Everyday Kinks

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Everyday Kinks

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By Ben Elliott

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It’s hard to work up a moral panic these days.

In a world inundated with content, movies don’t scandalize people like they used to. Filmmakers have been pushing boundaries for decades, but now, it’s almost impossible to compete with the myriad horrors of the internet. But as standards around violence and language continue to loosen, sex has nearly vanished from big-budget cinema (the romantic leads in last year’s Twisters didn’t even kiss.)

You can chalk it up to changing audience tastes, or the hope to make movies marketable in more conservative foreign markets. It’s a disappointing trend because movies about sex, messy and problematic as they might be, still go a long way toward fostering healthy conversations about sex.

Secretary, 2002

Last year, I explored the disappearance of big-screen intimacy in the digital age while discussing Joanna Arnow’s The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed. A dark comedy about a woman navigating the ennui of unfulfilling BDSM relationships, Arnow cleverly subverts the typical cinematic approach to BDSM — portraying it as a routine part of life rather than a marker of societal alienation.

Arnow’s ability to challenge our expectations of BDSM narratives speaks to how deeply filmmakers have mined the subculture over the years. Dark romantic comedies like Secretary and Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! use BDSM to depict unconventional yet loving relationships. Thrillers like Crash and The Night Porter watch their characters process trauma through the lens of BDSM. Meanwhile, mainstream hits like Fifty Shades of Grey and 9 1/2 Weeks use it to titillate their audience.

Babygirl, 2024

Halina Reijn’s Babygirl, a screwball erotic thriller opening at The Triplex this week, continues to normalize these narratives while retaining their allure. The story of a tech CEO (Nicole Kidman) who risks her career and family by entering a submissive relationship with a younger intern (Harris Dickinson), Babygirl subverts your expectations of this dynamic while keeping its leads grounded in their humanity. Reijn doesn’t pass judgment on her characters, but instead presents a nuanced exploration of how desire can coexist with ambition and domesticity.

By telling stories like these, films make the most intimate aspects of our lives less daunting. They invite us to embrace our full selves and, hopefully, share them with the world.

Showtimes

Showtimes The Odyssey | 12:30PM, 4:00PM, 7:30PM Spider-Man: Brand New Day | 1:15PM, 4:30PM, 7:45PM Reading Lolita in Tehran | 1:45PM, 4:45PM, 8:15PM Tony | 2:00PM, 5:00PM, 8:00PM

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