Sex in the Cinema

Epizode

• 
  Euphoria Grads (Kat): MILE END KICKS w/ Cecilia Conti 17.07.2026 1h 7min

  In this next installment of our Euphoria graduates series, we turn to Barbie Ferreira, who played the fan-favorite Kat Hernandez in seasons 1 and 2 (aka the good seasons) of Sam Levinson’s HBO series. While her former classmates, Nate and Cassie, have moved on to big-budget flicks (some of them blunders), Barbie as claimed a throne for herself as the Indie Queen reigning over the festival circuit.  Set in 2011, MILE END KICKS (2025) is a full-throttle journey back to the Millennial golden age - when Indie Sleaze ruled the clothing racks, startphones were a coveted luxury, cute guys wore skinny jeans, and Indie Rock topped the charts.  Barbie Ferreira stars as Grace, a struggling music critic in her early 20s who travels to Montreal for the summer to write her book about Alanis Morisette’s Jagged Little Pill. There she meets aspiring Indie rockers, Bone Patrol, and gets romantically involved with two of the band members. Hijinks and horrible decisions ensue culminating in the stark truth that just because these indie boys may convey depth, they can be no less stupid than their jock counterparts.  SITC all-star guest star Cecilia Conti joins Torie for this nostalgic trip back in time that’s so on-the-nose it’s uncanny, especially for Torie who recalls her days as an American Apparel-wearing hipster in the Chicago garage rock scene, her time singing in a band, the plethora of guitar-wielding indie boys she dated, and all the pitfalls of being a girl in your early 20s in the 2010s.  
• 
  The Willem DaShow: BODY OF EVIDENCE w/ John Garcia 09.06.2026 1h 31min

  This is a landmark episode. Best friend of the pod and long-awaited guest John Garcia joins Torie to unpack one of the most reviled installments of the 90s erotic thriller canon, BODY OF EVIDENCE (1993). It just might be the best bad movie you’ve ever seen.   Starring the one, the only, the icon - Madonna - as a femme fatale firing on all cylinders, and Torie’s boyfriend, Willem Dafoe, as her moronic lawyer, BODY OF EVIDENCE checks every single box of erotic thriller cliches and then some.  Suspected murderess Rebecca Carlson (whose alleged weapons of choice are cocaine and f**king old men to death) enlists private defense attorney Frank to prove her innocence. Like a succubus on a bender, Rebecca lures Frank away from his marriage to Julianne Moore by introducing him to the pleasures of S&M, hot candle wax, and more.  However, this film is a body of evidence in itself. Intentional or not, this opus of mediocrity exposed one of most storied and gatekept parts of male anatomy in all of Hollywood, Willem Dafoe’s d**k. That in itself grants BODY OF EVIDENCE a place in the annals of film history. Get ready to go whale watching, because Willem’s megalithic Dashow does not disappoint! — Make sure you tune into John's own movie podcast, Afterthoughts, at theafterpod.transistor.fm or anywhere you get your podcasts!
• 
  Euphoria Grads (Cassie): THE HOUSEMAID w/ Cecilia Conti & Josh Reinhold 14.05.2026 1h 1min

  Returning guests Cecilia Conti and Josh Reinhold join Torie to eviscerate the cultural climate’s pathetic answer to a feminist take on an erotic thriller, THE HOUSEMAID (2025). Starring everyone's favorite MAGA-loving bimbo, Sydney Sweeney, the phenomenally talented Amanda Seyfried, and a lesser-Hemsworth-coded hunk named Brendan Sklenar (who Josh looooves), this film undoubtedly caters to the true crime-obsessed, Colleen Hoover-reading, Lifetime™-loving audience. Featuring disappointingly little sex, atrocious clothing, unnecessarily gratuitous violence, and awful one-liners, this "for women, by women" film fails to meet its intended goal of feminist rhetoric. Despite a truly bang-up performance from Amanda Seyfried, it barely even meets the criteria for a solid hate-watch.  Amid the discourse, Torie struggles not to sound like a misogynist discussing Sydney Sweeney's most famous attributes, and everyone fails (again and again) to correctly pronounce Seyfried.  
• 
  Euphoria Grads (Nate): WUTHERING HEIGHTS w/ Cecilia Conti & Josh Reinhold 24.04.2026 42min

