{"id":255705,"date":"2026-01-24T17:49:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T17:49:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/255705\/"},"modified":"2026-01-24T17:49:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T17:49:08","slug":"olivia-wilde-cooper-hoffman-in-sub-dom-romp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/255705\/","title":{"rendered":"Olivia Wilde, Cooper Hoffman in Sub\/Dom Romp"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tEver since his breakthrough on the New Queer Cinema vanguard with The Living End in 1992, outlaw indie hero Gregg Araki<\/a> has been smashing social and sexual taboos with irreverent humor and outrageous erotica matched by pulsing energy and maximalist visual flair. So when Erika Tracy, the visual artist-provocateur played with gloriously depraved command by Olivia Wilde<\/a>, rolls her eyes about the incongruity of Gen Z\u2019s chronic FOMO and their \u201cretro sex negativity,\u201d it\u2019s impossible not to imagine the director mischievously winking at his audience.<\/p>\n

\n\tThat audience, by the way, has expanded significantly into an age demographic not even born when Araki made his era-defining Teen Apocalypse Trilogy \u2014 comprised of Totally F***ed Up, The Doom Generation and Nowhere. His new film, I Want Your Sex<\/a>, affectionately teases those Zoomers with its playful dissection of consent and control, freedom and enslavement, self-denial and exultant hedonism. And even if it threatens to run out of steam in the late action, the movie is a blast, demonstrating that at 66, Araki has lost none of his youthful spark.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tI Want Your Sex\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\tThe Bottom Line<\/p>\n

\tStrap it on and enjoy the ride.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tVenue: Sundance Film Festival (Premieres)
Cast: Olivia Wilde, Cooper Hoffman, Mason Gooding, Chase Sui Wonders, Johnny Knoxville, Margaret Cho, Roxane Mesquida, Charli xcx, Daveed Diggs
Director: Gregg Araki
Screenwriters: Karley Sciortino, Gregg Araki
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t1 hour 33 minutes\n\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\tWritten with Karley Sciortino, the co-creator of Araki\u2019s sadly one-and-done Starz series Now Apocalypse<\/a> \u2014 a jubilantly horny paean to beautiful people fucking each other\u2019s brains out in a Los Angeles on the brink of alien annihilation \u2014 I Want Your Sex is the director\u2019s first feature in 11 years. In an indie landscape with an insatiable appetite for trauma and misery, it\u2019s a breath of fresh air, a fun time that\u2019s also a witty commentary on shifting sexual mores. Putting it in the most rudimentary of pitch terms, it\u2019s Babygirl<\/a> meets Pillion<\/a> with a pinch of Sunset Boulevard.<\/p>\n

\n\tA quick prologue nods to that Billy Wilder classic when smart but directionless 23-year-old Elliot (Cooper Hoffman<\/a>) is horrified to discover what appears to be his dominatrix boss Erika floating face down in her swimming pool. A cheeky reverse time jump to \u201c9\u00bd Weeks Ago\u201d finds Elliot being summoned to Erika\u2019s office a little over a week after starting his first job out of college as one of a team of assistants at her studio. Or \u201cthe hipster sweatshop,\u201d as his acerbic gay co-worker Zap (a droll Mason Gooding) puts it, while they chew gum to be incorporated into a mixed-media vagina.<\/p>\n

