It’s not every man’s fantasy to become an avant-garde artist’s sexual muse, but for Elliot it turns out that it is. But he is unprepared for what happens and where it leads and how this both wrecks his life and gives us a funny sex comedy worthy of Greg Araki.
Araki, director of Mysterious Skin and Doom Generation, gives us a satire of the high art world from a viewpoint where the participants both want to make art but are also cynical about the art they make and the art market world they exist in.
Cooper Hoffman (Licorice Pizza, The Long Walk) is Elliot a fresh out of college art major getting a job as a studio assistant for renown modern artist Erika Tracy played by Olivia Wilde (Don’t Worry Darling, Booksmart).
Erika quickly sees that Elliot has the kind of naive hero worship that would make him a great submissive sexual partner who she could dominate to get her creative juices flowing. Being the sexual muse both excites and messes with Elliot’s life. He is asked to go way outside of his comfort zone. Charli XCX plays Elliot’s hyper-focused girlfriend, Minerva, whose entire life is centered on graduate school. Their barely functioning sex life feeds Elliot’s desire to be with Erika in any way she demands.
Chase Sui Wonders (I Know What You Did Last Summer) plays Apple, Elliot’s best friend and roommate. His desire to satisfy all of Erika’s demands leads to a rift and Elliot must relocate to fellow assistant Zap’s couch. Zap is played by Mason Gooding (Scream, Heart Eyes) and has many great scenes of comic relief as a person who is more healthily in touch with his sexuality. This forms a good contrast as Elliot loses control of his life as he reads way too much into his activities with Erika.
A running shell story has Elliot being interviewed by police detectives played by Johnny Knoxville and Margaret Cho. The opening of the film has Elliot finding Erika face-down in her pool. But that is not the whole story.
As Elliot’s life goes out of control, Erika’s new art opening and the stress it causes leads her to makes choices that push to an explosive drunken confrontation between Erika and Elliot. Elliot has been warned by Erika’s Business Manager and co-conspirator Vikktor, played by Daveed Diggs (Hamilton, The Boys) that he is not the first and won’t be the last muse. But it does no good. Elliot dives into the deep end of a pool that he isn’t ready for and ends up with Erika face-down in it.
A vortex of art and doom opens before Elliot. He has some choices to make but all of the drama is played for knowing laughs that carry the audience through to an interesting ending. If you don’t mind a lot of transgressive sex, at about the same level as Poor Things, then this comedy is probably for you. Otherwise, probably not.
Rating: 8 out of 10.
I Want Your Sex screened at various Film Festivals including the 2026 SIFF and opens nationally on 7/31
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Produced by Gregg Araki, Seth Caplan, Teddy Schwarzman,
Michael Heimler, Courtney L. Cunniff, Karley Sciortino
Written by Karley Sciortino, Gregg Araki
Directed by Gregg Araki
Starring Olivia Wilde, Cooper Hoffman, Mason Gooding, Chase Sui Wonders,
Johnny Knoxville, Margaret Cho, Roxane Mesquida, Charli XCX, Daveed Diggs
