The Most Sex Films
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The Most Sex Films
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From Oscar winners to comedy romps, these films explore the range of cinematic sexuality.
Sex is at the core of a lot the greatest movies ever made . It is the most natural of human fascinations—a biological need we spend our lifetimes trying to understand and perfect, which explains why it makes for great drama and great comedy .
The art of seduction is not unlike that of film. What is left to the imagination is often what viewers end up wanting to see the most. Whether it’s just out of frame or just out of touch, a healthy dose of yearning can edge us toward the gratifying moment of passion, even if it never ends up being shown. A tender close-up would otherwise be anti-climactic if not for its initial absence.
Here, we celebrate the sexiest movies of all time—the films where sensuality, romance, attraction, and the need for physical touch are driving forces in the narrative. Whether it’s in sophomoric explorations, gut-wrenching unspoken tensions, or the simple deed itself, sex and film have been entangled together as far back as the medium has existed. These are the best movies about lust, love, and everything in between.
Nothing like a bit of art mixed with horror and satire to get the blood pumping. Velvet Buzzsaw stars Jake Gyllenhaal in an oddly steamy film (seriously, the sex appeal in the film makes no sense, but it is there ) about a supernatural force that comes for those in the art world whose desire for more has overtaken their appreciation of art.
People don't give Steven Soderbergh's Magic Mike the credit it deserves. Following an adult entertainer who takes a newcomer under his wing, the film is the definition of sex appeal, with a buffet of sexy scenes and dance sequences. But what makes it a great is that its plot is pretty solid, as well... a rarity in a film with this much steam.
The Timothée Chalamet and Armie Hammer Italian-set summer romance about a teenage boy who falls in love with his father's apprentice is absolutely electric. Awkward at times, it perfectly captures the excitement and longing of wanting to be with someone despite having no idea what you're doing.
Based on a true story, this 2019 crime drama stars Constance Wu, Jennifer Lopez, Julia Stiles, Keke Palmer, Lili Reinhart, Lizzo, and Cardi B as a group of New York strippers who rob rich Wall Street douchebags after drugging them during a night out.
Olivia Colman, Rachel Weisz, and Emma Stone star as Queen Anne, Sarah Duchess of Marlborough, and Abigail Masham in Yorgos Lanthimos's incredible 2018 dark period comedy. The film follows the love triangle and political power jockeying between Sarah and Abigail as they fight for the queen's love and attention. All three leads were nominated for acting Academy Awards, with Colman winning for Best Actress.
One of the most critically acclaimed movies of the last few years, Portrait of a Lady on Fire follows the artistic love affair between Héloïse and Marianne on the coast of Brittany in the 1770s.
Taron Egerton won a Golden Globe award for his portrayal of Elton John in this 2019 biopic musical. The film focuses on John's fight for sobriety after a career marked by hard partying and substance abuse. The film has also been praised by Esquire for its realistic depiction of a gay sex scene .
Shot in sensual black and white, Sam Levinson's ( Euphoria ) Malcolm & Marie stars John David Washington and Zendaya as a young couple whose relationship is challenged on the night of his latest movie premiere .
From acclaimed director Park Chan-wook, The Handmaiden is a period drama set in colonial Korea and Japan. Based on Sarah Waters’s novel, Fingersmith , The Handmaiden tells the story of two women, one Japanese heiress and one Korean woman. The two have come to serve her, but they fall into a deeply lustful rendezvous. The heated relationship is dialed up even further, however, by an underlying crime: the relationship is a scam to seduce the heiress into losing her inheritance.
Think: Dirty Booksmart . Aubrey Plaza stars as a high school valedictorian determined to cross off her “to-do list” of sexual acts in the summer before she enters college. With supporting performances from Bill Hader, Alia Shawkat, Johnny Simmons, and Sarah Steele, this hilariously candid exploration captures the naive energy of an Urban Dictionary dive gone too far.
