By Dan Skip Allen

I Want Your Sex

“I Want Your Sex” is a film that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2026. It’s an American erotic comedy thriller directed by Gregg Araki and written by Karley Sciortino and Araki. It stars Olivia Wilde as Erika Tracey, a provocative and renowned erotic artist, and Cooper Hoffman as Elliott, who becomes her sexual muse. This was a dream of his for years. It also stars Mason Gooding, Chase Sui Wonder, Daveed Diggs, and Charlie XCX. This was a fantastic supporting cast. This film has a lot of layers to it without spoiling it. There are many things going on in it besides a journey of sex for this young man. It also has an element of obsession, power, betrayal, and murder. Ariki and company spin a yard that is a lot of fun. Olivia Wide hasn’t been seen in a while, but she is amazing here. Araki is an acquired taste, but he is still able to keep the vibe he is known for throughout his career thus far. He knows what his audience likes. I laughed a lot at all the crazy antics while enjoying the sexual tension. As a man, I’d have to say the arousal level was high. It just shows how the youth of America is fixated on sex & making money. America is filled with shy men looking for connection, and in a weird way, this film provides that connectivity. 

4 stars

Perla

Perla is a foreign film set in Vienna, Slovakia, in 1981. It deals with a single mother, Perla (Rebeka Palakova), with a daughter Claudia (Hilde Dalik). She is an artist, but they are struggling financially. She has to sell her paintings to pay for her daughter’s piano lessons. In a shocking turn of events, her ex-husband contacts her after getting out of prison. He wants to see their daughter, but Palakova’s character is suspicious of him. There is more going on besides a father who misses his daughter. There is a political element to this story that revolves around the two countries that this film takes place in. The lead character gets caught in the middle of that. There is a subplot revolving around a bad past experience that ties to some present events involving military men raping women.

This film has a lot going on in it, but all the stories tie together nicely. The crux of the story is how various political events are tied to abuse and problems that cross borders. Palakova does a good job with this layered role. She has to balance a lot of difficulties involving her ex, her daughter, and how she fits in with this changing world. Her art is part of the solution to her problem, but she can’t do what she loves to do as much as she’d like because of everything else going on in her life. As Americans, we don’t understand the inner workings of other countries.  This film shows how complicated life can be overseas. These eastern European countries are full of strife, and it’s not easy for women in them sometimes. This movie shows that very well. I’m glad I live in America, that’s for sure.

3 ½ stars

Late Fame

I love a movie about a struggling writer or man or woman who once was successful in some sort of literary field. Films like “Wonder Boys” “Adaptation “ and “Can You Ever Forgive Me” explore similar themes as this. The latest movie I had the opportunity to watch with a character who has writer’s block or has stopped writing because of one reason or another is “Late Fame” starring Willem Dafoe as a once famous poet in the 1970s. It was nice to see him play a normal everyday human being for a change instead of some fanciful character caked in make. He’s good in the role, but the film doesn’t stand up to its own weight.

Ed Saxberger or “Saxberger” (Willem Dafoe) is a struggling poet in New York City who ended up as a mail room clerk for the last 30 or so years. He is approached by a man who calls himself Meyers (Edmund Donovan), who says he’s part of a literary society who call themselves the “Enthusiasm Society “. They want to recruit this man into their group and decide to put on a performance of spoken word artists for everyone to see. This is a lot for this man who has lived a quiet life for many years. When he meets the flamboyant actress Gloria (Greta Lee), his tune changes. He decides to go all in with this group of young creative people. It’s harder than he thought to bring back his creative juices again.

This film is based on the unpublished novella by Arthur Schnitzler. It explores themes of camaraderie amongst like-minded people in a bohemian community. Creative writing and speaking are ways for these people to let their minds go in different directions. As a poet, the Dafoe character was once this way but in a whole other generation. These young men try to bring him back into the world he had forgotten about many years before. It’s not easy to rekindle creative juices after so many years of not writing. The Lee character helps him by freeing his spirit a bit. She’s out there creativity as an actress, but she has her own demons to deal with. Dafoe’s character ends up getting caught in the web of this seductress

3 stars

Carolina Caroline

Carolina Caroline is a film revolving around a slick con man Oliver (Kyle Gallner) who goes into a convenience store and woos a young woman, Caroline Daniels (Samara Weaving) with a cool trick involving money. This leads to a whirlwind relationship, and one thing leads to another and their leaving the small Texas town and going on a road trip to South Carolina. That’s where the title comes in. While on the road, Gallners character teaches Weavings character the ways of being a con man. This leads into a spree of bank robberies.

Adam Carter Rehmeier captures a few other films similar to this, like “Bonnie and Clyde” and “Hell or High Water,” but my main perception of where he was going with this film and story is that it’s a neo-western. Which translates to a modern-day western. It has all the tropes of those types of films. I love Westerns, and it’s obvious that Rehmeier does as well. This movie is different from others he’s directed in his career, but it’s the best by far. He understands the Western aesthetic and how the relationship between the characters plays into that. Also, there is an amazing performance by Kiera Sedgwick in a supporting role. I loved this film for so many different reasons.

4 stars