Gregg Araki
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She makes a spectacular entrance floating lifelessly in a pool, like William Holden in “Sunset Boulevard.”
Starting with the Sunset Boulevard-esque opening scene of Elliot waking up from a blackout and noticing that Erika is floating face-down in her pool.
…the body in the pool evoking Sunset Boulevard…
We open in Sunset Boulevard territory as the body of renowned artist Erika Tracy (Olivia Wilde) floats in a pool…
Araki’s passion for utilising and playing with neo-noir frames Elliot’s half-reversed Sunset Boulevard situation in a cosy rehashing of the story to detectives.
…a kooky psychosexual comedy that kicks off with both a Sunset Boulevard homage and a character declaring “I’m a slave to that vagina.”
Araki’s depiction of an intergenerational office relationship isn’t as incendiary as the ones in Secretary or Babygirl…
He can’t come close to matching the depth Maggie Gyllenhaal summoned as an abused subordinate in the superior “Secretary.”
The dynamic between them suggests a gender-swapped riff on “Secretary” (if also much goofier than that comparison might imply)…
The film plays out like an erotic workplace comedy reminiscent of Steven Shainberg’s Secretary (2002), albeit with the gender dynamics reversed.
Going into I Want Your Sex, I was expecting a mere gender-bent version of Steven Shainberg's Secretary, but there is far more originality than that.
As in fellow kink think pieces Pillion (2025) and Truly Naked (2026), the lines between healthy and unhealthy submission aren’t clearly defined.
In a year that has already offered the dom-sub rom com Pillion, starring Henry Melling and Alexander Skarsgård, this is a subgenre with many stories to tell.
…nor is his portrayal of S&M kinkier than what’s seen in Sanctuary or Pillion…
The end result is a total commitment to Elliot and to the identity he assumes, so much so that the hilarious depth of his immersion is rivaled only by Harry Melling’s lead performance in Pillion (2025).
And hey, that's good to know since Smith tells us that the idea of moviegoing will probably be dead in a few years -- a view accompanied by scenes from Bunuel's Un Chien Andalou .
A clip from Bunuel’s Un Chien Andalou – the straight razor slicing an eye open – plays out in successive gross-out scenes: A close-up of Smith having his shoes vomited on in the club; then later, our pretty hero stepping into dog leavings.
With this luridly beautiful film, Araki graduates into the company of such explorers as Todd Solondz ("Happiness") and Catherine Breillat ("Fat Girl").
Certains détails de la facture du film d’Araki ne sont pas non plus étrangers à la manière dont Todd Solondz souleva le cas de la pédophilie dans son foudroyant Happiness.
Despite all that hipness, this film lacks the wit and insight that made the extreme visions of youth in Joseph Kahn’s Detention, Gregg Araki’s Nowhere, and Bruce LaBruce’s The Misandrists such delirious, penetrating, and marvelous forecasts of cultural apocalypse.
What follows is an updated American Graffiti-style series of parallel couplings, misadventures, and tedious broodings about the meaninglessness of it all, punctuated by the odd alien abduction.
Aesthetically and tonally, Bones fits somewhere between John McNaughton’s Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer and Gregg Araki’s nihilistic road flick The Living End .
Actually, one doesn�t seem to be suffering much: Neil (Joseph Gordon-Levitt, resembling Timothy Hutton circa Ordinary People), who realized he was gay while watching his mother give a boyfriend a blow job, relishes the attention that Coach (Bill Sage) showers on him that fatal summer.
Araki’s depiction of an intergenerational office relationship isn’t as incendiary as the ones in Secretary or Babygirl…
…no doubt inviting comparisons to the somewhat similar Nicole Kidman/Harris Dickinson workplace erotic thriller Babygirl…
Kaboom lives somewhere between that surrealist classic and Donnie Darko .
For his latest effort, the Skittles-colored "Kaboom," Araki not only reverts back to his old ways, but goes one notch lower with the kind of snarky, disingenuous filmmaking an amateur might create who's seen 2001's " Donnie Darko " far too many times.
It has similarities to Richard Kelly's great “Donnie Darko” (with which it shares a few plot elements) and his significantly less great “Southland Tales,” but Araki keeps his ambitions more modest.
It isn’t exactly irrelevant that the world is ending, a headless corpse has been discovered in a dumpster and Smith is being stalked by men in animal masks (a bit of an in-joke alongside Araki regular James Duval, who also played Frank, the six-foot rabbit in Donnie Darko (2001), another teen-centred movie with an apocalyptic bent).
The challenge of “Kaboom” will be to hold together even when it feels like some crazy mutation of “Donnie Darko,” “Juno” and “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.”
Throw in occasionally striking pop art visuals, an animal-mask sporting cult and apocalyptic conspiracy theories and the ingredients are in place for a hipster Donnie Darko.
Sarah Lassez, whose indie resume includes Gregg Araki's "Nowhere," is enchanting as this demon turned sexy beast who dabbles in emotions she's never experienced before.
In the spirit of erstwhile teen-apocalypse king Gregg Araki (whose Nowhere belongs on Southland’s giant map of influences), Kelly compels unlikely sympathy for American Idle.
…it’s a traditional tale of generational male malaise in the vein of The Graduate (1967), albeit with more whips and chains.
“Philadelphia” (1993) had more action.
You can’t echo The Doom Generation and try wringing “girlboss” moments out of a heroic white cop.
…a fitting companion piece to her excellent turn as the sexually repressed wife at the center of her recent directorial effort The Invite (2026), which is an otherwise far more formulaic tale of the conflict between conventional romantic relationships and kinks.
This marks what is a career-turning Sundance for Wilde, which also sees her direct and star in the riotous comedy, The Invite (review here), another movie about the breaking of sexual norms.
Wilde (who also gives a tremendous performance in another Sundance movie this year, Gregg Araki’s I Want Your Sex) excels at going big…
…her other 2026 Sundance movie, I Want Your Sex…
Her performance here could not be more opposite the take-charge BDSM artist in her other 2026 Sundance movie, I Want Your Sex, an intriguing double feature to showcase her often overlooked range.
This character couldn’t be more different from Erika, the maniacal sex-positive artist in her other Sundance film this year, I Want Your Sex…
Kissing Jessica Stein (2002)
Directed by Charles Herman-Wurmfeld
influenced I Want Your Sex (2026)
Themes
It is like “Kissing Jessica Stein” all over again.
While many movies and TV shows have expertly tackled the complexities of sexual trauma, including Gregg Araki's Mysterious Skin (2004) and Michaela Coel's I May Destroy You (2020), Sorry, Baby avoids any of their visceral displays of brutality.
Pineapple Express (2008)
Directed by David Gordon Green
influenced by Smiley Face (2007)
Themes Plot
The pot humor is tired, particularly when compared to 2007's underseen Anna Faris comedy "Smiley Face," but that fortunately takes a back-seat as the chase commences.
You have Richard Linklater's Dazed and Confused, Gregg Araki's Smiley Face , and now David Gordon Green's Pineapple Express.
"Pineapple Express," produced by comedy kingpin Judd Apatow, may be the high-profile stoner comedy this summer.
Hence the slider quest of the first Harold and Kumar movie, or Anna Faris’ bewildering trek across Los Angeles in the unaccountably ignored Smiley Face .