Let’s Talk About Sex! 30 saucy, seductive and sensational movies

1. ANORA (2024)

Hollywood is full of stories about knights in shining armour who whisk women in need of love, care or safety off their feet. These classic stories play to age-old stereotypes of wealthy men arriving in the nick of time for a girl who needs saving, either from poverty, themselves or society. We know these stories are rooted in sexism, age-old beliefs of men as saviours, and pure fantasy, yet over the years, we have gobbled them up like delicious hors d’oeuvres at a lavish buffet. It’s about time someone upturned the buffet table from which we have been feasting, and that person is Sean Baker with his Palme d’Or-winning Anora.

Baker’s stunning movie shouts “fuck you” to the simple Cinderella stories of the past, offering an electrifying comedy-drama as real and gritty as its New York setting. Anora is no fairytale or Pretty Woman-esque romantic comedy; it’s an electric tale of sex, transactional love, escape and youthful fantasy vs stark reality.

Like another stunning 2024 film, Sebastian, Sean Baker’s Anora not only explores the world of sex work from a fresh perspective but also joyously takes an axe to the notion of wealthy knights in shining armour. Baker is no stranger to themes and discussions on sex work, from Tangerine to Red Rocket. With Anora, he once again offers us an energetic, wild ride that defies simple genre labels, effortlessly combining comedy with exquisitely crafted, character-driven drama that places those on the margins of society front and centre.

2. BABYGIRL (2024)

Nobody is a truly open book, even with those closest to us. We all choose what we wish to divulge and what we keep locked away from view. That is never more true than in our deepest sexual desires. From a young age, we are taught to feel shame about sexual interests that stray from the vanilla. From our teenage years onwards, S&M, leather, roleplay, or kink are often quickly labelled as risque, not the norm and weird. As a result, people learn to suppress any sexual thoughts that others might label as odd or perverse. But those internal desires and wants never go away; they often morph into online porn addiction, feelings of shame, self-loathing and even sexual disconnect.

Romy (Nicole Kidman) has it all; she is the CEO of her own company, has a family she loves, and has a husband (Antonio Banderas) who treats her like a queen. But under the surface, her suppressed desires are reaching a boiling point, and an opportunity to finally explore the fantasies she has kept locked away for so long is about to come knocking as a new intern at her company, Samuel (Harris Dickinson), opens a door that can never again be shut.

Romy may be in control of everything in her life, but what she craves in secret is to be controlled, to be a “Babygirl” to a dominant man who makes the rules in the bedroom and follows her instructions outside of it. She wants to be treated as a pet in a game of subservience and domination, yet equally intends to retain her sense of power outside of the bedroom.

Samuel sees Romy’s innermost fantasies from the first meeting because he shares them. Samuel wants to be an alpha male in the bedroom to a powerful woman. He wants to play with the power dynamics inherent in every office across the land, and unlike Romy, he isn’t going to suppress the desires he wants to explore.

3. THE DOOM GENERATION (1995)

Twenty-nine years on from its premiere, The Doom Generation still retains the award for one of the most fucked up film endings ever! But aside from its shocking conclusion, the second part of Gregg Araki’s “Teenage Apocalypse trilogy”, following Totally F***ed Up, remains one of the most audacious, fascinating and brave teen movies of the ’90s. Its endless pop culture references, razor-sharp wit and discussions on gender and sexuality continue to speak to our modern society; in fact, some would argue its messages are even more urgent today, given the current political turmoil in the United States. 

Labelled as a “heterosexual movie,” during the opening credits, The Doom Generation is anything but, as two teens pick up a violent, handsome drifter who sparks their interest and desires as a series of violent events unfold. In Araki’s twisted, sexy and brutal world, themes of sexual conformity, liberation, id, ego and superego combine to create a movie that demands multiple viewings, no matter how challenging the finale may be. And talking of that finale, as Araki nears the final gut-wrenching, upsetting, violent and sad conclusion, The Doom Generation’s message becomes clear: the darkest corners of society will always seek to destroy anything beautiful that deviates from their binary view of gender and sex. The Doom Generation is a one-off gem of 90s independent cinema that has never been equalled in its ability to weave psychosexual discussion with themes of a changing ’90s youth experience.

4. NOWHERE (1997)

Few directors have managed to encapsulate the paranoia, confusion, horniness and energy of youth like Gregg Araki. From the Bonnie and Clyde vibes of The Living End to the psychological complexity of The Doom Generation, Araki’s work challenges its audience to delve into the teenage mind. Araki’s tongue-in-cheek, often violent, hormonal and insecure world of teen fantasies, uncomfortable realities, and uncontrollable hormones would define a new wave of ’90s indie cinema. Araki’s experimental playfulness would place queerness centre stage in a world where homophobia was still rife, illuminating one of the undeniable truths of teenage life: same-sex discovery and experimentation is not only the norm, it’s part of everyone’s coming-of-age journey.

