I Want Your Sex
**Seen at the 2026 Atlanta Film Festival
Among the most significant names of the early ’90s “Sundance Generation,” Gregg Araki is probably the one I’m least familiar with. Prior to “I Want Your Sex,” the only other film I had seen of his was “Mysterious Skin,” and that was because it had two actors I liked in it (Joseph Gordon Levitt and Michelle Trachtenberg). I had heard enough about “I Want Your Sex” out of its Sundance debut that I was curious to watch it when it played the festival, and even though it started an hour late on the next-to-last night of the festival, it was worth the wait.
The film begins with a woman’s body, face down, in a pool. The young man she’d been spending time with sees her, and tries to resuscitate her. We next see him being interrogated by two police officers (played by Johnny Knoxville and Margaret Cho). He begins to tell his story. He’s just graduated college, and 9 1/2 weeks prior, Elliot (Cooper Hoffman) is looking to get hired by a performance artist, Erika Tracy (Olivia Wilde), as one of her assistants. When commences from there is a perverse spin on “Sunset Boulevard,” where Elliot becomes the source of Erika’s inspiration.
Written by Araki and Karley Sciortino, “I Want Your Sex” uses Erika Tracy as the aging Gloria Swanson character who finds validation in the affection of a younger man, Elliot. Here, there is an added layer of commentary in how Elliot is part of a sexually repressed generation, who values consent- which is good- but also doesn’t sex scenes as a valuable piece of storytelling in pop culture. Erika recognizes the vapidity of contemporary art, and its importance on “meaning,” and her connection to Elliot is one solely for physical pleasure. Hoffman and Wilde throw themselves into the roles, and are clearly enjoying the emotions they are allowed to play in this film. We also get solid work from Mason Gooding as Zap- also one of Erika’s assistants, Daveed Diggs as her business partner, Chase Sui Wonders as Elliot’s best friend and roommate, and Charli xcx as Elliot’s hilariously stoic girlfriend. This takes some wild turns, and it was welll worth the delayed start to watch.