When you feel it, you feel it. And, for a Guillermo del Toro protagonist, sometimes that means feeling it for an amphibious humanoid stuck inside of the high-security government laboratory where you work. Both a tender love story and a sci-fi feat, The Shape of Water shows that love heeds no bounds or glass enclosures. It also shows just how important a bathtub can be for a single person on the go.
Robert Eggers’s analysis of two stranded lightkeepers, played by Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe, isolated on a remote island together for two weeks is as bizarre as it is strangely horny. Along with a marathon of ebbing homoerotic tension, the film features an infamous scene between Pattinson and a mermaid figurine. The product is visceral, unnerving, and subtly sexual.
While its themes span much further than sexual exploration, 2016 Best Picture winner Moonlight provides a beautifully dynamic presentation of its protagonist’s sexuality. Following the life of Chiron, a young, queer Black man growing up in Miami, the film’s sensual cinematography and weighted tones of latent sexual expression paint a vivid and complex exploration of identity. Its masterful sex scene is one to be studied by filmmakers for years to come, as it balances subtlety with poignancy, and withholding with release.
If there were ever an adolescent movie that captured the painfully hilarious stereotypes of being a horny teen, Wet Hot American Summer is top of the list. It’s the perfect parody of a coming of age movie, keeping with the clichés of barely dressed women emerging from a body of water, awkward first times, and a feathered-haired Amy Poehler. That last part is kind of niche to this film, but important nonetheless.
When Dane Cook is in a movie, it’s best to temper expectations. Nevertheless, the tale about a guy who seems to be a good luck charm for women unlucky in love is surprisingly sweet. Granted, the premise is that any time Dane Cook sleeps with a woman, she soon after gets married. There are a lot of weddings in the film, so… you do the math.
Booksmart elevates the horny coming of age genre with a bit more of a thoughtful spin on leaving high school and your best friends behind. Make no mistake though, it doesn’t miss the opportunity to lean into one universal teenage truth—always thinking about sex. One of the best scenes involves a van, a principal, a porn, and a cringeworthy phone volume issue that is all too relatable.
Two roommates—played by Elizabeth Banks and Seth Rogen—get in some financial shit, so they try to make some money in the adult film biz. Stay away if you’re not ready to let Star Whores ruin your childhood.
Before a movie about nerds and numbers became our favorite baseball flick, there was Bull Durham —where Kevin Costner’s Crash Davis and Susan Sarandon’s Annie Savoy find themselves doing the only thing that could make minor league baseball interesting.
Two star-crossed ballers try to make a relationship work amidst coach-enforced curfews and the beckoning of D-1 basketball. Featuring what’s probably the only one-on-one game of strip mini-hoops depicted in the history of the moving image.
Stanley Kubrick’s final film stars Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman in an adaptation of a modernist Austrian novella. It’s also pretty much all about sex, with Cruise and Kidman playing a married couple navigating a truly astonishing number of romantic temptations—including a potentially murderous masked orgy cult.
In between breaking each other’s hearts in Blue Valentine, Ryan Gosling and Michelle William find time for a sexual encounter often lauded as one of the most authentic oral sex scenes committed to film.
Atonement is a heavy WWII-era film about the human cost of life-ruining lies, but damn if it doesn’t have the sultriest library sex scene of all time.
Of all the superhero movies, Deadpool is certainly the horniest—a film based on the sexual chemistry between Ryan Reynolds’s Wade and Morena Baccarin’s Vanessa. As you’ll notice throughout the film, these two lovebirds really enjoy having sex! Good for them!
Paul Thomas Anderson's porn epic reveals a behind-the-scenes look at the industry's heyday in the late '70s and early '80s.
A pair of horned-up, upper-crust Manhattan teens (and step-siblings) scheme to bring social ruin upon their classmates in this sexed-up update of Les Liaisons Dangereuses.
This erotic thriller is notorious for Kevin Bacon's nude scene and a threesome between Denise Richards, Neve Campbell, and Matt Dillon.
An Englishman and an American woman go to a bunch of concerts and then have a lot of sex. That's...pretty much it.
I guess if you're planning to cheat on Richard Gere, Olivier Martinez is as good a choice as any.