Nowhere would focus its lens on the paranoia of teenage life as the millennium approached. How many of you had discussions in your youth about the end of the world, dying young or surviving in a barren landscape where your friends and family had been wiped off the face of the Earth? Our teenage minds are a tangled mixtape of emotions and thoughts at the best of times, but when you add to that the raging hormones of our newfound desires, everything can seem pretty fucked up. We can feel alone, with nowhere to go. Nowhere’s apocalyptic, drug-fuelled orgy of teenage dread, starring among others James Duval, Nathan Bexton, Christina Applegate, Ryan Phillippe and Rachel True, is as sharp today as it was in 1997, reflecting the anxieties, fears and hormonal rush of teendom through a series of interconnected vignettes. Brave, bold and utterly compelling, Nowhere would conclude Araki’s “Teenage Apocalypse trilogy,” but it would also set the scene for the future arrival of one of his greatest films in 2004, the haunting Mysterious Skin.

5. THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW (1975)

There’s a light over at the Frankenstein place, and it’s beckoning you into the wicked, wonderful and always wild world of Richard O’Brien’s The Rocky Horror Picture Show, a stage show and movie that, fifty years on, continues to thrill. So come along. The Master doesn’t like to be kept waiting.

Everyone who hasn’t spent their life under a rock has a favourite moment, line and song from The Rocky Horror Picture Show, whether it be Janet embracing her long-repressed desires as she sings, “Touch-a touch-a touch-a touch me. I wanna be dirty! Or Dr Frank-N-Furter throwing off his cloak and belting out “I’m just a sweet transvestite, from Transsexual Transylvania.” Every minute, every tune and every character sears a place in the memory, but how did The Rocky Horror Picture Show become the ultimate immersive theatrical experience? Damn it, Janet! We need answers! 

Well, in a nutshell, Rocky Horror defies the sexual shame we are trained to feel from a young age, offering us a liberating, sexually free and always strange journey into what it means to be human, even if our guide Dr Frank-N-Furter isn’t.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show encourages us to break the chains of repression and oppression that restrict us and to embrace our freaky side. It shouts, “Don’t dream it, be it,” and in a world where restrictive conservatism is once again on the march, that is a call we should all answer. 

For those who are new to Rocky Horror, or those, like me, who have proudly been a part of Frank-N-Furter’s freaky found family for years, Rocky Horror invites you to give yourself over to absolute pleasure.

6. CALL ME BY YOUR NAME (2017)

Luca Guadagnino transformed André Aciman’s words into a visually stunning and emotionally resonant cinematic masterpiece. Like the novel, Call Me by Your Name explores themes of memory, desire, place, and emerging sexuality as Guadagnino bathes Elio and Oliver’s journey in the colours of nature.

In Guadagnino’s luscious garden of teenage longing, fruits, food, and foliage are combined with growing desire, sexuality and love as we relive our most tender experiences through Elio’s eyes. Here, the powerful but dangerous sparks of sex and passion speak to all of us who kept our sexuality hidden during youth through a veil of doubt, fear, excitement, heat, and internal longing. Combine this with Timothée Chalamet’s captivating performance as Elio, and you have a modern masterpiece. 

Chalamet’s performance is wrapped in emerging self-identity, emotion, desire, jealousy and excitement as he brings Elio to life through the innermost feelings of a boy on the verge of manhood. A youthful exuberance sits at the heart of Elio’s new self-created Garden of Eden, and here, he attempts to bury his teenage vulnerabilities as he explores Oliver like an ice cube gliding across skin as it melts. 

Elio and Oliver’s relationship is genuine, loving and profound for both men as it challenges ’80s societal expectations. But despite its transformative power, like many a summer romance and many gay connections in youth, it is also fluid and fleeting. 

7. GOOD LUCK TO YOU, LEO GRANDE (2002)

I am always nervous when labelling any film ‘a sex comedy’; after all, it’s a sub-genre that has so often failed to explore the complexities of sex and our human need for physical connection. But, maybe, with director Sophie Hyde’s Good Luck to You, Leo Grande, the sex-comedy has finally come of age.

Good Luck to You, Leo Grande is a movie about Nancy (Emma Thompson), who has been denied sexual adventure and finally, in later life, decides it’s time to experience all the things her husband couldn’t give her. But it’s also the story of a young and devilishly handsome sex worker (Leo) and his need to separate his ‘work’ from his emotions as he feeds the needs of others with no thought as to his own needs in the process. It’s a film about finding yourself through physical intimacy and sexuality, regardless of age; a stunning two-person play that reminds us all that, for many of us, sex is a part of who we are, a foundation stone of our outward confidence and inward esteem.

With intimate, tender performances from Emma Thompson and Daryl McCormack, Sophie Hyde’s intelligent, sharp, and emotional sex comedy is a pure delight. 

