The Insert Shot: The Best of Sex 2011
By Tom Houseman
January 12, 2012
Honorable Mentions:
The Skin I Live In - No relationship between any characters in a 2011 film was stranger than that between Robert and Vera in Pedro Almodovar's disturbing film. To go into any detail would spoil this fascinating story, but suffice to say that the more information you are given about their relationship the stranger each sex scene becomes.
The Future - Sometimes sex can be awkward, and nobody does awkward better than Miranda July. Watching Sophie have sex with Marshall is comically awkward, but also heartbreaking, because we see the emotional journey that Sophie is going through cheating on Jason, her boyfriend, knowing how much it will hurt him.
Bridesmaids - Speaking of comically awkward sex scenes, Kristen Wiig proves to us just how funny bad sex can be. On top of being hilarious, this scene does a great job of giving us insight into how insecure and lonely Wiig's character is. Plus, it doesn't get better than seeing the absurd faces that Jon Hamm makes during that scene.
The Rum Diary - Who doesn't love some good old-fashioned voyeurism. Beyond giving us the opportunity to watch Aaron Eckhart and Amber Heard have sex, the scene in which Kemp spies on Sanderson and Chenault have sex in the ocean is a perfect example of the enormous class divide between the haves and the have-nots in Puerto Rico. Sanderson's luxury stands in stark contrast to the poverty that so many of the people on the island have. Plus, who doesn't want to have sex next to a yacht?
Young Adult - The whole time I was watching this movie I was thinking “please don't have Mavis and Matt sleep together,” because I thought it would feel fake and forced. But when it happened it worked perfectly, mostly because of how talented Charlize Theron is. We see Mavis broken, lonely, and desperate to feel loved, if only for a moment. After seeing her make one terrible decision after another, this one seems like the topper, cementing Mavis's complete emotional collapse.
50/50 - There are so many reasons to have sex, and we see an interesting one in this film: distraction. Adam is desperate to think about anything other than his cancer, and attempts to distract himself by having casual sex with a stranger. The awkwardness of the scene is a perfect example of the kind of understated emotionalism that Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays so well, as we see the pain he is going through without him ever making it obvious.
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