Elliot (Cooper Hoffman) gets hired as the assistant of Erika (Olivia Wilde), an artist who persuades him to submit to her as her sexual muse in I Want Your Sex. Mason Gooding plays his co-worker, Zap, Charli XCX plays Minerva, his girlfriend, Chase Sui Wonders plays his roommate, and Johnny Knoxville and Margaret Cho show up as police detectives. Writer/director Gregg Araki and co-writer Karley Sciortino is an often bonkers and offbeat, but clunky and mostly unfunny sex comedy. The screenplay tries too hard to push the envelope and doesn't always succeed because too much of the sight gags falls flat. Don't try to make much sense out of the plot that involves a potential murder---Elliot discovers Erika's body face down in a pool during the opening scene before the plot flashes back 9 months to show the events that lead up to that and how they met. I Want Your Sex, which would have also been the more blunt title of The Invite, is actually the opposite of The Invite in terms of how it tries to generate laughs and to entertain the audience. The comedic attempts come more from the sight gags than from the dialogue which isn't particularly witty, unfortunately. The performances are over-the-top and silly without much-needed campiness which would've made the film more entertaining on a superficial level. At a running time of 1 hour and 30 minutes, I Want Your Sex opens on July 31st, 2026 nationwide via Magnolia Pictures. Just watch The Invite instead if you want to see a smart, witty and funny sex comedy that's concurrently well-acted and well-written.

 

      Naim (Joe Bird), a teenager, moves to a new town and falls in love with another teenage boy, Ryan (Stacy Clausen), in Leviticus. After reluctantly undergoing a ritual during conversion therapy, they're terrorized by a mysterious entity that takes the form of whomever the two boys desire. Set in a small religious community, the screenplay by writer/director Adrian Chiarella juggles drama, horror and romance with mixed results. The plot is pretty simple and straightforward, and the same can be said about how it uses its supernatural elements as a metaphor. Unfortunately, it's not very scary, imaginative or provocative enough whenever it veers into horror territory. There's already enough tension and conflict within the drama and romance given that Naim and Ryan live in a Christian community and experience homophobia while they try to keep their relationship a secret. Adding a supernatural element doesn't add anything that can't already be found in its natural elements.

      Fundamentally, Leviticus bites off more than it could chew and only manages to be physically gritty without enough emotional grit because it's too busy focusing on the less interesting horror/supernatural elements. What concurrently elevates and grounds the film, though, are the convincingly moving performances by Joe Bird and Stacy Clausen, both of whom manage to slightly rise above the shallow screenplay and to breathe much-needed life into their roles. At a running time of 1 hour and 28 minutes, Leviticus opens nationwide on June 19th, 2026 via NEON.  

Number of times I checked my watch: 2 




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