8. THE BLUE LAGOON (1980)

Watching The Blue Lagoon today is just as confusing an experience as it was in 1980. After all, Randal Kleiser’s third major picture as a director couldn’t be more different from the revved engines and leather pants of Grease (1978).

Kleiser’s adaptation of Henry De Vere Stacpoole’s book was not the first, as there were two previous versions in 1923 and 1949. But it was the first attempt to dig into the challenging sexual themes found in Stacpoole’s work. After all, this is the story of two cousins marooned on a desert island as children who grow into young lovers and then become parents. It’s the story of what happens when ‘society’ is absent in the lives of children and adolescents as they develop. But unlike Lord of the Flies, The Blue Lagoon is not interested in themes of violence or control but in the formation of sexuality. It is, therefore, all the more confusing that The Blue Lagoon has the spirit of a live-action Disney movie and the soul of a ’70s soft-core porn flick.

The result is a strange blend of Disney-esque innocence, sex, and clunky dialogue that, while epic in construction, feels utterly confused in delivery. Here, the leads, Christopher Atkins and Brooke Shields, often feel exploited through a modern lens, with their looks and bodies far more important than the story at play. But for many a teen, The Blue Lagoon and its stars were the foundation of their own sexual awakening as a strange survival drama became a VHS essential for a whole generation.

9. SEBASTIAN (2024)

Mikko Mäkelä’s stunning film Sebastian offers a thoughtful exploration of Oscar Wilde’s famous quote, “Life imitates art far more than art imitates life,” as it explores sex, intimacy, artistic drive, the exploitation of marginalised voices, and intergenerational gay experience. But it is Mäkelä’s bold conversations on 21st-century sex work that make Sebastian a game-changer. 

LGBTQ+ storytelling has often viewed male sex work as an outcome and cause of trauma and abuse. Films have frequently focused on the need to escape sex work rather than the desire to embrace it, and rarely touched upon the world of online apps as a door to sex work for young men. While Camille Vidal-Naquet’s Sauvage demonstrated the critical role of the sex worker for many older, isolated gay men, and Gus Van Sant’s My Own Private Idaho explored the emotional complexity of a profession hidden in the shadows, both also focused on separation and the need to escape. While Mikko Mäkelä doesn’t shy away from reflecting on the risks Max takes, Sebastian is, at its heart, a portrait of artistic growth, the need for an authentic voice and a young man’s choice to embrace sex work.

Following his debut feature, A Moment in the Reeds (2017), Mikko Mäkelä’s Sebastian is bold in its scope and vision. From Mäkelä’s ability to dovetail erotic sex scenes with moments of quiet reflection to his use of colour in reflecting Max’s internal emotions and the contrast between impersonal urban sprawl and the intimate living spaces that hold our deepest secrets, Sebastian is a masterclass in indie filmmaking and a sensory experience that leaves an indelible mark.

10. SAUVAGE (2018)

Camille Vidal-Naquet’s debut feature is tough, uncompromising and, at times, deeply uncomfortable as he explores the world of street hustlers through a series of conversations on sexuality, social isolation and power. Following a young Leo (Félix Maritaud) as he works the streets of Strasbourg, Vidal-Naquet is not only interested in the physical and emotional toll of prostitution but also its place in our modern world of instant gratification.

Before filming Sauvage, Vidal-Naquet volunteered for many years with a series of charities supporting male street workers. Here, he would engage in daily conversations with the boys and men who sold their bodies on the streets of France. As a result, Sauvage carries an almost documentary-like realism, as the handheld camera follows Leo through a city that is either unable or unwilling to see the world through his eyes.

Leo’s emotional needs are reliant on his peer group, each of whom is struggling with their own inner turmoil. This is a life where drugs are an escape route as weeks and days merge into one. Sauvage may show male prostitution in all its grim reality, but it also isn’t afraid to reflect moments of tenderness as Leo offers a much-needed escape for his clients. Is Sauvage a portrait of a young man in freefall? Or is it an exploration of a tormented soul desperately seeking love? Videl-Naquet leaves that for you to answer.

11. WEIRD SCIENCE (1985)

The average teenage boy spends at least two years locked in their bedroom, slowly working through a year’s supply of tissues while fantasising about sex. Many of the sexual ideas that swim around the young male mind are based on pure fantasy, and many will never be experienced or enacted in later life.

Weird Science understands the teenage male adolescent mind better than it is given credit for, reminding us all that our teenage dreams are often far more exciting than reality. Gary Wallace (Anthony Michael Hall) and Wyatt Donnelly (Ilan Mitchell-Smith) are on a mission to shed their geek label and harness deep, dark magic, along with a sprinkling of new technology, to create the perfect woman. But sometimes dreams come at a cost when all you really need is a good cuddle.

