I Want Your Sex Review

Introduction

I Want Your Sex by Gregg Araki most definitely does not come into the room silently. The film comes equipped with both a provocative idea and title.

The story focuses on Elliot Bell, who is a very unmotivated twentysomething year old who needs some direction in his life.

Elliot gets his life turned around when he becomes an assistant to an artist called Erika Tracy. This artist is successful, controversial, self-confident, and sexually provocative.

Very soon, she makes Elliot her sex slave and takes him into a world he knows nothing about. The film consists of erotic comedy, thriller elements, satire, and even absurd humor.

Olivia Wilde stars as the provocateur artist Erika Tracy. Cooper Hoffman plays Elliot, the naïve youngster entrapped by her life.

Chase Sui Wonders, Mason Gooding and Daveed Diggs are in the supporting cast of the film.
Charli XCX, Johnny Knoxville and Margaret Cho are some others among the supporting actors.

Certainly, there was a good deal of ambition involved in I Want Your Sex. It was also at times rewarded with a successful outcome.

Unluckily for the film, it left me disappointed rather than pleased with it. I did not really believe that it has been able to justify the audacity of its concept.

Talents are abound, but they do not always find themselves a fitting story. Performances were my major motivation to watch the film through.

Also worthy to be praised is the film’s style of directing. Too often however are the themes and plot lines underdeveloped.

What the audience gets is an uncommon film with character. But only personality alone does not make a good film.

A Provocative Premise

From the very beginning, I Want Your Sex prepares you for what kind of film it is going to be.

It is made in such a way as to make you feel intrigued, embarrassed and a little bit uncomfortable.

That, definitely, was meant to happen. Araki is not a director that is used to playing it safe.

I Want Your Sex also follows the same route through its explicit sexuality and deliberately outrageous characters.

Erika is just the right kind of character for such a film. She is known to challenge all the conventions of life with her art, personality and relationships.

On the other hand, Elliot provides the exact opposite of Erika’s character. He is awkward, inexperienced and he doesn’t know his way around Erika’s world.

That becomes one of the most effective features of the film. The film takes us into Erika’s crazy world through Elliot’s point of view.

His awkwardness makes the more and more bizarre situations easier to understand. Also, he gives us a character with whom we can connect.

Without him, the film would turn into one big crazy ride.

His normality lends some balance to the movie. Sometimes, the plot premise seems more interesting than the actual narrative based on it.

The premise of an artist making his assistant into a sexual muse could have worked well. There were several questions raised about power, manipulation, freedom and consent.

But most of the time, those questions were never properly explored. And that was one of my most important problems with the movie.

The movie keeps throwing out concepts that need to be delved deeper into. It then promptly rushes to something else entirely.

Araki’s Use of Comedy

One of the most intriguing things about Araki’s film is his use of humor to mitigate the film’s dark content.

Some scenes are hard to watch. But humor makes it easier to watch those scenes. The audience is meant to laugh instead of being completely immersed into the discomfort.

I think that this was a smart move. Otherwise, some scenes would be significantly more difficult to watch.

The humor helps create a distance between the audience and the content.

And it enables Araki to experiment with his limits while not being completely dark.

Humor manifests itself in various ways in the film. There is sarcasm, hyperbole and naughty humor. Some jokes are understated, whereas others go way too far.

Exaggerated humor is an important part of the film’s identity. It is also closely related to its visual style. Absolutely nothing about Erika’s world is understated.

Everything looks oversized – characters, environments and situations alike. It creates the sense of deliberately overstated fantasy.

It really does work especially well during the sexual scenes. The sex scenes are so exaggerated that it becomes almost impossible to take them seriously.

Instead of being erotic, they are theatrical. Sometimes they are too much like performances. This keeps the movie from being too uncomfortable to watch.

However, there is another problem with his approach. His comedy is often an easy way out of his themes.

Every time something happens that is uncomfortable, a joke is made. This makes the film less hard to watch.

It also makes it seem like Araki does not want to deal with his themes. This creates a strange contradiction.

