It’s a happy coincidence that our “What makes a good sex scene?” » the episode was released the same week as Challengers, a film about a love triangle in the world of tennis starring Josh O’Connor, Zendaya and (not pictured) Mike Faist.
Photos by Niko Tavernise/Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
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Photos by Niko Tavernise/Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
It’s a happy coincidence that our “What makes a good sex scene?” » the episode was released the same week as Challengers, a film about a love triangle in the world of tennis starring Josh O’Connor, Zendaya and (not pictured) Mike Faist.
Photos by Niko Tavernise/Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
What makes a good sex scene? It can be easier to spot bad sex, but Aisha Harris, Christina Tucker, Ronald Young, Jr. and I tried to focus on the good parts this week. Pop Culture Happy Hour. You can listen to our full conversation here. (We originally did not plan for this episode to air the same week as our episode on Challengers, which is currently in theaters, but that’s a happy coincidence, since that film has gotten a lot of attention—probably too much, relative to its other merits—for the sex scenes involving its three leads. It’s really good.)
It’s often very obvious when a sex scene is bad, just like when a sex scene in a book is bad. It can become so uncomfortable to watch that you have to leave the room (and not in a way that feels true to the story). One of my personal stories about a bad sex scene is when all I can think about is how hard the actors are trying to persuade me that the characters are having a good time. For example, there have been many interesting discussions in recent years about Showgirls It’s a more interesting and competent project than originally thought, but in that pool scene (if you know it, you know it), all I can see is the effort.
It’s not always so clear which scenes these are GOOD. Part of the reason is that they serve many different functions, all of which look different, and all of which can be effective. Additionally, you don’t want to confuse whether a sex scene is well-used in a movie and whether it’s hot for you personally, despite the fact that there is some overlap between these considerations.
Here’s what I mean: when Aisha talks about the sequence at the beginning of Magic Mike’s Last Dance, it is not without importance that the scene is, for her (and for me), hot. But it also makes sense in the context of the film and the franchise, in part because of how it sets up the power dynamic between Mike (Channing Tatum) and Max (Salma Hayek Pinault). Mike is older now, he knows more, and the way he approaches lap dancing is actually different than in previous films.
And not all good sex scenes are equally hot. The one I talked about in the episode, from the romantic drama Love and basketball, it’s sexy, yes. But it’s also a scene between young adults (talented basketball players Monica and Quincy, played by Sanaa Lathan and Omar Epps), and as such it incorporates a hesitation that isn’t present in Magic Mike’s Last Dance, To say the least. As Ronald pointed out during our discussion, this sex scene is quite different from what happens later in Monica and Quincy’s relationship, when they are older and know each other better. This certainly seems true to real life, but it’s not always reflected in Hollywood films, where I tentatively estimate that 90% of on-screen sex is more idealized and therefore less intimate than real sex, partly because that this is not the case. allowed to change over the course of a relationship.
Even further from the heat of the lap dance scene is Ronald’s choice: the imagination of Kitty Oppenheimer (Emily Blunt) running wild in Oppenheimer. While her husband (Cillian Murphy) is being questioned, she imagines him having sex with his mistress, Jean Tatlock (Florence Pugh). It passes quickly enough that it might seem like a Christopher Nolan flourish for fulfillment’s sake, but it’s meant to make you feel her pain over her husband’s affair. Her relationship with Robert doesn’t seem particularly romantic in the film, much less sexually charged; she finds herself consumed by the idea that he was having hot sex with this other woman, and she closes her eyes to her vision of a naked Tatlock and finds herself tormented. It’s not really the point of the scene to titillate the audience, but simply to give specificity to the shape of Kitty’s preoccupation with this matter.
Christina brought up another very important point, which is that sex scenes also offend viewers at very specific moments. His example of Related, and the scenes between Violet (Jennifer Tilly) and Corky (Gina Gershon), touch (among other things) on her own story. This is an underappreciated aspect of the discourse around sex in cinema: representation matters in these scenes as much as anywhere else. I always I would have liked to see more sex scenes in films featuring a wider variety of body types; it’s still very rare to see ones that feature people of average height. This is one of the reasons why I’m curious about the next season of The Bridgerton Chronicleswhich focuses on the gorgeous and curvaceous Penelope (Nicola Coughlan).
Honestly, good sex scenes are like any other good movie: it comes down to execution with purpose and care, done in relation to the function of the scene.
Whether it’s spice, conflict or growth in a relationship or (as in the case of Related) setting up a steamy neo-noir story that wouldn’t be the same if it wasn’t hot, form follows function, ideally.
This piece also appeared on NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour newsletter. Sign up to receive the newsletter so you don’t miss the next one and receive weekly recommendations on what makes us happy.
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