Movies That Fuck: Notes on Cinematic Sensuality
Sex returned to American cinema in 2024 with works like "Babygirl" and "Challengers". But the lack of sex scenes wasn't the main problem. We're in a sensuality crisis in modern cinema.
Yesterday morning when I was on Bluesky1 I came across a post that so disturbed me I decided to craft this piece and its corresponding Letterboxd list. The post read, “Twilight is baby's first monster fucker movie. Shape of Water is a monster fucker movie for grown adults. Nosferatu is a monster fucker movie but for actual perverts.” None of these movies are for sensualists, perverts, or people who actually fuck. We’re losing recipes.
In 2021, RS Benedict wrote the widely shared essay, “Everyone is Beautiful and No One Is Horny”. With its sub-headline remarking that, “Modern action and superhero films fetishize the body, even as they desexualize it.” The essay ties together ideas of how the lack of sexuality explored on-screen nods to younger generation’s notable lack of sexual activity, how the body functions in superhero flicks, and what this means for film within a historical context. She writes, “Today’s stars are action figures, not action heroes. Those perfect bodies exist only for the purpose of inflicting violence upon others. To have fun is to become weak, to let your team down, and to give the enemy a chance to win, like Thor did when he got fat in Endgame.” There have been heated discussions over the years about the lack of sex in American film and misguided arguments that sex scenes are “pointless2”. But this year, sex has made a (shaky) return to the American multiplex with films including the aforementioned Nosferatu, Challengers (which I reviewed for work) and Babygirl (whose ending I wrote about in an essay for Vulture as well).
In watching these works — none of which I am particularly interested in intellectually or turned on by — it has become clear that the main problem in American cinema wasn’t a lack of sex scenes so much as a stunning lack of sensuality. Sex may be in these films but sensuality sure fucking ain’t. So gather round, yearners and perverts, to learn and appreciate what makes a movie that fucks.
