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The 20 most disturbing sex-themed movies

Article: The 20 most disturbing sex-themed movies

Posted January 21st, 2011, 1:01 PM by

We were going to do a top ten list but there are so many disturbing movies made about sex, we had to bump it up to 20. Let us know if there are any others you think should have made the cut.

Irreversible: If you can get through the first ten minutes of hard-core sex and violence at the gay club (subtly called “Rectum”) in this brutal movie about rape and revenge, then you’ve got a stronger constitution than we do.
Breaking the Waves: The simple-minded wife of a newly disabled man misinterprets his desire for her to find the pleasure he can no longer deliver elsewhere and engages in riskier and riskier behavior until she (spoiler alert) ends up killed via gang bang. The feel good movie of 1996!

Loving hating Gwyneth

Article: Loving hating Gwyneth

Posted January 18th, 2011, 1:01 PM by

We always knew Gwyneth Paltrow was kind of annoying, but we didn’t realize it was “official” until we read the recent Time magazine review of her new movie “Country Strong,” which wasn’t so much a movie review as it was an account of how much people love to hate this privileged daughter of Hollywood elite…

Can best friends be sex friends?

Article: Can best friends be sex friends?

Posted January 13th, 2011, 1:01 PM by

You gotta love a movie trailer with lots of swear words, nudity, sex scenes and menstruation references. We don’t think we’ve looked forward to an Ashton Kucher vehicle since “Dude, Where’s My Car,” but the “restricted” trailer (NOT one of the many sanitized-for-tv versions) for his next flick, “No Strings Attached,” co-starring the ever-present Natalie…

Movie theater trailer marriage proposals

Article: Movie theater trailer marriage proposals

Posted January 03rd, 2011, 1:01 PM by

The 21st century’s answer to the skywriting marriage proposal is turning out to be the movie theater trailer proposal, with production values and costs ever increasing. In 2008, there was the simple surprise by the nerdy boyfriend, followed by the more complicated yet similarly unwatchable airplane disaster trailer that same year, and the open love letter with the ear-shattering Kenny-G soundtrack in 2009 (here’s the in-theater reaction).

Blah blah blah movies

Article: Blah blah blah movies

Posted December 15th, 2010, 5:12 PM by

In the spirit of Mad Men’s Don Draper “What?” video or LOST’s “6 seasons of Sawyer saying ‘son of a bitch’” comes this compilation of clips from various movies with people and characters saying “blah blah blah.”

10 best movie sex scenes of 2010

Article: 10 best movie sex scenes of 2010

Posted December 10th, 2010, 1:12 PM by

Okay, make that, the ten best movie sex scenes and/or kissing scenes of 2010. Things were a little prudish out there this year — you had to get your vicarious thrills where you could… and besides, we like to work with an all-inclusive definition of sex around these parts. Kissing counts too!

Get Him to the Greek: The awkward, let’s-not-do-this-again threeway. Low on chemistry, high on reality factor, unlike most on-screen threeways these days (yes, we’re talking to you, Gossip Girl). Oh yeah, and it’s an M-M-F threesome…meaning, Russell Brand and Jonah Hill totally French.
Date Night: The sweet, married, sitting-side-by-side-in-a-diner-booth kiss. The one on the doorstep in broad daylight (hi, neighbor!) is not bad either. Hey, cheesy goes a long way after a decade or two of marriage. Let’s hear it for monogamy!

Famous movie scenes recreated with LEGO

Article: Famous movie scenes recreated with LEGO

Posted November 09th, 2010, 1:11 PM by

Alex Eylar uses LEGO bricks and meticulous set-ups to recreate stills of famous scenes from American cinema. For this iconic shot from THE SHINING, he writes: The Shining twins are one of the few things in this world that REALLY creep me out. I saw that scene on TV when I was little; it’s always…

The raw sex scenes of "Blue Valentine"

Article: The raw sex scenes of "Blue Valentine"

Posted September 14th, 2010, 1:09 PM by

One of the films we’re most excited to see in the next few months is the indie-flick 12 years in the making, “Blue Valentine,” starring Michelle Williams and Ryan Gosling and out December 31st. It’s an intimate portrait — almost documentary style — of a relationship/marriage over the course of several years, cross-cutting between different time periods. There was very little rehearsing, lots of time spent together in character before shooting, picking fights on the days they were filming fights. The two actors are on the cover of W magazine this month, with an interview by Lynn Hirschberg inside, in which they discuss, among other things, the very intense sex scenes:

"Hysteria," a vibrator rom-com

Article: "Hysteria," a vibrator rom-com

Posted August 26th, 2010, 1:08 PM by

Back in the 1800s, hysteria (literally, “womb disease”) was considered the most common “disorder” among women; its symptoms were mental and emotional distress, thought to be brought on by the womb’s revolt against sexual deprivation. (Live in a sexist society where you can’t vote or work and you have to submit to the uninspired jackhammering of your owner/husband, and you’d be distressed, too.) By some estimates, as many as three-quarters of all women suffered from this “hysteria,” and, in fact, mention of the ailment can be found as early as 4 BC.