So why not take a trip back to those innocent days before internet porn and dating apps, days when the mysterious and exciting new world of sex still needed a bit of teenage imagination and creativity.

John Hughes loosely based Weird Science on the pre-Comics Code EC Comics titles of the same name, which also inspired a young Stephen King. But in Hughes‘ world, the horror is replaced by laugh-out-loud comedy as Wallace and Donnelly desperately try to improve their street cred while battling the demands of their erections. Thankfully, it all ends well, as their creation, Lisa, helps the boys find themselves and the confidence they have long desired.

12. CRUEL INTENTIONS (1999)

Cruel Intentions would give a late-90s teen audience a dark, twisted, modern take on Dangerous Liaisons. Here, the Vicomte de Valmont and Marquise de Merteuil were transformed into two privileged Manhattan step-siblings, Sebastian (Ryan Phillippe) and Kathryn (Sarah Michelle Gellar). Following a salacious bet involving a car and anal sex, Sebastian and Katherine launch a deadly sexual game involving a new girl in town, Annette Hargrove (Reese Witherspoon) and the wide-eyed Cecile Caldwell (Selma Blair). Cruel Intentions is a sordid tale of wealth, manipulation, sex and control that has never been equalled or matched in its Machiavellian teenage creativity.

By the late ’90s, filmmakers were joyously pushing the boundaries of what was deemed acceptable in teen filmmaking and storytelling. Cruel Intentions is a prime example of this newfound bravery. It’s a movie a whole generation slyly watched while their parents were out, but more than that, it’s a dark, wicked and highly sexual teenage tale that would redefine the boundaries of the teen movie.

13. SHIRLEY (2020)

What happens when you mix the classic biopic with elements of fantasy, fiction and psychological terror? The answer is the deliciously dark, enthralling and compelling Shirley, a film that takes the real-life story of Shirley Jackson and merges it with a fictional young couple sucked into a psychological and sexual game of cat and mouse. Josephine Decker’s Shirley has no intention of playing by the rules as the naive and enthusiastic Rose (Odessa Young) and her loving, career-driven new husband, Fred (Logan Lerman), arrive at the home of Shirley (Elizabeth Moss) and Stanley (Michael Stuhlbarg).

In what feels like a homage to Bram Stoker’s Dracula, the story opens with Rose and her husband, Fred, en route to a new life in Vermont, where Fred will assist Shirley’s husband, Stanley, with his academic research. But as they await their young playthings, Shirley and Stanley have other plans: a dark social experiment in literature, class consciousness and sexuality.

Josephine Decker and screenwriter Sarah Gubbins’ tale of 50s sexual conformity and oppression is far more than a historical dissection of the time; it’s a deep and thrilling journey into the mind of a literary genius who defied her time and place. 

14. THAT COLD DAY IN THE PARK (1969)

Sexual repression is dangerous; it carves a hole in the centre of an individual’s soul that cannot be filled or ignored, a hole that gets bigger and bigger the more you force your desires down. It’s a cold, wet day in Vancouver when the affluent, quiet and slightly aloof Frances (Sandy Dennis) spots a Boy from the window of her apartment (Michael Burns) sitting on a bench as the rain pours, wearing only his jeans and a sodden shirt. Frances can’t bear watching the boy struggle in the rain.

Once her guests have left, she walks down to the park and invites him in to get dry. The boy accepts the invitation and remains silent as Frances runs him a hot bath and hangs up his clothes to dry. As the boy bathes, Frances’s icy frigidity begins to thaw; who is this mysterious boy? Does he have a home? For the first time in years, this lost and lonely young woman has a silent but intriguing young man for company, a marked change from the closed, dusty group of old friends she sees at stilted dinner parties, lawn bowls and drinks receptions, where the much older Dr Charles Stevenson attempts to woo her, not knowing he repulses her.

Adapted by Gillian Freeman from Richard Miles’ 1965 novel, That Cold Day in the Park was Robert Altman’s second feature and one of his most fascinating. Released as the sixties gave way to the ’70s, That Cold Day in the Park explores two opposing worlds of sexuality and freedom, one born from the summer of love and the other rooted in lingering 1950s sexual repression.

As these two worlds attempt to coexist in a Vancouver apartment, what starts as an innocent game quickly becomes a psychodrama, then violently lurches into horror in the final act.

15. THIS IS NOT BERLIN (2019)

From the Kama Sutra to Michelangelo’s David, sex is art, and art is sex. Throughout history, desire, beauty, and allure have been explored through various media, including paintings, literature, sculpture, clay, performance, photography, and film. Hari Sama’s semi-autobiographical This is Not Berlin is alive with sex and rebellion, the intoxicating spirit of art and the energy of 1980s counter-culture. By intertwining the classic coming-of-age movie with an exploration of a newly emerging national identity and sexual freedom, Sama’s film captures the moment when adolescent rebellion and art converge on the streets of Mexico City.

