Thursday, November 5, 2026 at 7:30 PM
Hammer Museum, Los Angeles
Followed by a conversation with writer-director **Gregg Araki** Erika Tracy (Olivia Wilde) is LA's hottest artist—her erotic art is more popular than ever, and her reputation for sleeping with her studio assistants is an open secret. Enter Elliot (Cooper Hoffman), a dopey 20-something desperate for a job in the arts and, namely, to pay his rent. Soon after Erika hires Elliot, she propositions him for sex and introduces him to BDSM, catapulting him into a dizzying labyrinth of power dynamics in the bedroom and at the studio. Gregg Araki's seminal Teen Apocalypse Trilogy (1993–97) transfixed a generation—reflecting the nihilism of American youth who grew up under Ronald Reagan, amid the threat of AIDS, and were really pissed off. Now, at 67, Araki's latest film shows how that '90s anger has shifted into a pervasive unease for Gen Z—economically and sexually—and the complications that arise when those two things collide. Never losing empathy for the characters or a sense of humor, Araki achieves the delicate balance of a raucous send-up of the art world, workplace dynamics, and sexual power in the way only a distinctive auteur can. 2026. Directed by Gregg Araki. Screenplay by Araki, Karley Sciortino. With Cooper Hoffman, Olivia Wilde, Chase Sui Wonders. DCP courtesy Magnolia Pictures. 90 min. **$10 Hammer members | $20 general admission ** Current members, check your email for your link to buy tickets, or contact [membership@hammer.ucla.edu](mailto:membership@hammer.ucla.edu). General admission tickets go on sale Monday, October 19 at 11 a.m. **Enhance your movie experience as a member!** Hammer Members receive priority seating and half-off Contenders tickets—plus discounts at the museum store and Lulu restaurant. [Become a member](https://hammer.ucla.edu/support/membership) *MoMA Contenders 2026* is organized by The Museum of Modern Art, New York. This film program is organized by Rajendra Roy, the Celeste Bartos Chief Curator of Film, Sean Egan, Senior Producer, Film Exhibitions and Projects, and Olivia Priedite, Film Program Coordinator, The Museum of Modern Art, New York. The Hammer Museum's presentation is made possible by The Billy and Audrey L. Wilder Foundation.