Olivia Wilde rules playful BDSM comedy ‘I Want Your Sex’

Olivia Wilde and Cooper Hoffman in a scene from “I Want Your Sex” (Magnolia Pictures) [AP Photo]

Erika Tracy, the artist and provocateur at the heart of “I Want Your Sex,” may be the most quotable fictional female executive since Miranda Priestly “that’s all-ed” her way into film history.

It is a little strange to compare a buttoned-up character in a PG-13 movie with one in a very R-rated film who is often topless or in bondage. But like Miranda, Erika, brought to vibrant life by Olivia Wilde, has a withering glare, commanding presence and killer timing.

This playfully provocative comedy about sex and generational divides from New Queer Cinema pioneer Gregg Araki lives and dies on the plausibility of Erika Tracy. While “I Want Your Sex” takes nothing terribly seriously, you have to buy the outrageous things she says and care about how she ends up floating naked, unconscious and likely dead, in her pool. If you are going to reference “Sunset Boulevard,” you might as well go big.

The noirish mystery isn’t really the point. Instead, Araki, who shares writing credits with Karley Sciortino, wants to talk about sex and the well-documented lack thereof among Generation Z — in a sharp, humorous and outlandish way.

The movie takes on Gen Z’s crisis of intimacy through a sex-only, dom-sub relationship between an employer and her younger employee Elliot, played by Cooper Hoffman. It was all consensual, he repeatedly stresses to the detectives, played by Johnny Knoxville and Margaret Cho. But it also kind of ruins his life.

Elliot is awkward, perhaps the least likely candidate for someone like Erika to hand-select for this arrangement. He lives with his best friend Apple (Chase Sui Wonders) and has a girlfriend, Minerva (Charli xcx).

But no one seems to be having sex. When Elliot proposes a celebration after scoring the job at Erika’s gallery, Minerva complains that they just did it 11 days ago.

His imagination, however, is active, and soon, with Erika, the fantasies become real. It is only a matter of time before things get messy — there’s blood, tears, betrayal and maybe even murder. The film is also self-consciously garish, an over-the-top satire of the art world, but the world is always compelling, with fun supporting performances from Daveed Diggs and Mason Gooding. Wonders is also terrific, a ball of neuroses and repression, envious of Elliot’s exploits.

I’m not sure it reaches any profound conclusion about its topic, nor is it really trying to.

“Sex is everything,” Erika says. “It’s also nothing.”

Perhaps it’s just trying to remind everyone to lighten up.

But it is a terrific platform for Wilde, who Hollywood never quite knew how to use properly. Often, movies just wanted her to be hot, ignoring her intelligence and comedic prowess. Araki’s film figures out how to use all her qualities in wildly entertaining fashion.

Wilde, it turns out, is a world-class comedienne who, two decades into her career, is coming into her own. [Abridged]

LINDSEY BAHR, MDT/AP Film Writer

“I Want Your Sex,” a Magnolia Pictures release in theaters Friday, is rated R by the Motion Picture Association for “graphic nudity, strong sexual content and pervasive language.” Running time: 90 minutes. ★★★★