A Portrait of an Artist as a Dominatrix
“I Want Your Sex” is a caricature of the art world more than an actually incisive critique, but it’s funner that way.
Olivia Wilde plays Erika Tracy, a contemporary art superstar-slash-sociopath (is there a difference?) in the super-fucked-up love story that is I Want Your Sex (2026) — and “fuck” is an operative word in this movie, because she’s also a dominatrix.
Cooper Hoffman, playing Elliott, her schlubby and somehow-already-balding 23-year-old gallery assistant, becomes her plaything; “consent” here is both sexual and artistic (and both, I ought to warn you, are violated).
It’s a caricature of the art world more than an actually incisive critique — "You know I hate criticism, especially when it’s accurate,” Erika breezes at one point. But it’s definitely funner that way, with hilarious but low-hanging one-liners (“You don’t have a trust fund? What are you, an orphan?”); the obligatory gorgeous gallery girl who looks at you like she loathes you more than anything in the history of the world; and Julio Torres-esque Surrealist elements (that can be pretty convenient cover for occasionally suspect acting). Did I even mention that Charli xcx graces the screen as Elliot's utterly unimpressed girlfriend?
There’s also what seems to me a surprisingly searing take on David Hockney’s “Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures)” (1972): without spoiling too much, a scene where a figure looks blankly down at a version of themself floating face-down in a pool. Portrait of an artist, indeed — for it’s at this moment that the film cleverly reveals another side of itself as a Künstlerroman. “Contemporary art is a scam, you know that, right?” Erika asks Elliott in one of their very first scenes. In I Want Your Sex, we witness the rebirth of Elliott as not just a victim but a scam artist in his own right (okay, a podcaster cashing in on the drama, but again, is there a difference?) — made in the image of his aggressor. This isn't exactly the kind of movie you'll remember for the rest of your life, but it's worth its hour-and-a-half runtime in rollicking ridiculousness alone.
I Want Your Sex (2026), directed by Gregg Araki, is screening in select theaters and widely available on streaming services.