  If there’s one film that set tongues (literally) wagging this year, it’s the latest adaptation of Emily Brontë’s masterpiece of gothic fiction, WUTHERING HEIGHTS.  Directed by one of cinema’s most de rigueur darlings, Emerald Fennell, WUTHERING HEIGHTS showcases Fennell’s trademark maximalism, bold subversiveness, and canny eye for visual magic tricks. The formula should have been a perfect match of fiction and filmmaker. So why did it leave us feeling kind of… meh?  SITC all-star guest star Cecilia Conti and special guest Josh Reinhold join Torie to hash out their feelings about Fennell's new take on Brontë’s classic. And honestly, the film reads more like a smut fanfiction or two-hour music video than a true-to-text take on a venerable and deeply complex work of literature.  Starring Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi as doomed lovers Cathy and Heathcliff, Fennell’s sex-ed up rendition is more style than substance. All the same, the candy-coated visuals are glorious, the metaphors are ripe, and the acting ain’t half bad. The sex itself is decidedly PG-13, but it was enough to confirm that Jacob Elordi is very much most likely a damn good kisser.
• 
  Fun with Fish: THE LIGHTHOUSE w/ Ziah Grace 08.04.2026 1h 4min

  This is the final boarding call! The SITC submarine is departing port for one more journey 20,000 leagues under the sea. This time, the tentacular, mighty Poseidon of masculinity, King Triton, wields his whale dick, effectively blasting us with oozing gallons of salty sea.  Creator of the Hyperreal Film Journal and critic, Ziah Grace, joins Torie below deck to dissect Robert Eggers’s ferociously homoerotic, abrasively bleak masterpiece of cinematography, THE LIGHTHOUSE (2019).  Starring Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattisson as one of the greatest “odd couples” to ever grace 35 mm, this claustrophobic meditation on Sartre’s existential idiom “hell is other people,” is packed with alpha/beta power dynamics, a yonic/phallic(!!) lighthouse, perverted seagulls, and enough masturbation to generate a Sperm Whale’s worth of ejaculate. These gents have No Exit, and, for one hour and 50 minutes, neither do you.  Get ready for an onslaught of girthy tentacles, depressing orgasms, alcoholism, gaslighting galore, and man-on-mermaid action (alongside a very large, anatomically explicit mergina). Other highlights include Torie’s Willem DaFetish and an inevitable discussion of the most fiercely gatekept piece of male anatomy ever to circulate the Hollywood rumor mill. 
• 
  Fun with Fish: THE LURE (Córki dancingu) w/ Ziah Grace 27.02.2026 59min

  Come back aboard the SITC submarine for the next descent into the trenches of taboo, where sexy sea creatures seamlessly seduce bone-headed humans. Captain Torie is joined again by film critic and First Mate, Ziah Grace, for a delightful submersion into one of the best, boldest, and most ingenious takes on The Little Mermaid to ever grace the silver screen: the Polish, punk-rock, Eastern Bloc fever dream, THE LURE (2015).  This is a tale of two sisters: Silver (light) and Golden (dark). After spotting a found family-assembled rock band playing on the shore, these nubile young mermaids each hatch a pair of legs and migrate to the metro-capitalist world of their bipedal contemporaries. But horny humans beware, pretty mermaids are not mere trifles. Like mankind, they contain multitudes of facets: monster, maiden, lover, killer, seductress, sister… the list goes on. Highlights include kaleidoscopic musical numbers, creature feature-worthy and subversively girthy tails, accurately fishy vaginas, the intersection of female body politics and misogyny, the infatuated euphoria of first love, the tragedy of self-sacrifice, and the sacred bond of sisterhood. Torie also reveals some meta-contextual backstory regarding her musician ex-boyfriends, who bear a striking resemblance to the floppy-haired bass-playing “Prince.”
• 
  Fun with Fish: THE SHAPE OF WATER w/ Ziah Grace 13.02.2026 1h 9min

  Hop on the SITC Submarine because we’re plummeting into the watery, murky depths of interspecies sex. This deep blue beyond is where fish and fowl Neptune and chill. For this first journey beneath the waves, Torie is joined by Ziah Grace, Austin Chronicle “Best of Austin”  2025 nominee for Best Film Critic and misanthropic beach boy, to soak in Guillermo del Toro’s 2018 Best Picture Oscar winner, THE SHAPE OF WATER. Prepare yourself for an hour of Siskel and Ebert-coded bickering over a mediocre movie. Highlights include Torie’s monster fetish, Ziah’s impassioned response to an unjust cat murder, a profusion of eggs and egg timers, Torie’s abhorrence for men with long hair, squirting geysers, and Ziah’s supreme vexation over the creature’s phallic AF genitals (the fish dick).  Despite some differences in opinions, both parties agree that Sally Hawkins’s performance was one of Cinema’s all-time best and that Guillermo del Toro robbed his audiences by refusing to give us explicit (yet romantic) fish f**king.
• 
  50 SHADES OF GARBAGE: Freed Garbage w/ Chelsey Morin & Thien-Y Hoang 28.01.2026 1h 35min

