FILM REVIEWS:
I WANT YOUR SEX (USA 2026) ***½
Directed by Gregg Araki
It has been 7 years since the last Gregg Araki film. An Araki film is always fucked up, which means that the film can be a lot of fun if one is willing to be daring enough to take their entertainment without borders.
I WANT YOUR SEX can be described as an erotic black comedy-thriller that mixes satire of the contemporary art world with a murder mystery and an exploration of power, desire, and sexual identity.
The murder mystery is initiated right at the film’s start, with a dead floating body in a swimming pool, a nod perhaps to SUNSET BOULEVARD. The police are called as a naked body is reported floating in a swimming pool at the lavish home of celebrated conceptual artist Erika Tracy (Olivia Wilde). A shaken Elliot (Cooper Hoffman), Erika's young assistant, is questioned by detectives, and the story unfolds largely through his recollections.
In I WANT YOUR SEX, director Araki satirizes consumerism in the art world, celebrity (Wilde’s Tracy character), and suburban life with her media obsession. The fuckedupness of the film lies in the sexual prowess of Tracy and how she manipulates Elliot with sex, and he becomes her sexual muse. Credit to Wilde for being so daring and cooperative in her role.
As Elliot becomes more deeply involved, he discovers that Erika manipulates nearly everyone around her. Other artists, collectors, lovers, and assistants appear captivated by her charisma yet quietly fear her unpredictability. The glamorous art world gradually reveals itself as a place built on exploitation, ego, and performance.
The tone of Araki’s film shifts from erotic comedy toward psychological thriller as jealousy, obsession, and financial conflicts emerge around Erika's latest exhibition. Elliot begins to suspect that he is merely another disposable participant in one of her performances rather than a genuine romantic partner.
The narrative circles back repeatedly to the mysterious death shown in the opening.
I WANT YOUR SEX is one of Araki’s films with the strongest storyline, though the mystery plot gets lots of distraction, Araki- style.
According to Araki, he had planned I WANT YOUR SEX a kind of FIFTY SHADES OF GREY variation for over ten years. The film was originally a very different story about a female intern and a male boss. As the story morphed and developed — and in the wake of the MeToo movement — he decided that a woman in that submissive role wasn’t an image I wanted to see or propagate, even if it was in a 100% consensual relationship. So he flipped the sex roles, which worked better with a different perspective.
Araki fans should not be disappointed as there is plenty of Araki-style filming and humour. Araki’s regular, James Duvall, also has a camera as a priest at the end of the film. Comedienne Margaret Cho has a small role as a detective, and singer-songwriter CHARLI XCX also has a role in the film as Elliot’s uptight girlfriend.
I WANT YOUR SEX opens in theatres July 31, 2026.
Trailer:
NIGHTBORN (Finaland/Lithuana/Norway/U.K. 2026) ****
Directed by Hanna Bergholm
Giving birth and having a new member of the family can be traumatic for the parents. Everyone knows about post-birth trauma. The relational strain between husband and wife can be one’s as well, especially when, as in this film, the baby is a problem child. This film initially blurs the line between whether the problem lies with the mother ’S MENTAL STATE or with the child. Complications to their relationship are complicated with a visit by their respective parents,
Directed by Hanna Bergholm (HATCHING), it is a psychological folk-horror film that blends postpartum anxiety, Finnish mythology, and body horror.
In the beginning, Saga, a Finnish woman, and her British husband Jon move into the isolated forest home where Saga spent much of her childhood. They dream of escaping city life and raising a family surrounded by nature. The house lies beside ancient woods steeped in local folklore, and Saga feels an almost mystical attachment to the forest despite her unhappy childhood there.
Saga becomes pregnant (they have sex in the woods) soon after arriving. Her pregnancy is difficult, marked by vivid nightmares, strange animal encounters, and unsettling sounds coming from the forest. Jon dismisses her growing fears as stress. Saga gives birth to a baby boy after a painful labour. From the moment she first sees him, she feels something is terribly wrong.
Although everyone else—including Jon, doctors, and midwives—insists the baby is healthy,
The audience sees events almost entirely from Saga's perspective, making it impossible to know whether these observations are real or manifestations of postpartum trauma.
Marriage begins to collapse
Jon believes Saga is suffering from severe postpartum depression or psychosis.
His inability to believe her creates increasing tension between them. Their once-loving relationship deteriorates as Saga becomes obsessed with protecting—or perhaps escaping from—the child.
Family members offer little support. Saga's emotionally distant mother recalls that Saga herself was an unusually difficult infant, while Jon's religious parents believe faith is the answer to the family's problems. A baptism is attempted, but the ceremony is interrupted by terrifying supernatural events that convince Saga her fears are justified.
The forest's secret
As the baby's behaviour becomes more violent, Saga investigates local folklore surrounding the forest.
The creature is shown only briefly throughout much of the film, heightening the uncertainty over whether it truly exists.
Remarks about the baby are not comforting to say the least.” Why is it so weird?” asks the niece to her mother. “Is there anything wrong with the baby?’ Saga asks her mother. The story could be considered a ROSEMARY’S BABY about the baby after the baby is born. Like ROSEMARY’S BABY, the baby’s face is withheld from the audience till the very end of the film.
NIGHTBORN is the first film Robert Grint has been in since the Harry Potter franchise, where he played Ron Weasley. Now 27, he was only 11 when he played Weasley in the first Harry Potter film.
NIGHTBORN had its world premiere at the Main Competition section of the 76th Berlin International Film Festival in February 2026. In October 2024, Goodfellas and Anonymous Content acquired the film's international sales. The film opens for streaming on Shudder, the horror streaming service, on Friday, July 31st.
MEMORY OF PRINCESS MUMBI (Kenya/Switz/Saudi Arabia 2-25) **
Directed by Damien Hauser
Drawing on modern technology (i.e., AI) to visually restore kingdoms, director Hauser presents us with sumptuous settings while focusing on the human aspect: namely, the life and death of Princess Mumbi (Shandra Apondi), as told by the filmmaker Kuve (Abraham Joseph), who is threatened by his rival, the prince (Samson Waithaka), to whom the beautiful princess has been promised… The film appears to be all over the place, going from a making-of doc to a romance, and then to death, all summarized at the end of the film. Princess Mumbi emphasizes in the film that filmmakers should make what audiences wish to see and not what they think international audiences like. This amateurish-looking film with pastiched colours does not seem to heed either saying.