Since childhood, Carlos (Xabiani Ponce de Leon) and Gera (José Antonio Toledano) have been classmates and close friends. Carlos lives with his younger brother and mother, who suffers from severe depression. In contrast, Gera’s home life is stable, with his well-off parents providing for all his needs. Despite their different home lives, Gera and Carlos hold a deep friendship. Gera is fiery, volatile and rebellious, while Carlos is quiet and thoughtful. But as they sneak into an underground music club, both boys are about to find their lives, passions and loves thrown into a new and exciting adult world of rebellion, drugs, sex, and art just as AIDS rips through the city.

Sama beautifully captures the vulnerability of young people taking their first steps into an exciting yet dangerous world, as Carlos and Gera’s friendship changes forever in a city that never sleeps. 

16. AFTERSCHOOL (2008)

If Michael Haneke’s Benny’s Video observed and dissected the arrival of video culture and home filmmaking among early-1990s teens, Antonio Campos’ 2008 feature debut, Afterschool, explored the rise of internet porn, instant video sharing, and YouTube. Antonio Campos paints a disturbing picture of a newly emerging adolescence in which online and offline personas merge. At Campos’ prestigious boarding school, parents step in when needed, and the truth is often an inconvenience that comes at a cost.

In the hands of his young lead, Ezra Miller, a boy mildly obsessed with a new world of online porn and violence, Campos dissects the world of instant media against a backdrop of a growing wealth divide and increasing social paranoia. The resulting journey is profoundly uncomfortable but ahead of its time as it explores sex as a digital commodity and truth as an obstacle to progress. Here, the young people at the heart of the story are both manipulated and manipulators in a brave new world. 

17. FEMME (2023)

The best thrillers play with the multiple identities that surround each of us, blurring the lines between compassion, empathy, and fear. Take, for example, Hitchcock’s Psycho. Norman is both dangerous and vulnerable, a psychologically torn young man formed through a past of hidden abuse and manipulation who defies simple social labels. The same can be said of George MacKay’s volatile Preston as Nathan Stewart-Jarrett’s revenge-torn Jules enters into a relationship with the man who viciously attacked him months before. However, while Jules knows that Preston is his attacker, Preston is unaware of the cat-and-mouse game Jules is playing in a movie that dovetails nerve-shredding tension with deep discussions on the roots of homophobia and the protective personalities we all form in private and in public.  

Femme is based on Sam H. Freeman and Ng Choon Ping’s 2021 short film starring Paapa Essiedu and Harris Dickinson. Here, the directors build upon the neo-noir style of their short in creating a contemporary erotic thriller that understands and unpicks the root cause of so much of the homophobia that continues to thread through our society: sexual insecurity, fear and hyper-masculinity.

Cinematographer James Rhodes’s use of neon colours, streetlights, intimate soft glows, and dark, foreboding shadows builds an exquisite sense of unease, sexual tension, and threat as Sam H. Freeman and Ng Choon Ping allow the outstanding performances of MacKay and Stewart-Jarrett to take centre stage. 

18. KNIFE + HEART (2018)

What do you get if you take 70s gay porn and mix it with the classic 80s slasher? The answer is Knife + Heart. Set in Paris, matriarch and auteur Anne (Vanessa Paradis) spends her time persuading amateur men to perform in a series of gay porn movies. Each young hopeful leaves their menial day job in the hope of fame while finally being allowed to embrace their sexuality free from hate or oppression – their taught and toned bodies becoming the stuff of gay legend in queer XXX cinemas. However, when Anne’s buff young film stars begin to die at the hands of a mysterious leather-faced murderer equipped with a deadly bladed dildo, Anne quickly changes the title of her new movie to ‘Homocidal’ and embarks on a creative mission to uncover the killer’s identity through film. 

Yann Gonzalez’s film not only celebrates the history of gay porn and horror but wraps his narrative journey in a series of social discussions as 70s gay liberation was replaced by fear, discrimination, and AIDS took hold. The result is a gay slasher that pays homage to William Friedkin’s Cruising, the budget gay porn of the 70s, Giallo, and the simmering sexual tension of Stranger by the Lake. 

There are nods to classic horror, from An American Werewolf in London to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and The Bird with the Crystal Plumage. Yet Knife + Heart also feels utterly unique—a camp horror film full to the brim with broader discussions of the intersection of sex and art in film. As a result, Gonzalez offers us something unique and compelling in the landscape of LGBTQ+ horror as he bathes us in an intoxicating and proudly queer mix of artistic styles that are as sharp as the razor-lined dildo the killer wields.

