Gregg Araki's 'I Want Your Sex' Satirizes Art World Power Dynamics

Gregg Araki's new film 'I Want Your Sex' premieres in US cinemas on 31 July, starring Olivia Wilde as Erika Tracy, a multidisciplinary artist inspired by Erika Lust, and Cooper Hoffman as her assistant Elliot. The film explores the blurred line between mentorship and exploitation through a BDSM relationship that develops between the artist and her assistant. The narrative opens with a flash-forward to Erika face-down in a swimming pool, an homage to 'Sunset Boulevard' (1950). Araki, a flag-bearer for New Queer Cinema, uses the film to critique Gen Z's perceived prudishness, with Erika urging Elliot to embrace his desires. The film also references 1990s culture wars, including controversies around Andres Serrano's 'Piss Christ' (1987) and Tracey Emin's 'Everyone I Have Ever Slept With 1963–1995' (1995). The art in the film, contributed by David LaChapelle's studio and others, is described as maximalist and garish, including sex-toy sculptures and a fiberglass ball gag. The film features cameos by Margaret Cho and Johnny Knoxville as police officers, and Charli xcx as Elliot's girlfriend. The plot culminates in a disastrous opening where the power imbalances in the studio and in sex converge, forcing the characters to confront the line between mentorship and exploitation.