“The Duke of Burgundy”
Given his interminable interest in erotica, softcore, kink, and psychedelia as they apply to cinema, Peter Strickland’s movies—most of them horrors—are endlessly horny. His latest, “In Fabric” about a murderous haunted dress features a scene where ejaculate dreamily floats across the screen as a perverted old man jacks off outside a window staring in at a department store display where an eccentric clerk fingerbangs a mannequin, Strickland excels at Phantasmagorical horniness! While “In Fabric” get an honorable mention ultimately, it’s his previous film, the BDSM-heavy “The Duke Of Burgundy” that’s the thirstiest and most erogenous of his films. Exquisitely crafted to immaculate perfection, soft, psychedelic, surreal and sensual, builds an enthralling, hypnotic lesbian story of love and control—so much control— that will leave you begging to be enslaved. Deeply underrated (though included on our 100 Best Films Of The Decade), ‘Duke Of Burgundy’ slaps and is utterly spankable – Rodrigo Perez
“God’s Own Country” (2017)
Josh O’Connor is one to watch. He’s earning raves for his work on the third season of “The Crown” and will soon go into Hot Priest Mode in the adaptation of “Emma” coming early next year. However, as his profile rises, be sure to watch the performance that first made people take note of his brilliance. In Francis Lee’s “God’s Own Country,” he plays a reckless farmer named Johnny Saxby whose life changes once Gheorghe, a Romanian migrant worker (Alec Secareanu) works with him and his family during lambing season. Initially, both men are ambivalent towards one another to the point where they physically attack each other. As they lock eyes, though, their fights slowly morph into consummation that is both raw and refined. Whether they have sex in the muddy Yorkshire mountains or take a calm bath together, their romance becomes built on physical intimacy as well as bittersweet love. If you’re horny for accents, cozy sweaters, or literal rolls in the hay, you need to catch this Sundance darling. –MS
“The Handmaiden” (2016)
Park Chan-wook is best known for helming “Oldboy,” so it makes sense to expect bizarre and traumatizing sexual underpinnings in his other work. Yet it’s the deep cosmic attraction between two women that turns the shocking and seedy double and triple twists in “The Handmaiden,” dripping with deep sensual intrigue in every frame, into one of the purest and profound depictions of genuine love through intense lust. The film’s labyrinthine plot, framed by an intricate con wherein a fake count (Jung-woo Ha) rips off a meek Japanese heiress (Min-hee Kim) using her mysterious handmaiden (Tae-ri Kim), upends our perception of every character with every reveal. The end result is a deliciously unpredictable climax. Yet the biggest clue to solving this puzzle lies in the immediately intense and soulful connection the audience feels between the heiress and the handmaiden, which leads to some of the most daring lesbian sex scenes in mainstream cinema since “Mulholland Drive.” Even when we’re suspicious of every character’s motivations, this kind of passion can’t be faked, and Park knows it, thus gradually turning this twisty tale of dastardly deeds into pure romance. –Oktay Ege Kozak
“Her” (2013)
“Her” is a study of loneliness and longing in the social media age, where the not-too-distant future has only further cloistered people into self-constructed online prisons. “Her” takes a hard look at the gulf between contact and connection. Riding a crowded train, working in a busy office, or even going on a date with another person might have the outward appearance of “social,” yet that person might well be in the opposite headspace. With this film, director Spike Jonze asks his audience to consider what really makes an individual lonely, and whether it’s a condition of physical or emotional company. (Don’t worry, we’re getting to the horny part.) The movie’s protagonist, Theodore (Joaquin Phoenix), craving the personal, intimate connection his failed marriage can no longer provide, falls in love with an advanced-A.I. operating system named Samantha (Scarlett Johansson). As their relationship progresses and their bond strengthens, Samantha pushes for a physical encounter, and even arranges for sex with a human surrogate – but it is a true connection that Theodore craves, not sex. This film is horny in the purest sense imaginable, in that the characters in “Her” desire emotional intimacy over the physical. It is a horniness of the brain: Jonze’s film is thus perhaps the most accurate presentation of what it means to lust in the digital wasteland of the 21st century. –Warren Cantrell
“High Life”
There’s a fuckbox in Claire Denis’ bugfucky weird perverted and erotically dirty sci-fi film, which a space witch doctor (a horny af Juliette Binoche) goes into to get her rocks off, when she’s not carrying cum harvesting precious ejaculate around in her hands in the outer space jail she resides. There’s also a deeply disturbing pseudo amative relationship between a father and his teenage daughter—grown rapidly because of the strange proximity of reality-bending black holes—which is more intriguing than disgusting thanks to the filmmaker’s masterful relationship to and command of the mysterious and strange. What else do we need to say, it’s Claire f*ckin’ Denis? – RP
“How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World” (2019)