  We’ve arrived at the bitter end. Torie and returning special guests Chelsey Morin and Thien-Y Hoang make their final trip to the 50 shades of garbage dump searching for anything of substance in the final installment of this trash film trilogy. Alas, 50 SHADES FREED proves the third time is not the charm.    Sulky sub Anastasia Steele and Dom daddy Christian Grey tie the knot (figuratively, not literally, this time). Their marital bliss is soon interrupted by Ana’s former misogynist boss, Jack, and his desire for vengeance against Christian, which still doesn't make sense, as well as a certain unplanned you-know-what that drives a wedge between Ana and Christian, who proves, even after three insufferable movies, that he remains an unhinged, narcissistic a**hole.       What ensues is two hours of blatant misogyny, buttplug pleasures, adventures on the Aspen club scene, painfully asinine car chases, a kidnapping of Rita Ora, a profoundly obnoxious performance of ”Maybe I’m Amazed,” and the confounding absence of a prenup. And through it all, like some absurd monument to early 00s mallboi masculinity, are Christian’s cherished pair of Hollister Men’s jeans.  
• 
  SITC Late Night FM: HEATED RIVALRY! Part Deux w/ Billy Weston 09.01.2026 23min

  SPOILER WARNING: This episode contains spoilers through the season finale of Heated Rivalry. With the conclusion of Season 1, all us HR fans are sitting and processing our thoughts and feelings about the sleekly operatic, often playful, heart-throbbing, and ingeniously sincere story we just witnessed. Think pieces are bounteous across the editorial planes and the feelings are REAL. Torie and Billy discuss what Heated Rivalry means to each of them, and the deeper societal meaning around the whirlwind impact of this miraculous show.
• 
  Boob Tube Detour: Lifetime™’s A CARPENTER CHRISTMAS ROMANCE w/ Cecilia Conti 23.12.2025 1h 13min

  *Note to the listeners*- For the most pleasurable listening experience, lube up with our January 2024 episode covering Sarah Drew’s A Cowboy Christmas Romance before you tune in. — We’re returning to the 50 Shades of garbage dump soon, but in light of this festive season, SITC all-star guest star, Cecilia Conti, joins Torie to incinerate the most recent(ish) installment of sugar & spice from Lifetime™’s own formula-disrupting vixen, Sarah Drew.  Her Cowboy-themed roll in the hay, A Cowboy Christmas Romance, made history as the first Lifetime™ holiday film to feature a “sex scene.” Sarah Drew is back with her sophomore feature that puts the WOOD in woodworking: A CARPENTER CHRISTMAS ROMANCE (2024).   This explicitly My So Called Life-coded narrative follows nerdy(ish) romantasy writer Andrea back to her sort-of hometown, Wildwood, for an unplugged Christmas stay due to a scandalous leak of the final book in her stupid series. To her surprise, she reconnects with Seth, her old, Jordan Catelano-esque but née jock crush, Seth. Complications arise with the presence of Seth’s tenant, Aiko, and her cloying children. Is Seth still a f**kboi or is he a nice guy now?   
• 
  SITC Late Night FM: HEATED RIVALRY! w/ Billy Weston 17.12.2025 21min

  SPOILER WARNING: This episode contains spoilers through episode 4 of HEATED RIVALRY   Reference Links: The Rite of Spring: Joffrey Ballet 1987 Rite of Spring (1 of 3) Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun: L'Apres-midi d'un Faune Ballet performed by the Joffrey Ballet
• 
  50 SHADES OF GARBAGE: Darker Garbage w/ Chelsey Morin & Thien-Y Hoang 02.12.2025 1h 8min

  Torie and special guests Chelsey Morin and Thien-Y Hoang return to the 50 Shades of Grey garbage dump for the second installment in this stinking landfill of a film franchise, 50 SHADES DARKER. Don't bother to bring a shovel. After being broken up for 2.5 seconds, newly deflowered Anastasia Steele and hunky millionaire Dom Christian Grey rekindle their love and get into a full-on relationship. As their "intimacy" grows, Anastasia learns more about Christian's dark past and meets some of the (many) skeletons in his closet. What ensues is two hours of even more sociopathic behavior, somewhat less sexy "S&M" sex scenes, a dash of gun violence, a lavish masked ball fundraiser, a pair of Ben Wa balls, even more Hollister men's jeans, poor restaurant etiquette, workplace sexual harassment, and more. We also meet a less-than-colorful cast of new characters, including Christian's former Mommy Dom "Mrs. Robinson," played by Kim Basinger, Anna's misogynistic new boss, Jack Hyde, and one of Christian's former pets/hostages, Leila.  
• 
  50 SHADES OF GARBAGE: Grey Garbage w/ Chelsey Morin & Thien-Y Hoang 13.11.2025 1h 16min