Perverse "Twilight" merch

Article: Perverse "Twilight" merch

Posted July 07th, 2010, 1:07 PM by

From the “why didn’t we think of that?” department: Salon recently put together a slide show of the strangest “Twilight Saga” merchandise out there — most of it disturbingly sexual, especially considering how little sex there is in the series (and what sex there is, as you probably know, is utterly disappointing). There are condoms…

Eric Yahnker's numerical DVD organization

Article: Eric Yahnker's numerical DVD organization

Posted June 18th, 2010, 4:06 PM by

Artist Eric Yahnker offers the slightly OCD media buff a new method of organizing their movie collection. His “<0 – 101” piece seen above at first glance looks just like a haphazard shelf of movies and albums. However, the artist actually placed “various media with numerical titles in sequential order from “Less Than Zero” to…

The documentary "The Nature of Existence"

Article: The documentary "The Nature of Existence"

Posted June 17th, 2010, 1:06 PM by

There’s a new documentary out this summer from the director of TREKKIES  called THE NATURE OF EXISTENCE (it opens tomorrow in NY at The Quad Cinemas), in which various philosophers, history scholars, religious leaders and fanatics from all over the world are asked tough questions about the purpose of human beings on Earth. The filmmaker…

The Bechdel Test*

Article: The Bechdel Test*

Posted June 11th, 2010, 2:06 PM by

Thanks in large part to a video made last December by Anita Sarkeesian of FeministFrequency.com that’s been making the rounds recently on the Internet, more of the world knows about the Bechdel Test.* Back in 1985, Alison Bechdel’s comic “Dykes to Watch Out For” mentioned “The Rule,” one character’s three simple requirements for whether or…

The 10 Most Annoying Types of Customers at the Cineplex

Article: The 10 Most Annoying Types of Customers at the Cineplex

Posted April 06th, 2010, 6:04 PM by

1) The ones that climb over you to go to the bathroom. Eight times!! Wear diapers!

2) The ones that loudly narrate the whole film, either because they’re unable to differentiate it from a TV show or because they’re trying to make sense of the plot by talking themselves through it. When it’s something as simple as THE TOOTH FAIRY, this can get a little annoying.

3) Similarly: People who ask obvious questions all through the film, blaring out their ignorance with every query. “Who’s that?…Why is she looking at him like that?….Where’s he going?…” I’m still emotionally scarred from the time decades ago when my brain-dead companion seriously screeched, “So what IS Sophie’s choice, anyway?”

The wisdom of Corey Haim

Article: The wisdom of Corey Haim

Posted March 10th, 2010, 6:03 PM by

We were too young to realize it at the time, but Corey Haim’s LUCAS (1986) showed us exactly why the band geek makes a better boyfriend than the captain of the football team. Rest in peace, Corey Haim — you may not have been the most eloquent cast member of the reality show The Two Coreys, but the wisdom of your characters continues to ring true. Here are our top ten favorite on-screen Corey moments — heavily favored toward LUCAS, of course. What can we say? That kid was a hero:

1. From LUCAS (1986)

Maggie: You know how wonderful you are?
Lucas: Yeah, but it doesn’t turn you on, does it?

2. From DREAM A LITTLE DREAM (1989)

Bobby [Corey Feldman]: Dinger! Dinger, wake up for a minute. I gotta talk to you, Buddy.
Dinger [Corey Haim]: Bobby, I’m asleep. I’m fast asleep, Bobby. I’m dreaming. Apache women. Mai-tais. Vanna White and a whip.
Bobby: I’m in love.
Dinger: That could be a problem.
Bobby: I don’t think you understand.
Dinger: No, no, I do understand. I really do. Which hand is it this week, pal?

Em & Lo's 1st Annual Hotscars

Article: Em & Lo's 1st Annual Hotscars

Posted March 04th, 2010, 4:03 PM by

Most Disappointing Sex Scene: The Na’vi love scene in AVATAR. Um, how could their tails NOT mesh? We’re waiting for the unrated version on Blue Ray and it better deliver.
Couple with Least Chemistry: Meryl Streep and Steve Martin in IT’S COMPLICATED

Sundance Films Top 10 Infidelities

Article: Sundance Films Top 10 Infidelities

Posted January 20th, 2010, 12:01 PM by

To count down to the Sundance Film Festival, we’ve been blogging about some of our favorite movie moments in the festival’s history. We’ve covered the Top 10 Lessons in Love, Top 10 Lessons in Young Love, Top 10 Oddest Couples, and Top 10 Sexy-FAIL Moments. This week is the final installment, and we saved the worst for last — infidelity, so bad for marriages, but so good for movie-makers. As Tolstoy sort of said, all happy marriages resemble one another, but each unhappy marriage is unhappy in its own way. Have a nice day!