The dragon-on-dragon romance at the center of “How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World,” serves as a perfect guide for adolescents who have to come to terms with their inseparable BFF reaching puberty and suddenly spending less time with them because they’re more interested in hooking up with someone who will alleviate those funky vibrations that bother them in the groin area. The nerd Viking hero Hiccup (Jay Baruchel) and his trusty dragon Toothless have been inseparable for the first two movies. But that all changes when Toothless discovers another dragon of his breed and nearly turns the franchise NC-17 by hardcore thirsting after her. When Toothless lacks the finesse and knowledge to do the mating dance necessary to woo his female companion, in comes Hiccup. He swallows his sorrow over losing his best friend to the dastardly claws of puberty and helps Toothless finally get some of that dragon action. Some of the most adorable sequences in “The Hidden World” explore the awkward but invigorating first steps into sexual discovery, as Toothless and his new companion take their time calibrating their mutual body language with some hilariously uncomfortable results. Of course, it all eventually works out for them, and we get the most sexually explicit looks between animated characters since the “Can You Feel The Love Tonight” number from the original “Lion King.” If only real-life puberty worked that smoothly. –OEK
“Hustlers” (2019)
This spiritual sister to “Magic Mike” mixes indie melancholy with big-budget glamour to produce a movie that is, from blown-out crown to manicured toe, horny as hell. From Jennifer Lopez’s jaw-dropping opening pole dance to Constance Wu’s grifting girl gang, this movie is chock-a-block with half-naked women working and working it. Lorene Scafaria’s script and camera are delightfully ambivalent, at once exploiting and copying the male gaze, neither condemning sex work as exploitative nor praising it as empowering. In “Hustlers,” stripping is work – these women seek financial rather than sexual gratification, and they are all too aware of the effect they have on men. It’s not the most glamorous view of female sexuality, but it is incredibly fun, especially as the cast radiates infectious joy over their newfound wealth. There are few scenes in recent cinematic history as outright delightful as the one in which this band of merry strippers dances for Usher, erstwhile royalty of the mid-aughts. And, okay, yeah, if you’re watching this movie for entirely prurient reasons, there is that whole sequence where Jennifer Lopez strips Constance Wu. –LW
“Kill Your Darlings” (2013)
If your immediate response to the great beat poets is not arousal, then you must not be John Krokidas, whose Allen Ginsberg biopic “Kill Your Darlings” is easily the horniest literary movie of the 2010s. A coming-of-age tale set against Ginsberg’s college years, the film follows Ginsberg (Daniel Radcliffe, going for it) as he falls into a toxic, erotic friendship with Columbia University’s blondest bad boy, Lucien Carr (Dane DeHaan, somehow sexy). Maybe the film culminates in a homophobic murder, maybe it glorifies notable misogynists like Jack Kerouac, but damn if there isn’t a whole sequence where Ginsberg vividly fantasizes about Carr sucking on his fingers. Krokidas has not directed a feature since, so if he decided to go out on white male literary canon slash fiction, well. You have to respect it. –LW
“Knife + Heart” (2018)
“Knife + Heart,” Yann Gonzalez’s throwback to the giallo films of the ‘70s and ‘80s – most specifically Dario Argento’s “Tenebre” – beautifully balances its overt horniness with a sense of romantic ennui. Anne (Vanessa Pardis) is a producer of low-budget gay pornos who is losing her partner Loïs (Kate Moran) because of her erratic, self-destructive behavior. When a young member of her actor’s troupe is murdered by a masked, knife-wielding killer, she starts to develop her most ambitious film yet: one that re-enacts the murder case of their slain friend. This sets Anne on a path of depravity and hurt as she attempts to win back her love and the killer starts offing other members in her production. The phallic shape of a knife has long been a symbol for repressed sexuality in horror, so the sex-centered “Knife + Heart” is all the more unique and provocative for the way it explores the correlation between sex and violence, and how those two wires can get crossed. –Ryan Oliver
“The Lobster” (2015)
“The Lobster” is the second film on this list directed by Yorgos Lanthimos. Lanthimos made his English-language debut with this film centered around a dystopian world where being single is a crime. The film opens with David (played by Colin Farrell) listening passively to the voice of a girlfriend telling him that their relationship is over. In the very next scene, we see David checking into a hotel and answering a series of questions about his personal life. Turns out in this world, a single person has 45 days after a breakup to find an acceptable new partner, otherwise, they will be turned into an animal. The sexual tension in this film is uncomfortably abundant from start to finish. At the hotel, masturbation is strictly forbidden, as being single is wrong and masturbating is the ultimate solitary pleasure. We see this rule being enforced when the “Lisping Man,” played by John C. Reilly, has his hand-roasted in a toaster when his self-pleasuring is discovered. And the horniness really ratchets up when David flees the hotel for the forest, where the taboos of mainstream society are inverted. There, he isn’t allowed to express the love he feels for the “Short Sighted Woman,” played by Rachel Weisz. The film culminates in a harrowing test of his love for her, cutting off right before we get to find out if David is horny enough to blind himself. –JR
