Work placements can be…awkward.

In his first feature in 12 years, indie auteur Gregg Araki returns to the big screen with I Want Your Sex, which just might be his most accessible feature to date as it skewers modern culture, sexual politics and the modern job landscape.

When fresh-faced Elliot (Cooper Hoffman) lands an exciting job for renowned artist, icon and provocateur Erika Tracy (Olivia Wilde), his fantasies come true as Erika taps him to become her sexual muse. But Elliot soon finds himself out of his depth as Erika takes him on a journey more profound than he ever could have imagined, into a world of sex, obsession, power, betrayal and murder.

While it’s not quite as profound as it wants to be, I Want Your Sex allows the artifice of image to show the cracks in the realities that we give far too much value too and how the core nature of relationships based on honesty and not of a transactional nature are things we need to hold on to in an ever evolving world.

At its core; I Want Your Sex is a comedy and quite possibly a romantic comedy to boot., which is what makes it so refreshing.

In this film, Araki and co-writer Karley Sciortino allow us as an audience into the idea that’s OK to actually make a mistake, be a little aimless and get ourselves into less the ideal situations.  It’s how we learn as a species, something that tends to be forgotten, not only in pop culture but in life in general.  As we navigate the glossy sheen of this world, the intimacy at play becomes transactional which is what is ultimately the down fall of our primary characters.

That being said in classic Araki fashion he does manage to give us that under pinning of hope as we navigate this cast of characters to the point that we’re kind of rooting for them all even as they do horrible stuff.  The high gloss sheen of this fake world never feels too overwhelming because the material and the two leads are spending the entire movie basically taking the piss out of the whole thing.  It’s a rom-com laden with self-aware sarcasm dripping throughout

To put it simply, without Olivia Wilde and Cooper Hoffman; I Want Your Sex simply wouldn’t have worked and is a fantastic example in the power of casting.

Wilde is one of the few working actors today who can combine the overtly sexual dynamics of the character while still being dead pan funny at the same time.  She “gets” this character and plays it to the absolute hilt while Cooper Hoffman is such a fantastic extension of his iconic father Philip Seymour Hoffman.  He finds the confusion, the eagerness and the earnestness of someone who has gotten swept into the kind of relationship that is simply beyond him, not only from an emotional standpoint but an intellectual level as well.

Both actors effortlessly play off of each other and are the engine that makes this work while the likes of Daveed Diggs, Charlie XCX, Mason Gooding, Johnny Knoxville & Margaret Cho put just enough material back in our leads tanks to keep this all humming.

I Want Your Sex isn’t perfect…but that’s actually the point.  This is simply a story of two people who are trying to be the best versions of themselves, not seeing the value in embracing the realities they are just a couple of fuck ups like the rest of us.  The value of this film is in the magic of personal failure, because it shows us how to be better.  Erika and Elliot needed to “fuck” so they could ultimately fuck up and find a better path….or at least a more constructive one.