Gen Z wants less sex in movies

Every generation has their interests and if sex in movies isn't one, who cares? As long as we don't go down that icky road of moralizing why it shouldn't be in movies, there are more than enough other things to fill movies with anyways. If there is less sex in them for awhile, so what?

Yep. I'm not looking for vicarious romance or sex in the vast majority of films. "Ah, so now we're doing the obligatory awkward and pointless sex scene."

Someone should come up with a counterpart to the Bechdel Test regarding pointless hook ups.

• The "Sextell Test"?
• "The "Dr. Smashbooty Test"?
• The "Wiltheybang Test"?
• The "I'mSorryMom&DadICanFastForward Test"?

Give it name, but a name it needs.

I'm no prude/Philistine by any stretch, and have no problem with sexual content, if it furthers plot/character or is otherwise germane the overall meaningfulness of the story.


That said, I think a lot of films these days make much too gratuitous/sensationalist use of it, i.e., The Brutalist (IMO).

I feel the same about the sex in The Brutalist.
On the other hand, I thought the sex and nudity in Anora, though plentiful was perfectly appropriate for the film.

Sex? Whats the issue?

Hell, the movies i enjoy are full of sex and not the conventional kind.

The Bunny Game has a lot of oral sex.

A Chinese Torture Chamber Story has crazy sex, including flying martial art sex.

A Serbian Film, we wont discuss that sex. I dont want to be banned. The same goes with The Life and Death of a Porno Gang, also from Serbia.

My favorite foreign film, Salo, ah, a film based off deSade's work.

Irreversible- French film with sex including rape.

Hell i can name more.

I have no hang up with conventional or any other type.

OK, Boomer.

MovieGal!!!
I'm shocked!


Can I have your phone number?

Why?

Just because my age? My taste in cinema?

I like lots of genres. Sex doesn’t bother me. Im not ashamed of it.

Lol 2 ppl here have my phone number. One i talked to once and not about sex. It was guns used in cinema and the other has yet to call or text. Im ok with this.

I will add a shocking one - Mandragora - gay male teens prostituting sex.

An even more shocking film with sex...the title says it all. And i have seen part 1 & 2.
. Nekromantik.

Both are on Archive.org without subs...

Originally Posted by Corax

Yep. I'm not looking for vicarious romance or sex in the vast majority of films. "Ah, so now we're doing the obligatory awkward and pointless sex scene."

Agreed. Most sex scenes are boring, but scenes where men and women merely kiss (i.e. Reds, You’ve Got Mail, Back to the Future, etc.) are among the most emotionally moving I’ve ever seen on film. Hell, that scene where those two girls kiss in Cruel Intentions was sensual as hell.

I've noticed movies are become way raunchier with more full-frontal nude scenes and more graphic sex scenes than ever before.

In the last few years alone, we've experienced this with films like Anora, The Substance, Poor Things, Babygirl... etc

On the other hand, films are becoming gorier, more violently graphic too when it comes to horror/action films.

This is the new trend now. And I wonder what's causing it.

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Kissing implies intimacy. Coitus implies a barnyard.

At least, that what the act so often looks like (i.e., a farmyard folly) when viewed from the outside. They call it "humping" for a reason. It's rather ridiculous-looking.

Watching pants drop onscreen is like watching an elevator door open: no anticipation, no mystery, no sense of a relationship changing, etc. It will be brief, but intense. It will be athletic, tastefully blocked, with the sexletes achieving an intense mutual orgasm. It's more like a "proof" (e.g., of fertility/vitality) or "audition" (e.g., demonstrating physical prowess) than a depiction of an intimate act.

Basically, it has all the depth of a handshake, a mutual endorsement between two attractive people. "We are, indeed, likeable and hot, so what's next now that we have properly acquainted ourselves?" It is the counterpart to the image below.

>In the last few years alone, we've experienced this with films like Anora, The Substance, Poor Things, Babygirl... etc

None of those remotely mainstream and made by people in their 40s/50s. It's the mainstream movies that seem to be cutting sexual overtones out entirely. It's stuff like cutting a simple kiss out of Twisters because heaven forbid two super-attractive people get attracted to each other. In the end, it's just hurts the believability of their films.

