassed, the overrated Cooper Hoffman (son of the late Philip Seymour Hoffman) is in full slacker mode. His Elliot Bell, a recent UCLA grad desperate for a job, any job, hires on as the latest sycophantic assistant to Wilde’s Erika Tracy, an oversexed Georgia O’Keeffe-wannabe whose “erotic” works are quickly losing favor with the overtly pretentious art community.
Like Norma Desmond before her, Erika is plotting her big comeback, a multimedia exploration of sadomasochism with an unwitting Elliot as her muse and chief model. It’s Araki’s wish that we laugh at the absurdity of the nerdy, roly-poly Hoffman cast as a sex object. Hoffman is more than a willing partner in what becomes a humiliating display of emasculation and servitude to Erika, who dresses Elliot in leather and/or women’s undies before penetrating his behind with a dildo. All candidly captured on film.
Like Erika, Araki is all about provocation without representation. There’s nothing of substance behind it, mostly because Hoffman’s Elliot is a mere cipher with no inner life. He can’t come close to matching the depth Maggie Gyllenhaal summoned as an abused subordinate in the superior “Secretary.” A blow-up doll could express more than Hoffman, whose only purpose is to provide Araki a sacrificial lamb. Frankly, I found it cringeworthy.
I get it. Elliot is a clueless loser nursing unfulfilled bondage fantasies. Desires his girlfriend, Minerva (Charli XCX), a pharmaceutical major immersed in her studies, is too busy to satisfy. Besides, she reminds him, “We just did it 11 days ago.” That’s pretty much the extent of Araki and Sciortino’s commentary on how today’s youth is more interested in making money than making love. And what exactly do the filmmaking duo find wrong with that? Do they believe a person’s worth is measured by how often they have intercourse?
Clearly, Elliot fancies himself a victim of this mindset, given his frequent instances of self-gratification. And who better to end this drought than the hawkish Erika, just itching to toy with a babe in the woods like Elliot. Which reminds me: Where’s the compare and contrast between how their 15-year age difference informs their diametrically opposing approaches toward sex?
The only thing that kept me involved, besides Angelique Clark’s candy-colored production design, was Wilde, who more than lives up to her surname. She’s having a blast living vicariously through Erika, the more nihilistic stepsister of Meryl Streep’s Miranda Priestly. She exudes power, deploying her sexuality like a weapon of mass destruction. It’s fun watching her chew up and spit out a simp like Elliot. Even better when she mesmerizes Elliot’s sex-starved roomie, Apple (Chase Sui Wonders), during an increasingly awkward three-way.
Wonders, like her similarly underutilized castmates, Daveed Diggs as Erika’s right-hand man, Vikktor, and Mason Gooding as Elliot’s sexually uninhibited co-worker, Zap, struggle to register as anything more than sounding boards for Wilde and Hoffman’s antics. It’s all such a waste of effort and talent. It’s not a total disaster; how could it be with Wilde behaving so charmingly goofy? Still, she can’t begin to make this discombobulated mess stick. “I Want Your Sex” may crave your lusty approval, but like a lot of those abstaining Zoomers out there, you may be better off remaining a virgin.
Movie review
I Want Your Sex
Rated: R for graphic nudity, strong sexual content, pervasive language
Cast: Olivia Wilde, Cooper Hoffman, Daveed Diggs, Mason Gooding, Chase Sui Wonders, Charli XCX, Johnny Knoxville and Margaret Cho
Director: Gregg Araki
Writers: Gregg Araki and Karley Sciortino
Runtime: 90 minutes
Where: In theaters July 31
Grade: C+
