4 stars out of 5
You ever go to see a friend play music at 2 p.m. except you misread the flyer and he went on at 12 p.m. so instead you went to the 2:45 movie? That was my Sunday. Otherwise this would probably be a Spider-man review. Still, I was happy to see I Want Your Sex as the lead Cooper Hoffman — after Licorice Pizza and The Long Walk — has achieved “my boy” status. He is a super likable film presence.
As young awkaward Elliot in this, he gets a job as a low-level assistant to of-the-moment artist Erika Tracey (a hilariously hot Olivia Wilde), and quickly achieves “her boy” status. Which in this case means very willing sex slave. Now, if this movie was cast with Chris Hemsworth as the artist and Jenna Ortega as the assistant, that would be culturally uncool, unless, like, she turns the tables on him and hold the phone because I think I have a Hollywood pitch!!
The casting is really fun, actually. We get Mason “Cuba’s son” Gooding as Elliot’s very gay fellow assistant, gently amused by the workplace naughtiness. Daveed Diggs is perfect as Erika’s second-in-command, who has seen it all before and needs to protect Erika from her worst impulses. As Elliot’s not-interested girlfriend we get a very funny, downplayed Charli XCX. And Margaret Cho and Johnny Knoxville are detectives but that’s a whole other plot twist.
We watch and we generally laugh as Elliot’s life spins out of control. Director/cowriter Gregg Araki lightly addresses topics such as self-worth, yielding control, the absurdity of the art world, and THE MEANING OF SEX (cowriter Karley Sciortino is a “sex writer”), without making any deep dives. And just when I was thinking “Maybe I’m not enjoying this movie quite as much as I was in the early going,” I was very pleased with the ending. Even the closing credits make the point that, to paraphrase another song title, I Want Your Sex just wants to have fun.
being underrated is overrated
Jack Silbert, curator