Also Babygirl doesn't belong on the list as it had very little sex. The director's even talked about that stuff makes her nervous.

Now I'm intrigued. I wasn't interested in this until now. Maybe I will check out Babygirl after all.

The more we are reminded we only recently escaped the barnyard ourselves, the better. And we are ridiculous. Every one of us, every minute of the day, whether we are coitus-ing or not.

Ultimately, I support truth in cinema.

This is interesting.
I thought the sex in Poor Things was essential to the film. Essential. And perfectly executed for the material.
As far as sex that doesn't have to do with the plot or themes, sure I could do without that in movies it's distracting.
Almost as distracting as unnecessary romance in films, which is a real distraction from plot and themes, is way more overused than sex in movies, and should be excised from the process. Like a romantic relationship in Twister. That would be much worse than sex in Poor Things in my opinion.

It was.


And even though I haven't seen it yet, I can't help but think Anora's will be too. But I could be wrong. Just because it's about a sex worker, doesn't mean it just gets a total hall pass for no matter how much or how often it wants to show sex. Sometimes it can be too much. Or pointless. Or just for cheap titilation where we don't really need it.


Because, just to be clear, I'm not in love with tonnes of sex in movies either. I definitely feel like it gets tacky and it's something that a lot of hacks do in their movies just to get eyeballs, with nothing at all to do with artistic integrity. I think movies can maybe even be blamed for making sex itself kinda boring these days. They've commodified it, which is it's own separate issue.

Also...I think I want to bring up Oppenheimer for consideration in this thread, because I just saw it recently and....wasn't it criticized for too much gratuitous sex? Because...what? Does some sex now count as being gratuitous for some people? I'd like to hear why anyone would find that one to be a problem, because it seemed like a total non-offender to me.

Yeah, when I was young I liked nudity in movies because I was a young hetero male and there was... nudity. Before this is when there was no internet and when it was still embarrassing to go buy a magazine. Over time, except when there is a purpose to it, such as Poor Things, or in some cases where nudity (and gender isn't even really relevant in this case I don't think, though I haven't thought this all the way through) increases the tension of a situation, as I felt it did in Nosferatu though not everyone agreed, it does seem like an actual distraction and a cheapening of a movie and I also can't help but thinking "Well, we just alienated half the audience for no reason," which kinda sucks. I mean, it takes the whole audience out of the movie when it doesn't have a real purpose because there's people who are suddenly titillated for a reason that has nothing to do with the narrative or themes, people who are turned off for no reason (and I mean that there was no reason for it to be there), or at the very least you have people in the middle who are like, "Oh, they had to put some nudity in" which breaks the spell of the movie. The movie loses on every front unless it is just a sex-comedy or skin-flick where that's the reason people came.
That said, as I started to say above, it can add things like a frightening vulnerability or a sense of very personal intimacy or even a sense, as I've seen in a few movies, of "nothing matters, all is lost", which is one use I really thought was powerful.
Anyway, I didn't see Oppenheimer so I think that's all the thoughts I have at the moment.

I realized this year that sex scenes just derail a movie, and is nothing but a grab. I can't think of a good one, and prefer a quick dissolve - we know what's going on.. Unless it's central, it becomes like that ersatz-artistic movie 'bullshit is the warmest colour"



I remember hearing "Watch 'Swordfish' - you get to see Halle Berry's boobs!"

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I think the sex in Anora was intrinsic to the story. If a movie is about a sex worker, you need to see how she is making her living. This isn't Irma La Douce. We are beyond making cutesy movies about prostitution. I hope.
I thought the sex in Oppenheimer was very evocative of the emotion of the main character. Especially , as he is having sex with his mistress with a stricken look on his face as he is being grilled about his personal life in a trumped up court.
I, myself, am not really interested in sex that doesn't move the story or character forward anymore. But then, I am old and basically not interested in it at all. I don't need to vicariously live through Skinemax soft core porn at this late date. But I did enjoy it back in the day.