This image released by Magnolia Pictures shows Olivia Wilde, right, and Cooper Hoffman in a scene from “I Want Your Sex.” (Magnolia Pictures via AP)<\/small><\/p>\n
2026-07-29T20:22:39Z<\/p>\n
Erika Tracy, the artist and provocateur at the heart of \u201cI Want Your Sex,\u201d<\/a><\/span> may be the most quotable fictional female executive since Miranda Priestly \u201cthat\u2019s all-ed\u201d<\/a><\/span> her way into film history. <\/p>\n Yes, sure, it is a little strange to compare a very buttoned-up character in a mass-audience, PG-13-rated movie with one in a very R-rated movie who is often topless, in bondage or toting a sex object around as an accessory. But like Miranda, Erika, brought to vibrant life by Olivia Wilde<\/a><\/span>, has a withering glare, a commanding presence and killer timing. In fact, it is difficult to imagine anyone else in the role \u2014 nor would you want to.<\/p>\n This playfully provocative comedy<\/a><\/span> about sex and generational divides from New Queer Cinema pioneer Gregg Araki<\/a><\/span> (in theaters Friday), really lives and dies on the plausibility of Erika Tracy. She could have very easily just been an eccentric cartoon. While \u201cI Want Your Sex\u201d takes nothing terribly seriously, you do have to buy the many outrageous things she says, and to care a bit about how and why she ends up floating naked, unconscious, face-down and likely dead, in her pool. If you are going to reference \u201cSunset Boulevard\u201d you might as well go big, right? <\/p>\n The noirish mystery propelling the narrative isn\u2019t even really the point. Instead, Araki, who shares writing credits with Karley Sciortino, wants to talk about sex and the well-documented lack thereof among members of Generation Z<\/a><\/span>. But, you know, in a sharp, humorous and outlandish way. <\/p>\n In the spirit of going big, this is a movie that takes on Gen Z\u2019s crisis of intimacy in the wildest and most inappropriate of ways: a sex-only, dom-sub relationship between an employer and her younger employee Elliot, played by Cooper Hoffman<\/a><\/span>. It was all consensual, he stresses over and over again to the detectives (Johnny Knoxville and Margaret Cho) interviewing him. But it does also kind of ruin his life, at least for a little bit.<\/p>\n Elliot is quite awkward, perhaps the least likely candidate for someone like Erika to hand-select for this anything-but-straightforward arrangement. He lives with his best friend Apple (Chase Sui Wonders)<\/a><\/span> and has a girlfriend, Minerva, (Charli xcx).<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n