Araki wants to provoke the audience but also wants to entertain them. He usually succeeds very well. Other times, this weakens his message.

A World Built Around Exhibitionism

A World Built Around Exhibitionism

One of the best features of the film is its visual world. Cinematographer Tucker Korte contributes to the creation of a deliberately artificial universe.

It appears as if the film is a part of Erika’s artistic universe. Everything seems to be enhanced, colorful, and somewhat unrealistic.

The surroundings are full of the atmosphere of exhibitionism in the world of modern art. There is always the impression that someone is giving a performance to someone else.

It goes far beyond the piece of art. Characters keep on presenting different versions of themselves.

Sex is a performance. Art is a performance. Personal relationships become a kind of exhibition as well.

The cinematography accentuates that feature throughout the entire film. The visual universe is more impressive and surreal than Elliot’s personality.

It provides a successful contrast between him and his surroundings. Elliot is a person who has somehow come into another person’s fantasy world.

Everyone around him appears extremely at ease with the insanity. But not Elliot. This makes him very significant within the film’s visual style.

His normalcy helps viewers understand how weird Erika’s world is. Without such contrast, the insane visuals of the film might have been too much for viewers.

However, Elliot serves as an anchor in this regard. This use of insane visuals around Elliot works well within the film.

It reveals some details of his character without any dialogues at all. All he has to do is look like an outsider.

Olivia Wilde’s Fearless Performance

It is the acting that made me watch I Want Your Sex throughout. Without it, I doubt that I would have stayed with the film.

One of the most courageous performances in the film is done by Olivia Wilde. Indeed, Erika is not the most likable character.

She is selfish, manipulative and very controlling. But she is also quite charismatic, amusing and sometimes fascinating.

This makes her much more interesting than a typical villain. Wilde is not afraid to make Erika a bit unpleasant.

This is crucial. It was possible to portray the character in a more sympathetic way. But Wilde chooses to show the contradictions of the character.

Erika can be very charming but also quite irritating. She can be free but controlling at the same time.

Also, she can be amusing but not entirely likable. All this makes the performance much more interesting.

I think it took some courage for Wilde to play this part. The character requires her to embrace sexuality without making Erika simply seductive.

She must portray arrogance, confidence, humour, and vulnerability. She also must be able to create a realistic portrayal of a character in an over-the-top world.

Wilde provides the character with that flamboyant quality required in the film. Sometimes, she appears to be a portrayal of many different concepts.

Erika symbolizes sexual liberation and artistry. She also symbolizes power, narcissism, and the dark side of fame.

These concepts are not always explored effectively in the film. But Wilde has managed to provide the character with sufficient personality traits for them to come through.

This was one of the primary reasons that I kept watching.

Cooper Hoffman Keeps Elliot Likeable

Cooper Hoffman offers the movie a very different kind of acting performance. His style of acting is much more reserved than Wilde’s.

The difference is crucial. Elliot finds himself in a situation where everyone around him is completely used to indulging in their desires.

Elliot, on the other hand, is relatively normal. Cooper gives his character certain charm and vulnerability.

It becomes much easier to sympathize with him. This point gains its significance later because of the increasingly difficult decisions he has to take.

Elliot sometimes makes choices that become quite irritating..Some of his choices do not allow us to fully sympathize with him.

Still, Hoffman provides the character with enough warmth to keep us interested in him. It becomes clear to us why Elliot cannot stay away from Erika’s world.

It is clear that he is drawn to the experience that he never had. At the same time, he feels that he wants to get away from the previous state of things.

Thus, his involvement appears to be quite realistic. Elliot is not forced to do things he is supposed to avoid. There are instances when he decides to participate voluntarily.

That is particularly effective when contrasted with Erika’s confidence. Where Erika dominates the screen, Elliot often looks overwhelmed by it.

That difference helps establish the film’s unusual dynamic. For me, Hoffman’s likeability was essential.

It gave me a reason to remain invested when the storyline began losing me.

Themes That Needed More Development

Some interesting themes exist in the movie. The issue is that a number of these themes are raised but not really explored.

