Gregg Araki’s first feature in more than a decade finds the pioneer of American indie queer culture in a cinematic state of coitus interruptus.Elevation/Supplied
I Want Your Sex
Directed by Gregg Araki
Written by Gregg Araki and Karley Sciortino
Starring Olivia Wilde, Cooper Hoffman and Charli XCX
Classification 18A; 90 minutes
Opens in select theatres July 31
A decidedly unsexy and even timid film about the pleasures and perils of kink, Gregg Araki’s first feature in more than a decade finds the pioneer of American indie queer culture (The Doom Generation, Mysterious Skin) in a cinematic state of coitus interruptus. There is plenty of buildup here, but the release, when it finally does arrive, is halting, awkward and slightly embarrassing for everyone involved.
This includes star Olivia Wilde, who is having a rather up-and-down summer between her rapturously received work behind and in front of the camera with The Invite and her wobbly performance here as a contemporary artist named Erika who is obsessed with sex. That fixation ensnares Elliot (Cooper Hoffman), a go-nowhere dude who winds up becoming Erika’s latest in a long line of boy-toy assistants.
As Elliot gets closer to Erika – the two going from pedestrian bouts of in-office sex to ostensibly extreme bedroom scenarios involving handcuffs, whips and various outfits – the relationship doesn’t so much reveal new layers to the characters as it does strip them of any compelling characteristics. Think of it as The Devil Wears Latex, but with sub-zero chemistry between its leads.
It doesn’t help that Araki frames the story using a police interrogation narrative in which two dour cops (Johnny Knoxville and Margaret Cho, given the definition of thankless roles) try to untangle just how Elliot and Erika’s relationship went so sour. Hoffman, so winsome in his past few lead roles (including last year’s thriller The Long Walk and Paul Thomas Anderson’s Licorice Pizza), just cannot get a decent handle on his slacker, even if he is afforded the script’s few good lines (asked for the difference between pornography and fetish-centric art photography: “I guess it’s context and lighting”).
Occasionally, Araki will punctuate the rather by-the-book story with loopy animation and surreal flashes of fantasy. Yet the bulk of the film is so staid that the effect is like slathering a handful of lube on top of the King James Bible: theoretically provocative, but more so empty-headed.
Pop star Charli XCX plays Elliot’s exceptionally vanilla girlfriend.Elevation/Supplied
Pop star Charli XCX, playing Elliot’s exceptionally vanilla girlfriend, has the right idea. She has a few quick scenes, infuses them with some real wit, and then gets going while the going is good. That’s a pullout method I can get behind.