The purity era is over, sex is back on the big screen again

We were getting a bit puritanical for a while there.

The dominance of franchise blockbusters throughout the 2010s saw the incidence of sex on the big screen drop. Instead of the charged sexual tension of Dangerous Liaisons and Wild Things, we got Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson chastely peck his onscreen paramours.

Apparently “four quadrant” filmmaking, which dictates that you appeal to all demographics, means your characters never open their legs.

There has been an explosion of sexy times on the small screen, from the likes of Bridgerton and Outlander to Heated Rivalry and Fair Play, but the cinemaplex has been devoid of amorous activities unless it’s really niche or non-English language such as the scorching 2019 movie Portrait of a Lady on Fire.

That’s finally starting to change.

Part of that is the franchise blockbuster is not as all-conquering as it was before COVID. There are as many Supergirls are there are Spider-Men, as in, they’re not guaranteed paydays, and audiences want a more diverse diet of stories.

We’ve seen more original stories come through, and some of the movies that have really fired up younger Gen Z audiences have been originals such as The Materialists, The Drama and Obsession.

Which means studios, mostly indies or the arthouse divisions of the majors, have in the past few years been taking risks with the risqué.

It’s not as though Pedro Pascal and Vanessa Kirby’s characters in The Fantastic Four are going to bump uglies on screen, but at least she’s pregnant, and we all know how that happens, right?

We’ve shifted back to the recognition there is a space for movies that portray that aspect of the human experience – and to delight in it for all of its hot, messy, freaky and, yes, even loving characteristics.

This new swathe of films do differ from the erotic thrillers of the past. They don’t shame kinks or women, there’s consent, and they’re genuinely interested in pleasure. Perhaps not coincidentally, they’re also primary by female and LGBTQI filmmakers.

We’re here for it.

CHALLENGERS

There’s something about tennis that’s already inherently sexy. It’s the sweating, the grunting and the back-and-forth volleys whose suggestive rhythms evoke, well, you know.

When you combine tennis and Luca Guadagnino, you get Challengers. It was sold on a love triangle bordering on a menage a trois involving Zendaya, Josh O’Connor and Mike Faist, as rivals turned lovers and enemies.

But the real heat in the film is actually between O’Connor and Faist’s characters. They’re not canonically paired but everything is screaming that maybe they should be, and that’s largely thanks to O’Connor’s panther-like sexual charge.

Watch: Digital rental

PILLION

Young British filmmaker Harry Lighton’s dark comedy stars Alexander Skarsgard and Harry Melling as a dom-and-sub in this adaptation of a Adam Mars-Jones novel, Box Hill.

Updated to the modern day, Melling plays an introverted man, Colin, who meets the imposing Ray, a biker with a bossy streak who enters a transgressive yet oddly tender arrangement which pushes Colin to discover what he really needs.

It’s funny and emotional, and it features some elaborately choreographed sex scenes, including one particularly acrobatic endeavour and another group adventure at some picnic grounds. It’s more wholesome than you might expect.

Watch: Stan

I WANT YOUR SEX

Gregg Araki has been making transgressive films his whole career and laid out a month for up-and-coming artists to do the same but there is something about I Want Your Sex which pushes it into more of a mainstream-arthouse space.

Perhaps it’s the starpower of Olivia Wilde, or the cast of Bright Young Things (Cooper Hoffman, Mason Gooding, Chase Sui Wonders, Charli XCX) that the social media set love.

Wilde plays Erika, a bold artist and gallery owner with the most amazingly playful and domineering wardrobe, who embarks on a BDSM sexual relationship with her younger employee, Elliott (Hoffman), which culminates in a gnarly evening with a pool.

Watch: Cinemas from August 27

THE INVITE

Olivia Wilde is also in The Invite, which she directed, as one half of two neighbouring couples who come together for an awkward dinner party which serves maybe-jamon, cheese and a side of group sex.

Or, at least the allure of group sex. No actual intercourse happens but more than half the film is about sex and sexuality, who’s having it, how to have it, and who’s not having it. It teases, cajoles and tickles with alacrity and honesty.

It’s also perfectly cast – Wilde is playing opposite to her character in I Want Your Sex, opposite Seth Rogen, a simmering Penelope Cruz, and a brilliantly funny Ed Norton.

Watch: Cinemas

BABYGIRL

Nicole Kidman erotically drinking milk became the meme-de-jour early last year because of Babygirl, and you’ll also never hear George Michael’s Father Figure the same way again. This was a zeitgeist-capturing film precisely because it promised sexy times.

Kidman plays Romy, a seemingly hard corporate boss who starts a sexual affair with an intern (Harris Dickinson). But the power dynamics are not clear cut as he is the dom to her sub, and she originally notices him when he tames a large dog who almost attacks her. The metaphor is not exactly subtle but it’s certainly effective.

Watch: Digital rental

ANORA

It says a lot about the shifting and expanding tastes of the Oscars that Anora, an indie film about a stripper and sex worker, won the best picture. This never would’ve happened 20 years ago, and we’re all richer for that convention to have changed.

Mickey Madison’s magnetic and compassionate performance as Ani fuels this pacey, compulsive film about a young woman who’s forced to track down her errant new husband, a Russian oligarch’s son. She’s in love, everyone else thinks she’s a fool.

Writer and director Sean Baker has spent his whole career telling the stories of those in the margins, which has included films about sex workers and porn stars, and it speaks to our moment when the mainstream has finally deemed those tales of value and attention.

Watch: Digital rental