This is a dark, raunchy sex comedy co-written and directed by former indie darling Greg Araki. Araki made a major splash with The Doom Generation in the 90s, and was declared a master with his 2004 Mysterious Skin. He didn’t really capitalize on the acclaim for that movie. In the 22 years since then, he’s written and directed only three feature films, including this one. The previous one was in 2014.
The premise:
A fresh-faced 23-year-old naif is hired by a jaded pop artist (Olivia Wilde) to be her sexual muse. He willingly submits to her every sadistic fantasy, and becomes so invested in their relationship that he loses his girlfriend and his female best friend, yet he can’t quit the twisted relationship, nor can his freaky boss. The story is told in flashback, in a framing story in which he is interrogated by detectives about the night he found his horny employer face down and naked in a swimming pool.
One reviewer summed it succinctly as follows:
Araki has returned triumphant to the “come on now, lighten up” theme in the kinky 90-minute comedy I Want Your Sex, which finds humor in the gap between his generation and young adults whose libidos have fallen into slumber.
Rotten Tomatoes: 90%
Metacritic: 69/100
IMDb: no score yet
I found it entertaining enough to watch it without reaching for the fast-forward button, but I didn’t expect that 90% on the Tomatometer. That’s a big score for a raunchy R-rated comedy, as high as Borat. The Big Lebowski scored only 79% at RT. We don’t know the IMDb score for IWYS yet, but there has not been an R-rated comedy rated at least 90%/7.5 (RT/IMDb) since The Grand Budapest Hotel in 2014. And really that film could be rated PG-13.
I’d be more inclined to align with the 69 at Metacritic, which seems reasonable.
On the nudity front, Araki has not succumbed to the recent trend for fully clothed sincerity. He’s as transgressive, provocative and campy as ever, but there’s no female full-frontal. (Yes to male.)
These clips and images are taken from a cam with mediocre quality and French subtitles.
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The five R-rated comedies in this millennium that have scored at least 90% at RT, 7.0 at IMDb and have grossed at least $50 million internationally:
2004 Kung Fu Hustle 90% 7.7 $88m
2006 Borat 90% 7.4 $134m
2007 Hot Fuzz 91% 7.8 $57m
2014 The Grand Budapest Hotel 92% 8.1 $115m
2015 Spy 94% 7.0 $125m
Damn, these are going to be good once in HD maybe a top 20 in this so far weak 2026
High scores from critics due to the male full-frontal. There’s no female full-frontal, and overall, the female nudity is light, so that’s another plus for the critics’ ratings. Have you really not noticed that critics have been pushing the same propaganda for years?