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The verdict is in: Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers, starring Zendaya, Josh O’Connor, and Mike Faist, is a rollicking sports drama, sure, but it’s also simply one of the sexiest movies to hit theaters in a very long time. (Okay, at least since last summer’s Passages, from Ira Sachs. That was sexy, too.)
Guadagnino knows how to set a heady scene: His second feature film, 2005’s Melissa P., was a full-on erotic drama, and in the years since then he’s made audiences hot under the collar with the likes of 2009’s I Am Love, 2015’s A Bigger Splash (a riff on Jacques Deray’s La Piscine, from 1969, one of the hottest movies there is), 2017’s Call Me By Your Name, and even his 2022 cannibal road movie Bones and All. Yet the Italian director–screenwriter’s various contributions represent but a drop in the bucket of sexy cinema; the genre, such as it is, has thrived and writhed for about as long as people have gone to the movies.
Lucky for you, dear reader, Vogue’s staff has a few ideas for what to queue up next after you’ve seen Challengers’s three leads all make out. Herewith, find some of our favorite sexy movies and scenes from all of filmdom.
Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019)
Céline Sciamma’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire was always going to be a sumptuous work, from the ragged Brittany coastline to the grand home of our protagonist Héloïse. But it’s the restraint that makes this movie as gripping and as sexy as it is. The loaded stolen glances between Marianne and Héloïse as artist and subject, plus the ticking clock on their romance, make for a powder keg of desire, yearning, and passion. After all, what could be hotter than wanting what you can’t have? —Hannah Jackson
How to watch: Stream on Hulu, Prime Video, or YouTube.
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1 (2011)
I mean, it was about the longest-awaited sex scene in literary and movie history, given it took four books and films for Edward and Bella to do it. It was so dramatic, but also so romantic for Bella to finally lose her virginity during her honeymoon on a beautiful private island in Brazil. I first watched this movie when I was 12 years old, and it definitely skewed my perception of what adulthood would be like. —Irene Kim
How to watch: Stream on Hulu, Prime Video, or YouTube.
Little Children (2006)
I remember my husband and I both being quite taken by the laundry room scene in Little Children by the great Todd Field…Kate Winslet and Patrick Wilson at their most beauteous. It’s a great book, too, by Tom Perrotta. —Nicole Phelps
How to watch: Stream on Prime Video, Tubi, or YouTube.
Y Tu Mamá También (2001)
For obvious reasons, this classic drama from Alfonso Cuarón—about two high school buddies, Julio and Tenoch, on a road trip through Mexico with Luisa, the hot wife of Tenoch’s cousin—came to my mind a few times as I watched Challengers…during that early scene between Tashi, Art, and Patrick in the boys’ dingy hotel room, especially. Both movies are compelling coming-of-age stories, spanning themes of class, competition, friendship, desire, and betrayal, with a hearty serving of homoeroticism stirred in for good measure. —Marley Marius
How to watch: Stream on YouTube with IFC Films.
Dangerous Beauty (1998)
Rufus Sewell, Venice, poetry, the gorgeous and take-no-prisoners Catherine McCormack, Oliver Platt as a Monsignor…what’s not to be titillated by? —Chloe Malle
How to watch: Stream on Hulu.
Wild Things (1998)
I think it’s safe to say nobody watches this 1998 thriller-crime drama, starring a hot Neve Campbell and hot Denise Richards, for the plot; everyone remembers the steamy pool kiss between the two leads (not to mention the threesome scene with Matt Dillon). The plot twists and turns are fun, sure, but it’s forever a movie that was designed just to please the eye and senses. An iconic horny B-movie. —Christian Allaire
How to watch: Stream on Apple TV, Netflix, or Prime Video.
Rich and Famous (1981)
Kind of a deep cut, but some of Jacqueline Bisset’s scenes in this—the final film of George Cukor’s legendary career—are just nuts. Besides joining the mile-high club on a TWA flight not 30 minutes in (and while the plane is actively landing, which frankly doesn’t seem very safe?), she is seduced by a very hot young man at The Algonquin hotel in a sequence that absolutely scandalized me on first watch. Otherwise, throw this one on for a very funny Candice Bergen performance and a roughly 20-year-old Meg Ryan, in her first screen role. —M.M.
How to watch: Stream on Apple TV, Prime Video, or YouTube.
Flesh (1968)
Paul Morrissey’s saturated and surreal portrait of downtown hustlers is an erotic masterpiece. Produced by Andy Warhol, the film captures many of the Factory’s “superstars†at the height of their beauty. No one is more beautiful than the unnamed protagonist (Joe Dallesandro), whose body gives the film its title; he turns tricks to fund his addiction, his wife’s, and her lesbian lover’s. If the premise sounds dark, the movie is anything but. Morrissey’s odyssey is an incandescent fantasy of anonymity and sexual possibility as only New York can provide. You’ll never look at a red bandana the same again. —Ian Malone
How to watch: Buy on Blu-Ray or DVD or stream via the Internet Archive.
Design for Living (1933) and Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971)
You’re gonna need to cool down after Challengers froths you into a frenzy, so might I suggest a pair of historical throuple films that are a tad more restrained? The racy pre-Code Design for Living was made in 1933(!) but has a startlingly contemporary premise: Miriam Hopkins can’t decide between two men who love her (Fredric March and Gary Cooper), so they all agree to—what else?—live together platonically. Of course, that’s impossible, and hijinks ensue. It’s a delightful watch, buoyed by the performances of three captivating stars at the height of their fame and Ernst Lubitsch’s signature effervescent touch.
For something rather more downbeat but equally compelling: John Schlesinger’s 1971 Sunday Bloody Sunday tells the story of two middle-aged Londoners (Peter Finch and *thee* Glenda Jackson, both Oscar nominated here) who find themselves sleeping with the same free-spirited younger artist (Murray Head). Hailed as an early positive portrayal of homosexuality, it’s a subtly observed and ultimately devastating portrait of yearning, loneliness, compromise, and heartache. Schlesinger was also nominated for an Oscar, as was the screenplay, furtively based on the director’s own troubled personal life. —Lisa Wong Macabasco
How to watch Design for Living: Stream on Plex.
How to watch Sunday Bloody Sunday: Stream on Apple TV or Prime Video.