Not the one about how everybody in Los Angeles is secretly racist—this movie is about people who get really horny over car crashes.
Kathleen Turner plays a Floridian femme fatale in this neo-noir, who easily convinces William Hurt's dimwit lawyer to help her murder her husband.
Three teenage boys embark on a mission to lose their virginity before leaving high school, and manic hijinks ensue.
A group of teenage girls vow to lose their virginity on prom night—but not if their parents succeed in their mission to stop them.
Name a sexier horror-comedy-musical. We'll wait.
Gaspar Noé's 3D fuckfest probably isn't as mind-blowing on your laptop, but the unsimulated sex scenes are still pretty steamy.
Sure, it's a little cheesy, but name a sexy movie that is this funny (especially since it's not meant to be).
This is the movie that Fifty Shades wanted to be, and you can't beat the creepy chemistry between Kim Basinger and Mickey Rourke.
Make no mistake: The lead character in this two-part, four-hour art film is very horny. But it's a Lars Von Trier movie, so it's potentially less sexy than you think.
This might be the only movie about a madcap search for a pack of condoms. It's a sex comedy with a safe sex message!
What enterprising young man wouldn't operate an escort service out of his home when his parents are out of town?
The lead character in this film is so horny that he'll willingly sleep with a guy who he assumes might also be a serial killer.
A generation of Hollywood stars appeared in this comedy that revealed the not-so-secret sex lives of California teenagers.
Jason Biggs is probably not the only actor in Hollywood whose claim to fame comes from having sex with food. But his tryst with a pie is iconic nonetheless.
One of the sexiest coming-of-age stories follows two teenagers who take a road trip with an older woman. Think of all the possibilities!
They're more than friends, but they're not dating. They're simply boning. A lot.
Steve Carell's titular character tries to use it before he loses it in Judd Apatow's grown-up sex comedy.
It's the movie that convinced white women that they could rock cornrows—and dudes who looked like Dudley Moore that they could land women who looked like Bo Derek.
What do you do when you find out your neighbor is a former porn star? Ask her to prom, of course.
Inspired by the true story of Henry Miller's affair with French writer Anaïs Nin, this is the movie responsible for the creation of the NC-17 rating.
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'Fifty Shades' is just the tip of the sex movie iceberg.
You’ll find no shortage of smut here on the internet. That’s Rule 34 (link SFW): If it exists, there’s a porn of it. No judgment from us! (You can even check out our list of the best porn movies of all time here .) But what of the full-length, actually plot-driven movies that happen to have really excellent sex scenes? Well, that’s what this list is all about.
While MC ’s list of the best sex movies of all time necessarily includes a robust selection of erotic thrillers like Body Heat and Dangerous Liaisons —what some may consider the “quintessential” sex movies—we also went and defined the term broadly. This list includes great movies that don’t shy away from sex scenes, even though their plots are ostensibly about other things. You’ll find a section below on queer movies that contain thoughtful and inclusive depictions of sex, like Blue Is the Warmest Colour and the subtly groundbreaking Bound . There’s also a section on campy films that approach the topic of eroticism with a wink, like Secretary and Cruel Intentions . And, of course, we’ve included space for the films that are so stunning they deserve (and have won!) awards, while still being extremely sexy: Think The Handmaiden , She’s Gotta Have It , and Y Tu Mama Tambien .
So celebrate the times when Hollywood has done sex scenes right and check out our list below of the best sex movies of all time.
Just your classic "bored housewife becomes a prostitute to spice up her humdrum life" story.
Affairs. Plotting. Murder. Crimes. Steamy sex worth killing for. This 1981 erotic thriller starring William Hurt and Kathleen Turner was based on the classic Double Indemnity and takes that basic idea (a woman and her lover plotting to murder her husband so they can be together—and get his money) and turns up the sex to eleven.
Basically mainstream porn with a plot. The "erotic historical drama" is about the rise and fall of real-life Roman emperor Caligula. Released in 1979, Caligula features unsimulated sex scenes and stars actual A-list talent like Malcolm McDowell and Helen Mirren.