19. 54: DIRECTOR’S CUT (2015)

Sex sells. Disco entrepreneurs Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager understood the importance of sex in putting on a show everyone wanted to be a part of in the creation of Studio 54. 54 wasn’t just a club; it was a lifestyle, a fever dream, and an escape. It offered the rich an opportunity to meet the beautiful and the beautiful a chance to woo the rich in a club where rules didn’t apply. In 1998, director Mark Christopher and stars Mike Myers and Ryan Phillippe brought the hedonistic glory of Studio 54 to the big screen with the story of a New Jersey boy caught in the headlights of Rubell’s disco empire.

54 was slated by critics, with many criticising Philippe’s character, while others pointed to a lack of raw sex appeal and subversive energy. But it soon became clear that the theatrical version had been butchered by its executive producer, Harvey Weinstein, with the queer undercurrents all but removed for its cinema release. Thankfully, in 2015, 54 was put back together using rescued footage. While it’s not perfect due to the degraded video, Mark Christopher’s homage to hedonism, sexual freedom, and disco finally had its long-overdue moment in the spotlight.

20. SALTBURN (2023)

Great Britain is a country marked by a significant divide in opportunity, wealth, and privilege. It’s a divide we proudly exported worldwide under the empire, and continues to see Britain largely governed by inherited power and a “who you know” culture of old-school ties. This wealth divide gives rise to Bullingdon Club leaders like Boris Johnson, who believe they are above the rules they dictate, and many business leaders who discuss diversity in soundbites with little understanding of the communities they speak about.

Many films have sought to explore and expose the wealth divide at the heart of British life, from If… (1968) to The Riot Club (2014), each dissecting the inherited power and privilege that underpin the British state. Emerald Fennell’s Saltburn joins this prestigious club of films as it joyously takes a scalpel to the British wealth divide before sprinkling lashings of salt on the open wounds.

With lashings of delightfully dark comedy, Fennel’s film, like Triangle of Sadness, isn’t just interested in dissecting wealth and privilege but the power and political gameplay that leads to the throne. As a result, Saltburn feels like Game of Thrones meets Brideshead Revisited, as the chess game that starts in Oxford and continues in Saltburn reaches its delightfully dark, wicked climax.

Fennel’s film bathes in the sultry summer sun of an estate inhabited by eccentric, polite yet obnoxious people who lack any understanding of the world outside the gates; Saltburn is their kingdom, their castle, and their prison as they lounge, eat, drink, and discuss the beauty of their privilege. Here, an outstanding ensemble cast relishes every word of dialogue, delivering outrageous gags and conversations that demonstrate their separation from reality. But it’s Keoghan and Elordi who steal the show.

21. X (2022)

Horror and sex have been intrinsically linked since the creation of the motion picture. From the rampant sexuality of the vampire, as it sinks its teeth into a victim, to the sexual vulnerability of two stalked young teens making out before their murder. Sex, fear, and horror go hand in hand. The slasher sub-genre, in particular, is often viewed as being driven by sex. Here, not only is the ‘final girl’ threatened by a male murderer, but she is generally a virgin who doesn’t engage in sex like the other girls who are offed in the opening hour.

Meanwhile, in the rare case of a ‘final boy‘, the young man’s sexuality is often placed under the microscope because a dominant male figure threatens him. Both porn and horror understand that fear and excitement are linked in the human brain and often converge like an exhilarating but petrifying rollercoaster ride. 

Ti West’s incredibly clever homage to the origins of the slasher genre, X, pays tribute to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Psycho, among others, as it explores the cinematic foundations of porn, horror and art. But far from being a mere blood-soaked cinematic seminar, West adds a new layer to the frame: our fear of sex and age.

If Good Luck to You, Leo Grande explored the power of rediscovering your sexual identity in older age; X demonstrated the horrors of an ageing body, the terror of losing your sexual identity and the fear of becoming sexually invisible. In West’s film, porn, sex, and pleasure are playthings of the young and the beautiful, and he isn’t wrong – look at the world of porn and moviemaking. In porn, careers are brief, and a mere wrinkle is the equivalent of a life-ending cancerous growth, while in Hollywood, youth and beauty always have and always will reign supreme.

West’s discussions on age, sexuality and horror certainly aren’t new; older people are regularly viewed as horrifying in films, from Norman Bates’ mother to the woman in the bathtub in The Shining. But West builds upon these depictions by further unpicking human fears of sex, age and sexuality in a world built upon youthful looks and ideals. Here, he asks whether the porn industry and the film industry helped create a world where people feel discarded in later life, or whether we made that world ourselves due to our obsession with youth and beauty. 

22. RAW (2016)

Teenager Justine (Garance Marillier) may be a vegetarian as Raw opens, but after eating a rabbit kidney as part of a college hazing ritual, she quickly develops a taste for meat that can’t be controlled. French director Julia Ducournau’s debut feature isn’t just a delicious slice of modern horror; it’s a veritable banquet of discussions on sexual hunger and female empowerment. In Ducournau’s wild, vivid and gory celebration of womanhood, the body horror of Cronenberg is mixed with a genuinely unique exploration of a girl’s sexual awakening.

