‘I Want Your Sex’ is a Doozy of an Erotic Mystery

July 28, 2026

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What do we want?! (CREDIT: Magnolia Pictures)

Starring: Cooper Hoffman, Olivia Wilde, Mason Gooding, Chase Sui Wonders, Daveed Diggs, Charli XCX, Johnny Knoxville, Margaret Cho, Roxane Mesquida

Director: Gregg Araki

Running Time: 90 Minutes

Rating: R for Strong Sexuality (Frequently Funny and Occasionally Scary)

Release Date: July 31, 2026 (Theaters)

What’s It About?: In I Want Your Sex, Cooper Hoffman plays a naive fellow named Elliot who truly never could have guessed what he was in for at his new job. (Even those of us who aren’t so gullible would have been surprised by all the twists and turns!) He’s hired as a new assistant for Erika Tracy (Olivia Wilde), an artist known for her sexually explicit pieces and her extreme skepticism towards her own profession. Soon enough, the assistant gig turns into a BDSM relationship. Elliot’s excited to be dominated by a powerful woman, whereas she seems to be motivated mostly by boredom. It’s all fated to take a bizarre dark turn, as indicated by flash-forwards of Elliot answering to a pair of detectives (Johnny Knoxville, Margaret Cho) about Erika’s disappearance and possible murder.

What Made an Impression?: “Contemporary Art is a Scam”: I’m no expert in the contemporary art scene, but I have seen plenty of movies that hilariously insist that the whole endeavor is patently ridiculous. And I Want Your Sex is particularly ruthless in that regard. It essentially asks: What if your whole life were just a nonsensical work of art provocation? Elliot’s experience suggests that it would be decently amusing at first but that it would inevitably become a little too anxiety-inducing.
More Like “Ex-C-Ex”: This is a movie with a bunch of friendly faces in the supporting cast, including Daveed Diggs as Erika’s brusque manager, Mason Gooding as Elliot’s sort-of-friendly co-worker, and Chase Sui Wonders as Elliot’s roommate who’s also by far the least warped human being we encounter. But then there’s Charli XCX (continuing quite the onscreen year for herself) as Elliot’s girlfriend. And let’s put “girlfriend” in quotes because she doesn’t appear to love or like him in any measurable capacity. And let’s furthermore say that that whole gag is milked for all its worth in a handful of well-deployed scenes, including a screamer of a punch line
I Guess That Was Worth It: I Want Your Sex hinges on a conclusion that offers a more-or-less happy ending for just about everybody. It’s definitely a relief, although it does feel like it kind of comes out of nowhere. But the more I’ve thought about it, the more it actually has felt paradoxically inevitable, while boldly underscoring the thesis that art is just a scam. But not in a way that is as cynical as you might suspect that message must be. Instead, we are assured that we can use that scam energy and be reborn in truth on the other side.

I Want Your Sex is Recommended If: You’ve always wanted to see The Usual Suspects crossed with Nocturnal Animals

Grade: 3.5 out of 5 Whips

Movie Reviews: Making a Sentence Out of Two Titles Edition: The ‘Smurfs’ and ‘I Know What You Did Last Summer’

July 17, 2025

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We Smurfed What You Smurfed Last Smurf (CREDIT: Paramount Animation; Brook Rushton/Columbia Pictures)

Smurfs

Starring: Rihanna, James Corden, John Goodman, Nick Offerman, JP Karliak, Dan Levy, Amy Sedaris, Natasha Lyonne, Sandra Oh, Jimmy Kimmel, Octavia Spencer, Nick Kroll, Hannah Waddingham, Alex Winter, Maya Erskine, Kurt Russell, Xolo Maridueña, Hugo Miller, Chris Miller, Billie Lourd, Marshmello, Spencer X, Chrisy Prynoski

Director: Chris Miller

Running Time: 92 Minutes

Rating: PG for Smurf Action and Some Rude Smurfin’

Release Date: July 18, 2025 (Theaters)

I Know What You Did Last Summer

Starring: Chase Sui Wonders, Madelyn Cline, Jonah Hauer-King, Tyriq Withers, Sarah Pidgeon, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Freddie Prinze Jr., Billy Campbell, Gabriette Bechtel

Director: Jennifer Kaytin Robinson

Running Time: 111 Minutes

Rating: R for Twisting, Poking, and Hanging, Plus a Few Seductions and a Couple of Joints

Release Date: July 18, 2025 (Theaters)

A couple of decades-old franchises are getting revived at the multiplex this weekend. That sentence could apply to just about any weekend from the past 25 years or so. But in case you’re reading this review from the future (or the past), the weekend I’m specifically referring to right now is the one that begins on July 18, 2025. And the movies I’m talking about are Smurfs (no “the”) and the same-titled lega-sequel I Know What You Did Last Summer. Is there any way both of these movies could possibly appeal to the same person?! Let’s use myself as a test case.

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‘Bodies Bodies Bodies’ Will Have You Laughing, But Not for Long, Because Things Get Stressful Quick, But in an Edifying Way

August 4, 2022

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Bodies Bodies Bodies (CREDIT: Eric Chakeen/A24)

Starring: Amandla Stenberg, Maria Bakalova, Myha’la Herrold, Rachel Sennott, Chase Sui Wonders, Pete Davidson, Lee Pace

Director: Halina Reijn

Running Time: 95 Minutes

Rating: R for Generally Raucous Vibes That Make Everyone Ill-Prepared for the Bloodbath

Release Date: August 5, 2022 (Limited)/August 12, 2022 (Expands Wide)

What’s It About?: What’s the best thing to do during a hurricane? Hunker down for a house party, maybe? Eh, even if the building is sturdy enough to prevent any permanent damage, things could get messy. Which is to say, the characters of Bodies Bodies Bodies are putting themselves at risk. Emotional, physical, potentially lethal risk. The group of seven hanging out at the mansion are a mix of longtime friends and new lovers, as well as plenty of uninvited secrets and passive-aggressiveness. When the storm forces them inside for the night, they decide to play the titular party game, in which one person is assigned to play the “killer” who must be sussed out by the other players. But when one of them actually winds up dead, an impromptu murder investigation begins. And instead of banding together, they all find ways to be suspicious of each other.

What Made an Impression?: Like other great killer mystery thrillers, Bodies Bodies Bodies does a fine job of convincing us that everyone is a legitimate suspect. Just when I thought I’d identified the most secretive and cruel individual, somebody else does something equally thoughtless. Based on what we see, these are not very good friends. I was most reminded of 2015’s Unfriended, in which a Skype session turns deadly as each of the callers reveal just how profoundly awful they are. But the Bodies Bodies Bodies crew aren’t quite that terrible. Instead, they’re insecure young adults trying to figure out what to do with their lives, and they’re not finding any useful support from the other insecure people around them. If you add buckets of windy rain and a dead body to that powder keg, it’s not going to be a fun night.

It all resolves in a gut-punch of an ending that will have you going, “It’s just a movie. I should really just relax.” Because if you don’t, you’ll be stressed out for days, or potentially months even. These people shouldn’t be partying, they should be in therapy. (Well, maybe they can rage every once in a while if they maintain a healthy therapy schedule.) What if the sequel were a visit to a psychiatrist during a hurricane? I would definitely check that out. Anyway, if nothing else, Bodies Bodies Bodies is very much a warning that we should all come up with a plan ASAP for what to do if any of our friends suddenly winds up inexplicably dead.

Bodies Bodies Bodies is Recommended If You Like: Unfriended, Scream, Ready or Not

Grade: 4 out of 5 Machetes