“I Want Your Sex,” an erotic thriller starring Olivia Wilde as a sexually assured artist who embarks on a sadomasochistic relationship with her gallery assistant, got Sundance’s pulse racing on Friday night. Cooper Hoffman plays Elliot, the sub to Wilde’s dom in Gregg Araki’s latest piece of boundary-pushing provocation, one that Sundance programming director Kim Yutani dubbed a “return to form” for the filmmaker in her introductory remarks.
Both stars go for it — baring all in a relationship that is kinky, but also tender at times. Not in a conventional way, of course. Wilde’s character, Erika Tracy, opens a sexual Pandora’s box for Hoffman, one that comes with ball gags, stilettos, whips, chains, and a cornucopia of dildos and strap-ons. There’s even a disastrous threesome that goes comically off the rails.
When Araki heard that Wilde was interested in playing Erika, he made it clear what would be required.
“We had a meeting, and I just said, ‘you know, to do this part, you gotta just not give a fuck, and just want to just fucking take the plunge,’” Araki recalled during a post-screening Q&A. “‘Because I don’t want to compromise it. I don’t want to water it down.’ And she said, ‘Let’s go.’”
Wilde said she never looked back after signing up to play the role of an artist whose swagger masks her dwindling self-confidence.
“I was just so excited by Gregg’s enthusiasm for the medium, for the process,” Wilde said. “I wish more people made movies like [Gregg]. You just said, ‘Let’s do it. Let’s get cool people together who want to tell a story, and let’s just do it. And it doesn’t have to be a whole thing, and it doesn’t have to feel like this corporate project. It has to just come from the heart.’ And I wanted to be a part of something like that.”
Hoffman, who turned heads in Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Licorice Pizza,” wasn’t sure he was right for the part of a bumbling boy toy. Araki was drawn to Hoffman because he reminded him of Dustin Hoffman in “The Graduate” and thought he could bring the same nebbish intensity to the part.
“I honestly didn’t think I’d get cast,” Hoffman admitted. “I just threw my hat in the ring and kept getting closer and closer. And then they said I got the job. And I was like, ‘Ah, shit. I gotta go do this.’ And I’m very happy I did.”
On the red carpet prior to the premiere, Wilde told Variety that Gen Z wants to see less sex in movies and TV because they “don’t want to see inauthenticity anymore.”
“The way that sex has been portrayed in film for a long time hasn’t been particularly realistic,” Wilde said.
That may not be a critique that’s leveled at Araki and company. The nudity and S&M mean “I Want Your Sex” will push the R-rating to the breaking point, but it was the film’s heart that the cast kept emphasizing on stage.
“Ultimately, the sex feels secondary,” Chase Sui Wonders, who plays Hoffman’s best friend and roommate, said. “It’s a story about being obsessed with someone…It’s just a tragic love story.”
Mason Gooding, Daveed Diggs and Charli xcx round out the ensemble. Black Bear produced the film, which is looking for distribution. The packed auditorium included executives from indie labels like Magnolia, Roadside and Mubi, and the room was so crowded that Patrick Schwarzenegger was spotted walking up and down the aisle looking for an empty seat.
“I Want Your Sex” is Araki’s eleventh feature at Sundance, with the director having previously debuted the likes of “Mysterious Skin” and “The Doom Generation” at the mountain festival. Before the film screened, Araki praised Sundance founder Robert Redford, who died last year at the age of 89.
“There’s been nobody in the history of fucking Hollywood movies who says, ‘I want to use my fucking incredible star power and all my fucking clout to create this place in the world for those fucking weird filmmakers, those outsider filmmakers, those different voices,” Araki said. “It’s all about DEI.”
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