Filmmaker Gregg Araki returns with his first feature film in 12 years, “I Want Your Sex,” starring Olivia Wilde and Cooper Hoffman. The movie premiered earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival and is scheduled for a theatrical release on July 31.
A Decade-Long Collaboration
Gregg Araki spent over a decade developing “I Want Your Sex” after receiving a spec script written by former Vogue sex columnist Karley Sciortino approximately 12 years ago.
According to Araki, the project evolved while he and Sciortino collaborated on the 2019 Starz psychedelic comedy series “Now Apocalypse,” which was directed by Araki and executive-produced by Steven Soderbergh. Araki and Sciortino share final writing credit on the new film.
The movie marks Araki’s first feature since his 2014 melodrama “White Bird in Snow.” Despite the gap between feature films, Araki stated that he has continued working regularly, comparing his workflow to indie contemporaries like Gus Van Sant.
Power Imbalance on Screen
“I Want Your Sex” explores a provocative dynamic between an established art star and a young studio assistant.
Olivia Wilde stars as Erika Tracy, a Los Angeles-based artist whose sex-forward work faces declining relevance as her fame wanes. Cooper Hoffman plays Elliot, a recent college graduate and low-level studio assistant who enters a kinky affair with his new boss amid a pronounced power imbalance.
Channeling Madonna in Los Angeles
Wilde based her look and performance on Madonna during her “Truth or Dare” era, combined with the aesthetic of contemporary photographer Nadia Lee Cohen. Araki noted that the film was designed to challenge younger audiences and provoke conversations regarding generational shifts in attitudes toward sex, intimacy, and digital-age caution.
Roots in New Queer Cinema
The release arrives alongside a renewed critical focus on Araki’s 1990s output, bolstered by a recent Criterion Collection box set of his “Teen Apocalypse Trilogy.”
As a prominent figure in the New Queer Cinema movement, Araki’s early career helped define a gritty, stylized indie film boom that ran parallel to contemporaries like Richard Linklater and Todd Haynes.
Araki continues to live and shoot exclusively in Los Angeles, maintaining the distinct visual style and thematic focus on alienation and desire that characterized his early features such as “Totally F***ed Up” and “The Doom Generation.”
Worth a look