I Want Your Sex

At once a slapstick kink comedy and rousing provocation for the goon generation, I Want Your Sex embraces the tangled complications of desire and the transcendent power of risk.

Broke 23-year-old people-pleaser Elliot (Cooper Hoffman) has just landed a degrading assistant gig for hacky artist-cum-provocateur Erika Tracy (Olivia Wilde). As professional lines cross and boundaries blur, Elliot is drawn into all-consuming sexual submission, finding liberation in humiliation until it goes too far and he finds himself being questioned for murder.

Mason Gooding, Chase Sui Wonders, Charli XCX and Daveed Diggs fill out the glossy Los Angeles art world, with comedians Margaret Cho and Johnny Knoxville playing it straight as the interrogating officers.

Co-written by Karley Sciortino of Vice’s Slutever fame, this rowdy romp contends with the neurotic puritanical morality of a post Covid, post #MeToo, chronically online, porn-addicted generation who, by all reports, are having less sex than ever. With a wink, Araki reckons with thorny issues of consent, exploitation and cancel culture, all the while making a case for the insightful self-knowledge that comes from foolish decisions driven by lust and hedonistic fantasy. You know, if that’s what you’re into.

Explore the full programme at nziff.co.nz.