Ducournau explores the erotic nature of Justine’s insatiable new appetite before launching into a genuinely horrific final act where sex, desire and hunger take control. Like Bones and All, it’s clear not everyone will survive this buffet of body parts and discovery, but it’s also clear that Justine’s newfound confidence in her desires and wants knows no bounds.

23. RIALTO (2019)

Based on Mark O’Halloran’s stage play, “Trade”, Peter Mackie Burns, Rialto, is a stunning and nuanced journey into repression, guilt, belonging, and identity through the complex relationship between a teenage rent boy and a father whose life is spiralling out of control.

In O’Halloran and Mackie Burns’ tale, two men sit on the verge of society, one through hardship and the other through self-repression. Colm (Tom Vaughan-Lawlor) has spent his life working the docks of Dublin, his very existence symbolic of the steel units he cares for, as he compartmentalises his life.

Following the death of his controlling father, a man he could never please, and the growing risk of redundancy at work, Colm turns to alcohol as a crutch, but booze isn’t enough as he seeks sexual release through a secret toilet rendezvous with a local rent boy called Jay (Tom Glynn-Carney). However, as he shuffles into the cubicle with the blond-haired boy, fear and apprehension surround him, and the encounter quickly fizzles into anxiety and regret. But Colm has dropped his wallet, and the savvy young hustler has picked it up, knowing there is an opportunity to scam the nervous “straight” man for money. But a relationship that starts as blackmail soon morphs into something different as both men become a crutch for one another, as a deep exploration of masculinity and sexuality comes into view.

Trade/Rialto offers an intimate character study of a man on the verge of emotional collapse and a teenage hustler trying to hold his life together by any means. The sexuality of Jay and Colm isn’t the centre of attention, as both men search for something far more difficult to define: a sense of belonging and security in a world of fixed masculine ideals. Here, Colm screams for escape despite the love of his wife and kids, while Jay longs to return to his newborn daughter and a girlfriend who gave up on him long ago. 

Trade/Rialto is a story of mutual support and therapy at a price, as passion, fear, and secrets are brought into the light with explosive results.

24. QUEER (2024)

Set in Mexico City in the early fifties, Queer follows William Lee’s (Daniel Craig) pursuit of a younger man, Eugene Allerton (Drew Starkey), a sexy American drifter whose true sexuality and desires are never wholly explicit. Lee is also an American seeking escape and freedom in the bars of Mexico City. Here, he can feed his drug and alcohol addiction freely while at the same time indulging in sex free from persecution or discussion, sometimes with rent boys and always with the chiselled beauty of a younger man. He is a wolf in a sweat-drenched white suit, constantly stalking his prey, ready to pounce at any opportunity. But Eugene is different to the rent boys or passing travellers Lee is accustomed to. His beauty is magnetic, his presence electric, and his conversations mysterious. He is an alluring enigma Lee cannot solve, a puzzle box Lee must own, but one he will never understand.

Guadagnino‘s bravery in adapting Queer should not be underestimated, nor should the skill of screenwriter Justin Kuritzkes (Challengers) in unpicking this knotty literary maze. Burroughs’s work is notoriously difficult to adapt, and the overt and covert themes, as well as its unfinished nature, presented Guadagnino and Kuritzkes with a unique challenge. But they rose to this challenge by creating a hypnotic, haunting and intensely erotic puzzle box of a movie.

Every frame of Queer is brazenly bold, enticingly seductive, and utterly timeless, from Mexico City’s ageing French Art Deco buildings to the surrealism of Lee’s drug-fueled episodes and a jungle expedition in search of an emotional bond. 

Queer is a movie that is designed to be felt rather than purely watched, a multi-sensory experience that defies simple explanation. It is a film that carves an eternal place in your memory.

25. RISKY BUSINESS (1983)

Released in 1983, Risky Business would break new ground in the teen sex-comedy genre while introducing the world to Tom Cruise. Directed by Paul Brickman, many assumed Risky Business would play with the classic comedic riffs of Porky’s (1981) or Private Lessons (1981); however, like Fast Times at Ridgemont High the year before, Brickman’s movie would offer a far more thought-provoking exploration of teenage dreams, reward, risk and consequence.

Set in the suburbs of Chicago, Risky Business introduced us to the Grade A student, Joel Goodsen and a capitalist world of risky ventures when his middle-class parents are away. However, while these ventures are transformative in both personal and financial ways, they also carry significant risks. It’s a film that reminds us of the drive many young people carry and their naivety about the pitfalls that may lie ahead, but more than that, it reflects a newly emerging culture of money, sex, and power as the smoke and mirrors of the 80s American dream took hold. 

