I Want Your Sex

Really let down by this. In a time where apparently Gen Z have an aversion to sex in media - which side note is an absolute misread of younger generations, the stats are there for sex in person, but one needs only to look so far as the biggest breakout hit in TV in the last year "Heated Rivalry" to understand that that isn't true. And actually the more interesting conversation is the disconnect between portrayals of sex on screen and the lack of sex happening due to phones, social media, body image etc. etc. etc.

Anyways, here comes Gregg Araki, profoundly explicit queer filmmaker, known for making erotic and sex-positive cinema, especially when it comes to younger generations. Somebody who isn't afraid of showing sex and the multifaceted complexities of it. In his latest film he's channelling sex through a Gen Z lens and it just falls flat on its face.

I will say credit where it's due Olivia Wilde and Cooper Hoffman are unbelievably talented and the reason that I got so into the film, I was enamoured by the pair of them anytime they were on screen. Wilde gave yet another incredibly complex performance, and is just proving that she is such a versatile actor. And similarly with Hoffman he captures the often one-noted horniness of this character very well and is able to provide a little bit of depth to a character that I think is a little thinly written. (On another side note, a lot of the other performances were less than great)

The film presents itself as this exploration of sexual dynamics between an employee and an employer, and also the sexual frustration of a Gen Z person. Given that the dynamics are relying on Wilde and Hoffman, the power struggles and the imbalance are explored fairly well. There's this nice idea of exploitation and the way that younger generations are maybe viewed as disposable.

Not quite sure everything in the dom/sub relationship worked - it loses its way, is that the point? Maybe. These dynamics were explored so well recently in Pillion and I couldn't help compare the films where in that film the power dynamics and the ways that the characters are written feel so strong and well realised, whereas here Wilde's character seems to falter and it is a little irritating that that happens to the female character.

The sexual frustration of younger people, I think, is so mishandled in this film. Hoffman really isn't given much more to do than he's horny and finds himself enjoying this dynamic. There's really very little to grasp on to, despite this apparently being a film geared towards this idea and it crops up in many instances. There's the storyline with Hoffman and his girlfriend played by Charli XCX, who I'm so sorry is really quite bad in this film, and I thought the film was getting at something quite interesting. Her character is seen with her head in a book for the majority of the film. Perhaps alluding to this idea of grind culture and Gen Z having to forego relationships and sex in place of trying to build a career for themselves. All of this is completely undone in a single scene that feels like it's there for a laugh.

The rest of the younger characters as well just feel so caricatureish that they lose any weight. Hoffman's best friend, who is a woman in this film, is apparently just in love with him, which feels super reductive. The gay character that we spend time with is sexually promiscuous and is constantly talking about sex, everything just feels so stereotypical.

Frankly, I feel this way about the entire film. It lacks weight. It does not feel erotic to me in the slightest. The slapstick comedy that envelops the entire film takes all of the weight out of the eroticism that should be there. I guess you could argue that this is a commentary on this idea that sex should be fun and less serious. The narrative of the film feels in opposition to that, and I just don't think it meshes that well.

The film just feels very messy. It doesn't quite have a handle on its core messaging. And sadly, I think that really undoes a lot of the good in the film. It's especially hard not to compare this to recent films which have been comedic and explored both power dynamics and younger people's aversion to sex ( Pillion and Camp Miasma) and this film just feels lacking in the strengths of those films.