Taboo on Screen

Lately, sex scenes have been the subject of quite a bit of malaise online. Whether it's because they're uncomfortable, exploitative, or downright "unnecessary" these scenes tend to cause quite a stir. But does that mean we should get rid of them altogether? We explore the online backlash to Sam Levinson's controversial show, The Idol, as well as the decades-long disappearance of the sex scenes from mainstream film.

The Me Too era pushed us to rethink our favorite sex scenes. And since then, Hollywood has course-corrected and introduced intimacy coordinators to encourage safer practices on set. So why it is we're still icked out by sex on screen? Let's unpack the great cultural forces that have led to this current sexless moment and asks: are sex scenes more necessary than we think? Honey, get the bolt cutters. It's time to escape from horny jail.

If there was ever a filmmaker willing to "go there," it's Todd Solondz. But how is it that Todd Solondz is able to ostensibly "go there," stooping to the lowest depths of humanity, and make us laugh while doing it? This episode explores the way Solondz uses dark humor to shock his audiences, comment on the human condition, and (almost) get away with it.

Everyone is always asking, "Will someone think of the children?" Yet this question never seems to benefit... actual children. In light of the recent moral panic over the 2020 Netflix film Cuties, we are once again debating whether depiction equals endorsement. Cuties is much like another highly controversial film, Pretty Baby, in the way it poses uncomfortable truths about the exploitation of young girls. In this episode, we discuss these two films, their mark on the culture, and if they're worthy of redemption. If 2023 was "the year of the girl", maybe these once maligned films are more important than ever.

For as long as time itself, people have tried to separate art from obscenity. Yet John Waters had made it the goal of his career to do just the opposite. Waters and his unruly band of misfits he calls Dreamlanders practically invented shock humour. And their "bad taste trilogy" is every bit as grotesque, vile, offensive, and obscene, as it promises. In fact, Waters' films are so completely and proudly devoid of morals that they sometimes verge on unforgivable. So why do we consider them art?

Cannibalism. A word that makes us shiver in our boots. From Hannibal Lecter to Leatherface, we're used to seeing cannibalism in horror movies. But one movie, The Cook, The Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover, brought cannibalism back to its Shakespearean origins. This exquisite 1989 art house film elevated our tastes, and pushed us to consider, who is not a cannibal?