Some people don’t like talking about sex and think that there’s something obscene or offensive about putting it on display. Then there are others who choose to incorporate it fully into their lives, making art that would make certain audiences uncomfortable but which embraces sex as something completely natural and very much worth exploring and discussing. I Want Your Sex shouldn’t come as a total shock for those who tune in simply because of its title, but all who decide to watch should be prepared for a wild rollercoaster where having and talking about sex is bound to happen more often than not.
Elliot (Cooper Hoffman) is eager but aimless, living with his longtime best friend Apple (Chase Sui Wonders) and in a lackluster romantic relationship with Minerva (Charli XCX), who would rather study than hang out or have sex. His world is forever changed when he’s hired by Erika (Olivia Wilde), an eccentric artist whose job functions for her assistant include, among other things, chewing gum to sufficiently soften it and add piece after piece to emboss a vagina on a canvas. When Erika proposes that they start having sex, Elliot finds himself completely obsessed as he learns what it means to be submissive, willfully ignoring her insistence that this can’t turn into anything lasting or serious.
This film comes from filmmaker Gregg Araki, who has been to the Sundance Film Festival to debut many of his previous films. He’s known for boundary-pushing films that don’t subscribe to typical conventions, and this film definitely fits that bill. A few instances of magical realism pop up throughout but aren’t key to driving its story forward, but the character of Erika is so heightened that it’s impossible to believe that someone so self-involved and inherently ridiculous could really exist yet at the same time she’s absolutely riveting and tremendously watchable. Araki doesn’t present anything she does as inherently shocking or off-color, yet she’s fully aware – as the film is – that everything she’s doing is blowing Elliot’s mind.
This film is an absolutely phenomenal vehicle for Wilde, who often spends more time behind the camera these days and is actually also at Sundance with another film this year, The Invite. Large glasses and pronounced eyeliner frame her face in a way that makes it seem like her eyes are popping out of her head but she simultaneously couldn’t be less interested in what anyone else has to say. Every line she delivers, no matter how ridiculous, lands in exactly the right way. Opposite her, Hoffman is the perfect receptor for her torment, awkwardly receiving everything she throws at him without fully comprehending that it’s actually happening. Following last year’s The Long Walk, Hoffman continues to show formidable range and does an admirable job here as someone who’s completely along for the ride and powerless to do anything to get off.
The rest of the ensemble provides superb support. Wonders makes the most of her scenes and the chance to play someone just as awkward as Elliot, and Mason Gooding adds solid sarcasm as his primary work colleague who knows much more about the world. Daveed Diggs entertains in a small part as Erika’s huffy number two, and Margaret Cho and Johnny Knoxville are clearly having fun as two disgruntled detectives listening to Elliot’s meandering account of his hijinks. Araki does push the envelope here but nothing feels included merely to startle or sensationalize. Instead, it feels true to Erika’s free-flowing mind and the evolving nature of the art world that, in the moment and sometimes in hindsight, can be entirely perplexing and illogical. The script, by Araki and Karley Sciortino, is full of pithy and hilarious material, and it’s hard to go more than a minute or two without laughing. This film won’t be for everyone, but it casts a wider and more inviting net that many cautious would-be viewers might expect. Those willing to give it a shot will be glad that they made the investment for this wacky, wondrous rollercoaster of a movie.
Movie Rating: 8/10
I Want Your Sex premieres in the Premieres section at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival.
