Nota del editor: Esta historia se publicó originalmente el 23 de julio de 2017 y se ha actualizado varias veces desde entonces.
Few cinematic moments can burn themselves into an audience’s psyche better than a good sex scene. They can shock, arouse, or simply capture human beauty in ways that cinema is uniquely positioned to do. Sex scenes don’t have to define the movies they appear in, but they’re often the parts you remember the most.
The nature of sex scenes are constantly evolving, as the prevalence of intimacy coordinators and increased concern for performers’ safety in Hollywood is hopefully making regrettable sex scenes a thing of the past. That has allowed sexy cinema to flourish, with plenty of tantalizing movies hitting the multiplex in recent years. With that in mind, it felt like the right time to compile some of the best additions to the sexy film canon.
Our list of the 53 best sexy movies of this century is an international affair, with films originating from around the globe. From the biggest studio projects to the smallest independent films, the artists on this list prove that you can be sexy with budgets of any size. Keep reading to see our picks for the sexiest movies of the 21st century (so far).
Kate Erbland, Jude Dry, Alison Foreman, Eric Kohn, Ryan Lattanzio, Zack Sharf, Jamie Righetti, and Samantha Bergeson also contributed to this story.
53."Expiación" (2007)
A lot of films on this list are on it because of scenes where the actors get into various states of undress, but the sexiest moment in “Atonement” is all about someone putting a dress on_. Specifically, it’s when Keira Knightley shows up in the instantly iconic green dress that might be Joe Wright’s Ian McEwan adaptation’s lasting legacy. Designed by Jacqueline Durran, the backless silk gown is both elegantly modern and gorgeously period-appropriate, and the famously beautiful Knightley has never been more stunning than she has been in that emerald green. She and male lead James McAvoy are perfectly gorgeous together in the rest of the movie, but the first act climax where their characters give into their desires and make love in the library wouldn’t be half as hot if Knightley was wearing anything else. _—WC
52."Hit Man" (2024)
Glen Powell has been plenty hunky in films like “Top Gun: Maverick” and “Anyone But You,” but Richard Linklater’s crime comedy “Hit-Man” is the first time the actor has been allowed to be truly sexy. He’s a blast of pure charisma as the square and simple Gary Johnson, who begins working for the police as a fake hitman for sting operations and displays a chameleonic ability to inhabit new characters. In the role of Ron, a laid-back masculine charmer in the vein of early-period Brad Pitt, he finds confidence and sensuality that bleeds back into his “real life” — especially when he takes on the identity to continue seeing Adria Arjona’s Maddy, his initial target who hired a hitman to kill her abusive husband. Arjona is plenty sexy in the film too, a kind but wounded woman with a femme fatale edge and danger that clearly turns Gary on. Together, Powell and Arjona have overpowering chemistry that charges every little interaction between these two lovers in an undeniable way. What really makes “Hit Man” hot though, beyond the appeal of its two leads, is how it captures the voyeuristic appeal of slipping into a different person’s life, and becoming a fantasy for the one you love. —WC
51. “Saltburn” (2023)
‘Saltburn,’ Barry Keoghan, 2023. © MGM / Courtesy Everett Collection©MGM/Courtesy Everett Collection
"Saltburn" es menos efectivo como película que una plataforma para producir fancamas de sus atractivos protagonistas masculinos. Aún así, la característica desigual de Emerald Fennell seguramente sabe cómo hacer que las personas en la pantalla se vean asombrosamente hermosas. Como Oliver, con la escalada social, Barry Keoghan aporta una sensualidad de púas a sus escenas que imban la relación del estudiante de Oxford con el Felix más rico (Jacob Elordi) con una tensión exquisitamente gruesa. Y Elordi, frecuentemente bañado en luz dorada y agregando una encantadora suavidad a su personaje, nunca ha sido más deseable que él como el niño rico inocente. Por cuánto vacila la película cuando se trata de entregar su premisa "talentosa Mr. Ripley", ofrece si lo que está buscando es una apreciación de la belleza masculina._—WC_
50."Tigre agachado, Dragón oculto" (2000)
“Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”©Sony Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection
Ang Lee’s landmark martial arts epic is a love story as much as anything else, telling the story of the forbidden romance between Lo (Chang Chen) and Jen (Zhang Ziyi). The film’s intimate fight choreography and Lee’s sensitive camerawork blur the line between combat and sex, culminating in one of the sexiest fight scenes in modern film history. The sexiness isn’t the only reason to check out “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” — though the liberating feeling of Lo and Jen’s romance in the desert is pretty great — but it’s one of many factors that has turned the film into an enduring classic. —Cz
49. “Bones and All” (2022)
“Bones and All”©MGM/Courtesy Everett Collection
After “Call Me By Your Name,” Timothee Chalamet and Luca Guadagnino’s ability to craft sexy cinema together was never going to be questioned again. So for their second film together, it’s almost as if the collaborators decided to challenge themselves and make something erotic out of one of the least sexy topics on the planet: cannibalism. By many measures they succeeded, crafting a disturbingly sensual road movie set against the backdrop of middle America in the 1980s. While certain viewers will always be haunted by the slurping sounds, the sexual chemistry between Chalamet and Taylor Russell is impossible to ignore. —CZ
48. “The Northman” (2022)
“The Northman”©Focus Features/Courtesy Everett Collection
Robert Eggers prometió no contener su intento de hacer una película vikinga históricamente precisa, y nadie puede negar que él entregó. La saga de venganza nórdica, adaptada libremente del mismo mito que inspiró "aldea", está llena de sexo, violencia y violencia muy sexy. Los guerreros vikingos (liderados por Alexander Skarsgard en la mejor forma de su carrera) son tan asombrosamente musculosos ya que están escasamente vestidos, y la presencia de Anya Taylor-Joy asegura que el sexo más justo esté igualmente representado. Ven por el drama de Shakespeare, quédate para los hombres desnudos que luchan en un volcán._—CZ_
47. “2046” (2004)
“2046”©Sony Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection
Las películas de Wong Kar-Wai son esencialmente juegos previos cinematográficos. Ningún cineasta es mejor para capturar la belleza y la sensualidad de los coquetos lentos que nunca tienen que ser consumados para el público de entrada. Por lo tanto, no es sorprendente que su tipo de secuela de su película más querida ("In The Mood for Love") presentaría la misma marca de sexidad agonizante. Ambientada en 2046, casi un siglo después de los romances de Hong Kong de la década de 1960 que tuvieron lugar en "Days of Being Wild" y "In The Mood for Love", el romance de ciencia ficción presenta a algunos de los personajes más emblemáticos de Wong que finalmente llegan a la conclusión de un Vida de deseo inexplorado. Es una película singular que solo podría haber sido hecha por un cineasta singular, pero es una visualización esencial para los fanáticos de su trabajo._—CZ_
46. “Decision to Leave” (2022)
“Decision to Leave”Courtesy Everett Collection
Expectations for a new Park Chan-wook movie are always high, so the rave reviews that “Decision to Leave” picked up at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival were hardly surprising. But few expected his police procedural to be so damn romantic. Park Hae-il stars as a detective whose interest in solving a case is significantly outweighed by his romantic feelings for his prime suspect (Tang Wei). The sexual tension that builds between them over the course of the film is never quite paid off in the way that many audiences probably hoped for, but the entire film is a testament to Park’s ability to find the humanity in any genre. —CZ
45. “Casino Royale” (2006)
“Casino Royale”©Sony Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection
La película 007 de Martin Campbell no solo marcó la introducción de un nuevo actor (Daniel Craig) interpretando a James Bond, representó una reinvención completa de lo que podría ser el icónico personaje espía. Después de años de películas de bonos cada vez más tontas y fechadas, Campbell optó por ignorar el pasado campy del personaje y llevar al agente secreto de mujerizante al siglo XXI con una explosión. "Casino Royale" es elegante, arenoso, y sí, muy sexy (haciendo que los pantalones cortos de natación de Craig sean uno de los ejemplos definitivos de ropa sexy en pantalla). En lugar de retratar a Bond como una especie de personaje de cómic, permitió al público ver cómo se vería si una de sus misiones de espía de alto riesgo tuviera lugar en algo parecido al mundo real. Mientras que la era de Daniel Craig vio a varios otros directores aclamados dar su propio giro a James Bond, todos deben deuda con "Casino Royale"._—CZ_
