Summer films tackle Gen Z's sex recession
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- "One Night Only" romcom, starring Callum Turner and Monica Barbaro, imagines a dystopian U.S. where Congress has banned premarital sex and lifts the prohibition one night a year, with Owen attempting to procure $2,000 condoms
- Gregg Araki's "I Want Your Sex" stars Cooper Hoffman as Elliot, a studio assistant drawn to provocative artist Erika Tracy (Olivia Wilde), with the film's standout scene a doomed threesome involving Chase Sui Wonders' Apple
- Jane Schoenbrun's "Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma" stars Hannah Einbinder as 29-year-old filmmaker Kris rebooting a slasher franchise, with Gillian Anderson as original final girl Billy Presley serving as her muse
- The piece argues Gen Z's sex recession is "existential, not libidinal" — rooted in internet-era alienation and pandemic-era coming of age — and frames it as loneliness rather than suppressed desire
- After the 2022 overturning of Roe v Wade, 16% of single Gen Z adults reported being more afraid to date, per figures cited in the article
- The reviewer concludes these films function as "cautionary guides" rather than blueprints, showing zoomers what sexual behaviors to avoid rather than modeling confidence
Why it matters: Auteur filmmakers staking summer releases on dramatizing Gen Z's sex recession are betting viewers want their loneliness portrayed, not their horniness satisfied — and the reviewer's verdict is that Jane Schoenbrun's 'Camp Miasma' threads that needle while Gregg Araki's 'I Want Your Sex' and the lighter romcom 'One Night Only' largely misfire by treating alienation as a punchline.
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