I Want Your Sex

Gleefully shredding every ethical page in the modern corporate human-resources handbook, I Want Your Sex is an unapologetically horny yet frequently hilarious sex romp driven by a refreshing audacity.

With style and attitude to spare, this wildly uneven comedy from director Gregg Araki (Mysterious Skin) is an over-the-top satire of power dynamics and sexual politics, as well as the allure of contemporary fame and the pretentiousness of modern art.

The story opens with Elliot (Cooper Hoffman) muttering obscenities while bleeding from the mouth and wearing women’s lingerie as he discovers a topless woman face-down in a swimming pool.

Flashing back a few weeks, we quickly learn that the woman, Erika (Olivia Wilde), recently hired Elliot as her personal assistant. Erika is an artist whose sexually charged work is noteworthy more for shock value than creative accomplishment.

Elliot becomes pals with an eccentric gay coworker (Mason Gooding), whose sexual orientation keeps him from becoming a sexual muse for Erika. That becomes Elliot’s territory. He finds he enjoys submitting as she’s preparing for her new exhibition.

“These were my wildest fantasies coming to life,” Elliot explains while narrating his misadventures, insisting he was being coerced and seduced even as he became obsessed with the promiscuity and experimentation.

Naturally, the arrangement causes some internal turmoil when it comes to Elliot’s girlfriend (Charli XCX), whose commitment to him seems to be lacking anyway, and his best friend (Chase Sui Wonders) whose cautionary advice he ignores.

Although its relentless quirks are an acquired taste, the screenplay by Araki and Kaley Sciortino generates some big laughs while skewering broad satirical targets.

At its core, the film is an exaggerated twist on a rather familiar template that chronicles a coming-of-age saga of carnal awakening. Plus, the flashback structure involving Elliot’s interrogation by two police detectives (Johnny Knoxville and Margaret Cho) doesn’t add much.

Those on the same campy wavelength — or leaning that way based the provocative title — might not mind that the storytelling becomes silly and aimless in stretches.

Regardless, Hoffman (The Long Walk) becomes the unlikely emotional anchor amid the chaos surrounding him. Like its hopelessly naive protagonist, I Want Your Sex eventually finds a heart and a conscience beneath its outrageous surface.

Rated R, 90 minutes.