44."De una edad" (2022)
“Of an Age”
For fans of “Weekend,” “Before Sunrise” and other regret-tinged romances about what-might-have-beens and what-were-nots, “Of an Age” just might be the devastating cinematic kick you need — and a reason to rue the one who’ll never get away. Director Goran Stolevski helms a sexy Aussie-set gay romance about bodies, and how they bend to time and desire. “Of an Age” unfolds across 1999 and 2010, as high schooler and aspiring dancer Kol (Elias Anton) gets caught up in a frenzy of feelings over his friend and dance partner’s older brother Adam (Thom Green). They first bond over Franz Kafka, Tori Amos, and Wong Kar Wai’s “Happy Together” over a leisurely, hot car ride, stoking an instant connection interrupted by circumstance (but not without sex in the backseat). A decade later, Kol reunites with Adam at his friend’s wedding — one the kid has all but chased him to — and the pair confront the love affair that escaped them and the agonies of time lost. The film is sexiest in furtive moments, finding romantic tension in gazes and untold words. —_RL_
43. “Lingua Franca” (2019)
"Lingua Franca" Netflix
El retrato magistral de Isabel Sandoval de un inmigrante de Filipina Trans está tan íntimamente renderizado que casi se siente demasiado cerca a veces. La elegante película de ruptura fue completamente dirigida, escrita, producida y editada por Sandoval, quien también interpreta a la simpática protagonista de la película, Olivia. La película sigue a una mujer trans indocumentada mientras salva para un matrimonio de tarjeta verde mientras trabaja como asistente de salud en el hogar para una anciana rusa (Lynn Cohen) en Brighton Beach. Su plan se complica por un romance a fuego lento con el nieto Ne’er-Do-Well Alex (Eamon Farren), un alma perdida pero gentil con un atractivo sexual eslavo. Sus escenas están cargadas de una tensión sexual que eventualmente da paso al deseo latente, presagiadas por escenas íntimamente eróticas de la auto-planificación de Olivia. Con sus muchos sombreros que se traducen en un cine tan confinado, Sandoval es lo más cercano que la película queer tiene a un trans autor que trabaja en ese nivel. Máximamente editado y filmado con una belleza austera, "Lingua Franca" es un profundo ejemplo de lo que sucede cuando las voces marginadas tienen un control creativo completo. -_JD_
42."El mundo para venir" (2020)
“The World to Come”Bleecker Street
Mona Fastvold’s frontier lesbian romance is fraught with all manner of hardships that afflict living life on the edge in the 1850s — apocalyptic snowstorms, perishing livestock, buried desires confined to secret diary entries. But the spark between Abigail (Katherine Waterston) and Tallie (Vanessa Kirby), two women coupled in heterosexual relationships to difficult men, is volcanic. What’s not seen is what’s most throbbingly romantic, as the two women do a sort of drawn-out dance over the course of a blooming friendship that always had an electric erotic current. Eventually, they take it to the bedroom in a kind of supercut of sharp sex scenes that punctuate the film’s inevitably tragic last passage — underlining that their affair was doomed from the start, but one that will stay indelibly close to Abigail’s heart (and loins). —_RL_
41."Madres paralelas" (2021)
"Madres paralelas" © Sony Pictures/Cortesía de Everett Collection
Pedro Almodóvar is never one to shy from a complex erotic bond, and here the one between Janis (Penélope Cruz) and Ana (Milena Smit) is both a kind of mother-daughter connection, but one that takes increasingly kinky turns. Their dynamic is ever-shifting from the maternal, to the erotic, and back again. Plenty of Almodóvar films have featured raunchy, vigorous sex scenes, but “Parallel Mothers” is sexiest for the electricity humming between Janis, who is childless in middle age and derailed by a busted affair, and Ana, a scared teenager staring down the precipice of parenthood. All these threads are tied up in a twisted little package that’s also one of Almodóvar’s most sumptuous love stories to date. —_RL_