26. CHALLENGERS (2024)

WORDS SAB ASTLEY

Guadagnino’s tête-a-tennis drops us into the middle of a love triangle between Zendaya’s almost-pro-turned-coach Tashi Duncan, her struggling champion husband, Art Donaldson, played by star-on-the-rise Mike Faist, and her spurned lover Patrick Zweig, Josh O’Connor playing against type as the connivingly seductive spurned lover. The trio has a shared, messy history. Both Mike and Patrick have been involved with Tashi at some point, and, in classic Guadagnino fashion, the boys have some unresolved tension as well.

Everything in Challengers is constructed from a stylistic foundation. Conversations are cut together sharply, with barbs and retorts striking the camera around the college cafeterias, hotel rooms and steamy saunas. We bounce backwards and forwards through past and present like a ricocheting tennis ball, anchored by a challenger game between Art and Patrick, where our investment in the ultimate winner is titillated further and further as we untangle this net of rackets and romance.

27. STRANGER BY THE LAKE (2013)

For many men, the excitement, apprehension, fear and desire of cruising for sex remains a core part of their world, whether in person or online. These secret, clandestine and often risky public encounters transcend simple labels in a secretive world where sexual identity is obscured by desire. Over the years, the act of cruising has been explored in several thrillers, but in 2013, it truly came out of the closet with Stranger by the Lake, which brought us a thriller steeped in themes of trust, desire, fragility, masculinity, and connection. Alain Guiraudie’s film burns bright with the sheer heat of male sexual desire in a slow-burning mystery thriller that is utterly captivating and beautiful.

Stranger by the Lake is not only a groundbreaking LGBTQ+ thriller but also a commentary on blind love, the need for belonging at any cost, and the choices we make when searching for a quick release or a more meaningful connection. The result is an atmospheric, Hitchcockian thriller that works on multiple levels, leaving its audience with a nail-biting cliffhanger Hitchcock himself would be proud of.

28. PASSAGES (2023)

Some people are never content in any relationship they enter, but are equally unable to live outside of one. These people often explore their sexual desires away from their partner’s knowledge while retaining the comfort and security that their partner offers. Equally, some people know their partners aren’t capable of being faithful but go along with it in the knowledge that they, too, cannot be alone.

Ira Sachs’s Passages understands that relationships come in many forms, with many conditions and agreements formed along the way to maintain security and comfort.

At first glance, Sachs’ fascinating, sensual, and bold drama appears to be a classic love triangle in which two gay men and a straight woman are caught in a game that can only lead to heartbreak. But Passages is so much more than a classic love triangle. Sachs’ movie reflects just how messy relationships can be, how communication can falter, how sex can spark a flame that quickly dies, and the complexity of forgiveness.

29. HIGH LIFE (2018)

In an unspecified future, young criminals on death row are sent on a one-way journey: their mission is to gather scientific data on a black hole’s energy. The isolation of their trip provides an opportunity for each man and woman to contemplate their crime and repent of their sins; however, as they speed through the universe, their bodies succumb to the effects of deep space travel, their lives controlled by drugs and forced medical experimentation. Monte (Robert Pattinson) and a baby girl are alone and isolated on a drifting ship as Claire Denis’ science fiction story opens, but it’s not long before we are taken back to a time when the ship was full of convicts, each a guinea pig for Dr Dib’s (Juliette Binoche).

Claire Denis’ masterful movie strips back the human experience to its base components of sex, reproduction, protection and survival, exploring the animalistic triggers that all humans are subject to within the confines of a biblical floating ark of sexuality, desire and punishment.

30. REPULSION (1965)

WORDS AGI SAJTI

Roman Polanski’s first English-language film is quite possibly one of the most influential psychological horrors of the 1960s. Opening in London, the plot follows Carol (Catherine Deneuve), a manicurist living with her older sister, Helen (Yvonne Furneaux). It is apparent early on that Carol struggles with daily interactions and seems to be repulsed by men to an extreme extent – when her suitor, Colin (John Fraser), tries to kiss her, she immediately brushes her teeth. At the same time, she almost throws up from the odour of a shirt left lying around by her sister’s boyfriend, Michael (Ian Hendry). As Helen and Michael leave for a trip abroad, the story moves to the flat’s confines, where we witness Carol’s slow descent into insanity with haunting precision.

Polanski parallels Carol’s fragmenting mental state with the suffocating and slowly deteriorating interior of the flat, thereby creating the first part of his so-called “Apartment trilogy,” which also included Rosemary’s Baby (1968) and The Tenant (1976). There is clearly a basis for Carol’s neurological and mental breakdown, yet the film does not include a “professional” character (like the psychiatrist at the end of Psycho) to explain or rationalise her psychosis, a key element of similar films of the time. 

Repulsion’s atmosphere, set design, and surreal hallucination sequences create a unique and chilling psychological experience. However, the film’s greatest asset is Catherine Deneuve, an unknown 21-year-old French actress at the time of the film’s release, whose performance elevates Repulsion into an undeniable masterpiece of 1960s horror.