Essentially the '80s version of Cruel Intentions with unintentional LOLs. Although young John Malkovich—surprisingly hot (even in a ridiculous wig)! Also, TW: rape .
The 9½ weeks in question refers to the length of the relationship of film's main couple—during which time they mostly have sex. It was considered too explicit by its U.S. distributor.
The whole movie's kind of been reduced to that scene. You know, that leg-crossing scene, featuring Sharon Stone's mile-long legs and not featuring any underwear. But the film also has a whole BUNCH of sex—sometimes rough, often sexy, usually with the fear that your partner might be a murderer. Casual!
Gina Gershon happily lets herself be seduced by her neighbor (Jennifer Tilly), whose husband is a jealous criminal. Drama (and more sex) ensues. Fun fact: The scenes were choreographed by a sex educator, and critics praised the film for its realism. So they're hot and empowering, all at the same time!
This 2016 erotic drama follows two very different women over the course of three days as they fall in love with (and make lots of sexy, steamy love to) each other.
This 2003 drama is about an American student in Paris who becomes involved with a brother and sister who are twins and act out, erm, ~fantasies~ together.
This erotic thriller follows a cop (played by Al Pacino) who is on the trail of a serial killer who is attacking people in New York City's gay S&M club scene.
This movie is proof that a film can be beautiful and heart-wrenching and also, like, 99 percent about sex.
The plot of this movie is literally two women meet in a club and then decide to get to know each other by having sex every hour, on the hour.
Sex and Lucía follows a woman (played by the gorgeous Paz Vega) who goes on a personal journey to a remote Spanish island after learning that her tortured artist boyfriend may have committed suicide. On the island, she runs into said boyfriend's former flame and a hot scuba instructor and, well, things happen.
This sexy film noir is trippy (after you watch, do yourself a favor and hop on Reddit to read the theories about it). But it also, as my college friend once told me excitedly, has a "surprise lesbian sex scene right in the middle of it."
Forget Fifty Shades (don't worry, it's coming, pun intended). Secretary dives into the kinky, BDSM-centric relationship between a boss and his new secretary, with so much detail. It's romantic and sweet and sexy AND still a tiny bit shocking. 10/10 would recommend.
This Kubrick masterpiece is basically three hours of trippy sex parties, marital relations and, well, extramarital relations.
In which an evil and vaguely incestuous brother-sister duo make a bet about claiming the virginity of the local "good girl." Honestly, no to this concept, but yessssssss to this movie.
Hugh Grant plays a man who meets an older writer confined to a wheelchair while on a cruise with his wife. Things take a turn for the sexy and strange when the older man decides to teach Hugh Grant's character his erotic skills so he can pleasure both of their wives. Yep.
Can you think of a more successful movie franchise that's fully just about sex? Didn't think so. Though to be fair, Fifty Shades Freed (opens in new tab) tried its best to have an actual plot.
Not to be confused with the 2004 Oscar-winner of the same name, 1996's Crash is about people with a sexual fetish for car crashes. Really.
This film puts the the erotic in erotic thriller, big-time. It features a whole bunch of sex—including a makeout sesh between Neve Campbell and Denise Richards, a threesome, and a full-frontal Kevin Bacon. The film's dark and twisted ( trigger warning: alleged rape, murder ) but also OTT in a sexy, ridiculous way.
This coming-of-age horror, inspired by the rather Freudian folktale vagina dentata (“vagina with teeth”), follows a teen who navigates her sexuality while dealing with the literal affliction, putting a feminist twist on the misogynistic myth.
This Korean drama film centers on a conman's quest to seduce a wealthy Japanese woman to steal away her inheritance. Emphasis on the seduction.
Another movie with unsimulated sex, In the Realm of the Senses is about a former prostitute who starts an affair with her employer, whose penis she ends up casually severing. We'll give you a moment.
The period drama is set just before World War I and delves into, among other things, the complicated relationship between famed psychologists C
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