They don’t do sex movies like they used to — and thank God for that.
Comedy's raunchy sister was big in the late '90s and early '00s, as movies like There’s Something About Mary and American Pie became box-office phenomena.
Over twenty years later, sex comedies are making a comeback to the big screen, but their DNA has changed irrevocably. Movies like Bottoms and Joy Ride are changing the rules of the game as a new feminist, LGBTQ-minded generation takes the reins.
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After all, this is not the same world — nor the same Hollywood — that applauded the often sexist, homophobic and fatphobic sense of humour displayed by penis-driven comedies a couple of decades ago.
This is not the comedy bros' world anymore.
We can trace back an early spark that slowly ignited a new wave of sex comedies to 2011's Bridesmaids, a big studio film that proved — because, apparently, it needed to be proven! — that female-led comedies could smash the box office too.
After Paul Feig’s movie created a new path, other movies dealt with the male sex-comedy legacy.
Amy Schumer’s Trainwreck subverted traditional gender roles, Rough Night and Girls Trip brought forward their own take on The Hangover formula, and the critically-acclaimed Booksmart was quickly branded as a female Superbad for a new generation — even if Olivia Wilde’s debut should escape easy comparisons because it’s brilliantly unique.
These movies were trying something fresh and exciting at a time of profound change in Hollywood.
The #MeToo movement marked the start of a societal reckoning in the film industry in the US, while a bigger, worldwide conversation began about intersectional feminism, media representation, sex positivity and ethical practices in film sets.
In that social and political climate, the very white, straight, male foundations of Hollywood trembled slightly. Change was due.
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Since then, sex has been one of the trickiest areas to address on the big screen.
It has also been an issue behind the cameras — intimacy coordinators have become an essential figure in film shootings today, offering safety and regulations for actors who have to perform sex or intimate scenes.
Slowly but consciously, sex is gaining presence again in Hollywood movies, but it’s not as monolithic a vision as it used to be.
Most importantly, some creators are finding the joy and the heart in it.
Don't listen to those skeptical moviegoers ignorantly claiming “political correctness” is ruining movies, incorrectly assuming this new wave of feminist, LGBTQ-friendly movies are not taking risks or pushing thought-provoking, sometimes uncomfortable conversations.
They are, but the perspective has shifted, finding a whole set of unexplored, underrepresented life experiences in the process, from using a wider gender-identity spectrum to breaking the taboo of period sex.
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Now out in UK cinemas, Bottoms makes the teen comedy genre proud with a hilariously absurd take on a classic losers-lie-to-be-popular narrative.
Emma Seligman’s sophomore film follows two teenage girls (Rachel Sennott and The Bear’s Ayo Edebiri) who set up a fight club in high school to hook up with beautiful cheerleaders. These very questionable intentions give way to a story that is filled with both absurdity and social commentary.
"What felt important about doing a high-school teen sex comedy is that I just have never seen teen girls lust over other girls," Seligman said in an interview with Harper's Bazaar.
"I feel like queer teen characters generally don’t get the chance to be horny and selfish onscreen – they’re often portrayed in this light where they only have romantic desires, and I just could never relate to that."
As it turns out, Bottoms is not even the raunchiest sex comedy of the year.
Released last August in the UK, Adele Lim’s Joy Ride should have been renamed Horny Ride, as four Chinese American young women embark on a journey of self-discovery in Asia.
Expect lots of sex, full-frontal nudity, jokes about STIs and vagina tattoos, and overall a hilarious movie experience.
It also shows another clear change that sex comedies — and Hollywood movies in general — have gone through regarding all kinds of diversity.
"Asian women on screen, they think of you as something exotic," said Lim in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter.
"We were like the first subsect on Pornhub. That’s a whole yucky thing. But the reaction from the community has been, “Okay, let’s disavow our sexuality altogether” — which is garbage, because that’s part of us. You’re giving in to terrorists when you do that."
It's never been about erasing sexuality from Hollywood. More like the opposite — it's about showing sex in a intersectional, diverse and unapologetic way.
Even movies that feel closer to the usual sex-comedy standards like Gene Stupnitsky's No Hard Feelings, starring Jennifer Lawrence, are clicking with 2023 audiences, because there is a beating heart behind the story.
It turns out not denigrating women and not belittling minorities' lives in order to make sex fun was a good way to start rebooting a rotten film tradition! Who would have thought?
Bottoms is now out in UK cinemas.
Joy Ride is available to buy or rent digitally on Prime Video, Microsoft Store, Apple TV+ and other retailers.
Mireia (she/her) has been working as a movie and TV journalist for over eight years. Based in the UK, she is a former deputy movies editor at Digital Spy, and previously worked for the Spanish magazine Fotogramas. Mireia's work has been published in other outlets such as Esquire and Elle in Spain, and WeLoveCinema and GamesRadar+ in the UK. She is also a published author, having written the essay Biblioteca Studio Ghibli: Nicky, la aprendiz de bruja about Hayao Miyazaki's Kiki's Delivery Service.
During her years as a freelance journalist and film critic, Mireia has covered festivals around the world and has interviewed high-profile talents such as Kristen Stewart, Ryan Gosling, Jake Gyllenhaal and many more. She's also taken part in juries such as the FIPRESCI jury at Venice Film Festival and the short film jury at Kingston International Film Festival in London. LinkedIn
