No, “I Want Your Sex” isn’t a George Michael biopic, but rather the long-awaited latest film from cult auteur Gregg Araki. The writer/director had premiered the film earlier this year at Sundance, marking his eleventh feature to premiere at the festival (starting with 1992’s queer road comedy “The Living End”), and it now continues its festival tour with a stop at the Chicago Critics Film Festival (CCFF). Araki is calling upon the Zillenials out there to stop scrolling and get out there and get laid, but this comedy would be better off if it explored why they should and why they are apparently not.

If the riotous sold-out crowd at the historic Music Box Theatre in Chicago is any indication, the die-hard Araki fans will surely eat lick this up. Araki isn’t exactly offering a sexual revolution with “I Want Your Sex”, but rather a sexual exploration from the vantage point of a Gen Z protagonist who comes to realize he’s a sex addict. That shouldn’t be a surprise. When a generation has come of age in a digital world, one that presents all things related to sex in a degradative and exploitative manner in the guise of freedom, lust, and kink, it’s no wonder that so many have become afraid of being seen for who they truly are or embracing their desires. Araki, who co-wrote the screenplay with Karley Sciortino, respects this generation in “I Want Your Sex”, while also placing them in a hilariously portrayed and heavily satirized environment.

The modern-day story set in Los Angeles, revolves around Elliot (an endearing and bold Cooper Hoffman), a twentysomething slacker who needs a job, and interviews to become the assistant to a local provocative artist, Erika Tracy (Olivia Wilde, going for broke). He sees her as some kind of sex prophetess solely based on what he sees of her online, which often presents her as a woman who brandishes her sexuality with confidence and power. Considering how people-pleasing and rudderless Elliot is, it’s kind of amazing that he gets the job immediately at the end of his in-person interview. That’s because from the beginning, Erika has him in mind to be her new “boy toy”, yet another assistant that she can rule over, and that’s what happens when the two enter a dom-sub relationship. Clearly, there isn’t a functional HR present, just Erika’s catty business manager, Vikktor (a hilarious Daveed Diggs), and Elliot’s sassy gay co-worker, Zap (Mason Gooding), both of whom aren’t surprised by Erika’s overbearing and often overwhelming presence. She peddles an anti-woke philosophy while churning out her crappy multimedia art, while promoting that sex is everything and nothing at the same time.

Elliot is automatically 100% on board with Erika’s agenda, and that’s strange considering he doesn’t come across as a depraved porn-addicted pervert. He’s not living in his parents’ basement, but sharing an apartment with his platonic BFF, Apple (Chase Sui Wonders, who surprisingly becomes the movie’s heartfelt MVP), and in a relationship with a hot and cold girlfriend, Minerva (Charli XCX), a graduate student with very little time for intimacy, emotion, and connection. So, when Elliot becomes compliant to his boss’s every whim, it seems to come from nowhere. While he is directionless, it’s hinted at that there’s more to Elliot than being a horndog sex slave eager to be dominated by a manipulative sex monster, but this movie doesn’t really explore any of that.

Araki is subverting expectations and presenting these horny sexual antics as comical and hardly anything titillating. It’s as if he’s trying to convince viewers that none of this toxic behavior should be taken seriously. “I Want Your Sex” gets creative with Elliot and Erika’s S&M trysts, which often involve erotic outfits for Erika and embarrassing exercises for Elliot. While the real Erika is never disclosed, often allowing her sociopathic behavior to mask whoever she really is, Elliot gradually begins to figure out his threshold for all of this, even if he has become completely smitten with Erika. Obviously, their arrangement is inevitably going to become problematic.

Beyond the supporting roles, “I Want Your Sex” has fun with other ancillary characters that feel like thankless cameos. An all-too-brief Roxane Mesquida (“Mercury in Retrograde”) shows up as Yvette, a client of Erika’s whom she loans out to Elliot for a supposed evening of sub-dom fun. We also see Margaret Cho and Johnny Knoxville as police officers who interrogate Elliott throughout the movie in connection with the movie’s opening sequence, wherein a dazed and bloody Elliot stumbles upon his boss lifelessly floating in a swimming pool.

“I Want Your Sex” is raucous in tone, but it’s surpressed emotionality proves that there’s something lacking here. The screenplay and Araki’s direction are so preoccupied with clever one-liners and labored visual gags that any attempt at transgression comes across as stale and unfulfilling. Considering most of Araki’s previous movies, especially the ones that have reached cult status like “Doom Generation” and “Mysterious Skin”, have an independent outsider spirit to them, this one strangely comes across as his most Hollywood. As a result, there doesn’t seem to be much to say about what’s being presented here.

This sex-positive movie is never boring, but it feels drawn-out in its misadventures and oversimplifies what it’s trying to communicate too often. Yes, being honest, especially about your sexual desires and expectations, is important in life. If that doesn’t happen, then you’re missing out. Being vulnerable, whether it’s stripping naked or baring your soul, is scary, but what’s scarier is living a life in which you deny yourself honesty and avoid confrontations.

RATING: **1/2

(Magnolia Pictures will be releasing “I Want Your Sex” theatrically in the U.S. on July 31, 2026)