\n\tAs seduction scenes go, that interview is one for the ages, with Erika reprimanding Elliot for staring at her inappropriately and flirting in the office \u2014 behavior he\u2019s not even aware of \u2014 while shrugging off the jacket that barely covers a revealing red strapless number. She dresses for the office like a Kardashian on the prowl. Erika sends mixed signals by asking if Elliot has a girlfriend, and when he confirms that he does, she says that will remove any risk of tiresome romantic attachment from the strictly sexual liaisons she has planned for them. All this naturally comes after confirming that he signed the mandatory NDA.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn quasi-noir mode, the action cuts back repeatedly to Elliot in rough shape in a police interrogation room, being questioned by two detectives (Margaret Cho and Johnny Knoxville, relishing the chance to shove aside their anticonventional reputations and play stern authority figures). \u201cAm I a suspect?\u201d he asks nervously, before proceeding with a blow-by-blow account of his torrid relationship with Erika. He disputes that he was groomed by his boss, maintaining that every encounter was consensual and she was \u201conly 14\u00bd years older.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tErika\u2019s disdainful business manager Vikktor (Daveed Diggs, hilarious) hisses at Elliot: \u201cYou\u2019re not the first and you won\u2019t be the last.\u201d But Elliot is like a smitten puppy \u2014 literally, when Erika puts a collar and leash on him, one of many S&M accessories she introduces into their trysts. Others include harnesses, a slutty maid\u2019s uniform, a pig mask and a pink rubber dildo of substantial girth. Even when she\u2019s spanking him and instructing him to repeat \u201cI\u2019m a whore,\u201d Elliot seems to mean it when he obediently expresses gratitude for the abuse.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s not surprising that he might take to this exploration of dark sexual fantasies he hadn\u2019t even consciously considered, especially when we see the unfailingly cold reception he gets from his girlfriend Minerva (Charli xcx<\/a>, divine). A med student incessantly studying for her PhD, she constantly bails on their dates and has zero interest in sex. When she does allow it, she asks \u201cAre you almost done?\u201d while he pumps and pants on top of her, his head full of images of Erika.<\/p>\n

\n\tElliot\u2019s best friend Apple (Chase Sui Wonders, another of the film\u2019s delights), who ponders if there\u2019s a difference between Erika\u2019s work and porn, also questions why he\u2019s still with Minerva: \u201cShe\u2019s like what AI would generate if you said \u2018total bitch\u2019.\u201d Elliot\u2019s only justification is that she\u2019s hot. But as Erika\u2019s demands become more unreasonable and Apple gets hurt when he ropes her into participating in a three-way, Elliot starts weighing his losses against his gains.<\/p>\n

\n\tWilde is at her best when Erika is imperiously giving orders or expounding \u2014 in seriousness or mischief? \u2014 on the worthlessness of her field: \u201cContemporary art is a scam, you know that, right? The real art is convincing people you\u2019re making something meaningful.\u201d But through no fault of the actress, the film starts to sag as Erika morphs from intoxicating vixen to deceitfully manipulative monster.<\/p>\n

\n\tThat said, Sciortino and Araki show real narrative dexterity in an explosive series of events during and after Erika\u2019s major new show, \u201cEkstasy,\u201d which allows for some wry skewering of celebrity cancellation and commercial redemption when there\u2019s a whiff of tragedy.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe movie circles back to show the full details of what happened that night in the pool, which forces Elliot to see everything in a new light. A jump forward of two years near the end serves as a kind of universal validation of Erika\u2019s view that she would be nothing without her carnal experiences.<\/p>\n

\n\tAs wonderful as Wilde is in what\u2019s easily one of her best roles, the equally fearless Hoffman matches her every step of the way, with sly comic timing and poignant vulnerability as Elliot wrestles with anger, humiliation and confusion over what could be lust or love, in spite of everything. Like Harry Melling\u2019s character in Pillion, he can\u2019t deny that he finds a peculiar freedom in being controlled.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe casting across the board is inspired, including Roxane Mesquida as a French friend who rejects Erika\u2019s gift of Elliot as a sex toy in an amusing hotel rendezvous. Gooding is a hoot as Elliot\u2019s more worldly co-worker, who cares enough to give him a place to crash when he hits rock bottom but casually instructs him to vanish whenever he has a Grindr hookup coming over or a weekend orgy planned. He\u2019s the essence of a classic Araki character.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe director drops Easter eggs for fans throughout, with several familiar faces from earlier films popping up (I \u2764\ufe0f James Duvall) and plays amusingly with animated inserts and pop-art touches. As always with Araki, the production and costume design is an embarrassment of eye candy. Perhaps it\u2019s the decade-long absence from features or the fact that liberation is as much a part of the movie as beguilement and betrayal, but outtakes on the bubblegum-colored end credits suggest this was a joyful experience for everyone involved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ever since his breakthrough on the New Queer Cinema vanguard with The Living End in 1992, outlaw indie…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":255706,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[8232,2412,146,2320,104532,85,46,397,3558,19830,60671,48764,134737],"class_list":["post-255705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-charli-xcx","tag-cooper-hoffman","tag-entertainment","tag-festivals","tag-gregg-araki","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-movies","tag-olivia-wilde","tag-sundance","tag-sundance-2026","tag-sundance-film-festival","tag-sundance-film-festival-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=255705"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255705\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/255706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=255705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=255705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=255705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}