  1. PERSONAL VELOCITY: THREE PORTRAITS: This movie is soaked through with infidelity, in particular the knock-on effect that infidelity (and its close cousins, abandonment and divorce) has on the kids. Philip Larkin put it best: “They fuck you up, your mum and dad. / They may not mean to, but they do. / They fill you with the faults they had / And add some extra, just for you.”
  2. THE INFORMERS: Based on Bret Easton Ellis’s story collection (’nuff said, perhaps?), this film’s speciality is early ’80s L.A. infidelity. In other words, the sex is fueled by booze and drugs and is even emptier than your average illicit shag.
Sundance Films Top 10 Sexy-FAIL Moments

Article: Sundance Films Top 10 Sexy-FAIL Moments

Posted January 13th, 2010, 4:01 PM by

To count down to the Sundance Film Festival, we’re blogging about some of our favorite movie moments in the festival’s history. We’ve covered the Top 10 Lessons in Love, Top 10 Lessons in Young Love and the Top 10 Oddest Couples. This week, we’re featuring the movie moments that make you feel funny in a bad way, make you squirm in your seat, give you second-hand embarrassment or leave you holding your knees rocking back and forth saying “No” over and over.

342 movies of 2009 in 7 minutes

Article: 342 movies of 2009 in 7 minutes

Posted December 31st, 2009, 7:12 PM by

If you were too busy or too broke (17 dollars per movie ticket can really add up!) this year to go to the movie theater, then watch this fantastic mashup video of 342 movies from 2009 crammed into 7 minutes to get caught up. The transitions between the various films were rather well done. If…

It's not complicated, just boring

Article: It's not complicated, just boring

Posted December 28th, 2009, 4:12 PM by

We should have known from Daphne Merkin’s NY Times Sunday magazine cover story last week on Nancy Meyers and her new film IT’S COMPLICATED not to have high expectations: she never really came out and called it a winner. Still, we were so inspired by Meryl Streep’s recent exclamations about over-fifty sex scenes (“The whole idea that you have to look a certain way and be a certain age to earn love is ridiculous. We love what we love. It doesn’t matter what shape it is. It’s thrilling to see real people on screen”), we got hopeful. And how could we not root for a movie made by that rare species — the female director — that casts a beautiful, successful, funny, desirable middle-aged woman without plastic surgery (another rare species in Hollywood) as the protagonist? And so we found ourselves watching IT’S COMPLICATED over the long holiday weekend . . . only to be deeply disappointed.

Sundance Film Festival's Top 10 Lessons in Love

Article: Sundance Film Festival's Top 10 Lessons in Love

Posted December 23rd, 2009, 12:12 PM by

The movies are a great place to learn about life, including your love life. Let the characters in these ten Sundance Festival films make the big dating and mating mistakes so you don’t have to:

  1. Once: Sometimes the best love affairs are the ones you never have (i.e. the fantasy is often better than the reality).

  2. The Tao of Steve: In order to be successful with women, be desireless, be excellent, be gone.

Top 10 Most Romantic Holiday Movies

Article: Top 10 Most Romantic Holiday Movies

Posted December 10th, 2009, 12:12 PM by

We’re suckers for Christmas. The bright lights, the gingerbread houses, the cheesy music, the British “crackers,” the ability to eat and drink to excess without being considered a glutton or an alcoholic! We especially love that cozy feeling that comes from watching favorite movies with a wintery vibe — not necessarily official Christmas movies, but just ones that honor love and family with some cold weather thrown in. Here’s our top 10. (If you’re wondering why “Love, Actually”, the definition of “romantic holiday movie”, didn’t make the cut, it’s because Lo thinks that sexist movie sucked reindeer balls.)

What it felt like the very first time

Article: What it felt like the very first time

Posted July 20th, 2009, 12:07 PM by

Eve Waltermaurer, a professor of sociology at SUNY New Paltz, is producer and director of FIRST, a documentary about women’s sexual first times. The film features ten women, ages 16 to 89, spilling the beans in their own bedrooms (complete with teddy bear and framed prom photo, in one case). We chatted with Eve about all things cherry-poppin’…
EM & LO: How do you define virginity or losing your virginity? It’s a term we’ve often struggled with ourselves — for example, traditionally people think of intercourse, but that obviously excludes the gay community. Was that something you dealt with when making this film?
EVE WALTERMAURER: Luckily we did not have to define virginity – we left that to each woman to decide for herself. I myself wonder if the first failed attempt Jon B. had with me counts or not. We are interested in this idea of when the loss of virginity occurs particularly for a woman who has never been with a male. Clearly these women, over time look back and do not think of themselves as virgins. But is there a single point in time where they see the shift happening? All of our gay women began with men but we are still looking to explore this idea more.

Prom is hell

Article: Prom is hell

Posted May 15th, 2009, 12:05 PM by

FOOTLOOSE came out in 1984. We saw it before we got our periods and even way back then the premise seemed antiquated: Could places where dancing and music were forbidden really still exist, when we live in a such modern world with Walkmans and drum machines? So imagine our surprise at this week’s news story about a kid getting suspended from his Christian high school for attending his girlfriend’s prom at another school where rock music and dancing are — cover your ears! — actually allowed.