It’s absolutely fascinating to watch cult 1990s director Gregg Araki examine the sex lives of Gen Z, a generation that fetishizes the decade he made his name in with nihilistic queer portraits of youth such as the Teen Apocalypse Trilogy. Co-written by sex columnist Karley Sciortino, this funny sex comedy stars Olivia Wilde as high-profile LA artist and gallery owner Erika who makes a tempting proposal to one of her young interns, Elliot (a very game Cooper Hoffman), to engage in casual BDSM play. Toying with the plot of Billy Wilder’s Sunset Boulevard, the film begins with a body lying face down in a pool and voiceover by bewildered male ingénue Elliot.

Amusing from the start and confronting in its approach to the insecurities, psychology and ambition of millennials and Gen Z, it’s a film that lets no one off the hook in its depiction of cross-generational conflicts. The supporting cast includes Charli XCX as a woman involved in an unhealthy situationship with Elliot, Chase Sui Wonders as his sexually confused housemate and Daveed Diggs as a publicist. Popping with bold colours and irreverent visual gags, Araki’s creation is a sly and hilarious depiction of the bondage of narcissistic and neurotic desires that hold people captive to dysfunctional relationships. 

I Want Your Sex, Cineworld, 19 August, 6.30pm; in cinemas on 28 August.

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