Sexual liberation is clearly one of the key themes of the plot. Erika stands for an approach that values sexual freedom.

Elliot, on the other hand, is a character who is inexperienced and rather insecure. Thus, a very interesting generational contrast appears in their relations.

The movie raises the questions concerning sexual liberation. In particular, it explores the possibility of liberation turning into oppression.

This theme seems especially pertinent in regard to the relationships of Erika and Elliot. Erika has much more power than Elliot.

She is his boss and sexual partner. Moreover, she is a person who controls the artistic world he is in.

It creates a rather uneasy power dynamic. The movie could have delved much deeper into this concept.

In many instances, it uses this as yet another occasion for humor. This is where I believe the movie failed to exploit its potential.

The issues are presented, but they are often just at the surface level. The same can be said about the interrelation between sex and art.

Sexuality is part of Erika’s artistic personality. This makes her personal life inextricably intertwined with her artistry.

This would have made a wonderful basis for discussion of performance art. The movie, however, prefers to escalate issues rather than explore them.

When the Story Becomes Too Much

This aspect of the movie may be the one where I had the most trouble. The movie starts off with an interesting central relationship.

Then it builds up to more and more dramatic events. Thriller aspects come out as the story progresses.

The film ends up heading towards being a murder mystery. This made the initial idea less appealing for me.

The central relationship was already quite complicated. There was plenty of material for an exciting psychological movie.

More twists were not always necessary. Not all genres are compatible together. The comedy works well.

The eroticism does to an extent. The satire does have its possibilities. But it is the thriller storyline that makes the movie less believable.

The story often seems to look for some other reason to build up tension. Everything must seem more outrageous than the thing before. And eventually it gets old.

Instead of piquing my curiosity, it had the opposite effect. I started feeling that the movie was trying a little too hard.

The main problem is that the outrageousness does not always go somewhere. A film can shock and not have anything to say. This becomes increasingly relevant.

What Worked and What Did Not

There are some good things in I Want Your Sex. The performances are committed and frequently entertaining.

Olivia Wilde throws herself completely into an extremely difficult character. Cooper Hoffman gives Elliot the likeability needed to carry the audience.

Mason Gooding adds some welcome comic energy. The cinematography creates a distinctive and memorable world.

Araki also deserves credit for taking risks. This is not a safe or conventional film. It is willing to be strange, sexual and uncomfortable.

The movie is occasionally quite humorous. The film also has a very distinct look. You know exactly what sort of world Araki is trying to construct.

Unfortunately, the flaws are much harder to ignore. The plot gets messier and messier. Themes are hinted at but not fully developed.

The minor characters do not always get the attention that they deserve. The thriller elements are not quite as believable as the main premise.

The constant upping of the ante gets somewhat tedious. Most importantly, I Want Your Sex does not always seek to challenge. There is a significant difference between the two.

A shocking scene will make you react. A challenging one will keep you thinking about it afterwards.

Occasionally, I Want Your Sex succeeds in doing both. Far too often, however, it manages only the former.

Final Verdict

In summary, I Want Your Sex is not a movie that I found engaging. I liked the commitment of the actors in this movie.

Olivia Wilde and Cooper Hoffman were the major reason why I stayed watching it. The visuals were unique and the director obviously had a unique voice.

Moreover, the way he used comedy to handle awkward moments was genius. But none of that was enough to overcome the flaws of the movie.

It needed more development of the themes. The storyline was getting progressively hard to buy into.

The relentless effort of making things ever more outrageous just got tiring. Often it felt like the director cared about being provocative more than making sense.

Which is really unfortunate because there is an intriguing movie in there. Their relationship could have been developed further.

There were some interesting issues concerning sex, power, art and consent which deserved more. Instead, it chose one more joke or outrageous moment.

This movie could appeal to those who like camp and provocative comedy. There is certainly an audience for its particular brand of chaos.

For me, however, the performances and visuals were doing most of the heavy lifting. Without them, I doubt I would have stayed with the film.

I Want Your Sex has plenty of attitude, but not enough substance to support it.

Ultimately, it is not a film I would recommend.