Sex isn’t ancillary it’s the major act, the inciting incident, the purpose for the narrative. We’re also going to limit the sex comedies, mainly because they feel like their own category, and, in fact, we already have a list of those we’ll include some of the big ones, though.įor the purpose of this list, we’re talking about movies that are really about sex-where consensual, if not sometimes messy, sex is a fundamental part of the storytelling. (While there are plenty of films that walk the line for thematic and extratextual purposes-think Promising Young Woman-we’re just going to avoid the category altogether.)
And so those movies are movies about sex crimes. It should be obvious, but we’re not talking about nonconsensual sex. And while everything, to some extent, may be about sex, we have to create some boundaries-or else we’ll just be making a list of the best movies of all time. In terms of classification, it's difficult separating the 'romantic movie' from the 'sex movie.' While so many films about “love” feature the venereal, just because a storyline includes sex doesn’t mean the movie is about the act.