  Welcome back, cinephiles and perverts, and welcome to Season Two of Sex in the Cinema!!! To kick off Season Two, Torie is joined by Angelenos and expert hate-watchers Chelsey Morin and Thien-Y Hoang to demolish the cultural phenomenon that was the 50 Shades of Grey trilogy. From its humble beginnings in a Twilight fanfiction forum, to the published printed page, all the way to the silver screen, this gross disservice to the kink community turned on the world. For SITC’s Season Two Premiere, we’re tackling the first installment of the trilogy, 50 SHADES OF GREY. Released in 2015 and directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson (wife of Aaron Taylor-Johnson, mind you), this film launched the careers of usually good actors Dakota Johnson and Jaimie Dornan.   Mousy brunette super-virgin Anastasia Steele’s simple life turns upside down when she meets sexy billionaire (and apparent Never Nude), Christian Grey. Anastasia soon finds out Christian doesn’t do relationships, but he does enjoy “various physical pursuits.” Namely, kidnapping women and coercing them into dom/sub relationships of very questionable ethics.   What ensues is two hours of sociopathic behavior, painful lack of chemistry, horrifically awful dialogue, NDAs and contracts, too many needle drops, countless glasses of unconsumed white wine, mostly vanilla sex, an apparent proclivity for Hollister men’s jeans, a dusting of taboo slap & tickle, one impressive den of iniquity set, and wayyyyyy too many red flags.    So bust out those handcuffs and settle in for the long haul because, in the words of Christian Grey, there’s “no escaping now…”
• 
  AMOROUS ANIMATION: Fritz the Cat, Once Upon a Girl, Belladonna of Sadness 08.08.2025 1h 24min

  Fasten your seatbelts, cinephiles, because it’s SITC’s Season 1 Finale! Thanks to a few renegade, paintbrush-wielding perverts from New Hollywood’s anarchic yesteryear, you’re in for a full 411 on some of the most disturbing, disruptive, and innovative works of sketch-to-celluloid since Mickey Mouse first wet his wittle whistle in Steamboat Willie. As of this episode, your childhood nostalgia for Saturday morning cartoons is OVER.  Bored with the pretentious loftiness of his collegiate education, a privileged cat named Fritz acts like an ignorant a**hole who thinks he’s an anarchist in one of the most enduring masterworks of guerrilla satire, FRITZ THE CAT (1972). Don Jurwich, legendary heavyweight at Hanna-Barbera and Marvel Productions (this is not a joke), subverts your favorite fairy tales into gonzo softcore parables that will haunt you for the rest of your life (also not a joke) in the bombastic, cheeky ONCE UPON A GIRL (1976). A peasant woman’s quest for social and sexual freedom is manifested through tragedy, rupture, and rebirth in Eiichi Yamamoto’s kaleidoscopic, transcendent epic, BELLADONNA OF SADNESS (1973).  
• 
  TITILLATING TRASH: Showgirls, Wild Things, Jade w/ Billy Weston 27.05.2025 1h 24min

  Friend of the pod and glamor-trash gay man-about-town Billy Weston joins Torie and Maggie to unpack three of the sexiest, messiest, and most titillatingly trashy erotic thrillers of the 1990s.
 Jessie Spano trades textbooks for stripper poles to dance her way through a 24/7, nipple tweaking tantrum in Paul Verhoeven's infamous, eternally iconic TRASHterpiece, SHOWGIRLS (1995). Neve Campbell and Denise Richards, whose aquatic escapades inaugurated a million Millennial boners, continue to masterfully mindf**k us in WILD THINGS (1998). Sick of bad sex and surmised of murder, smoky siren Linda Fiorentino is suspected by CSI's OG sunglasses guy, David Caruso, in William Friedkin's convoluted, surprisingly sterile flop, JADE (1995).
• 
  RE-RELEASE - FULL FRONTAL FAVORITES PART 1: The Brown Bunny, The Dreamers, Boogie Nights 13.05.2025 1h

  UPDATE, MAY 2025: This is a re-release of our premiere episode originally published on 8/9/23. As of May 2025, actor Michael Pitt was indicted for horrific sexual and physical abuse suffered by one or more partners. If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 800-799-7233.   -- Torie and Maggie dive into cinematic rarity of films bold enough to tackle the taboo of full frontal male nudity. Torie has difficulty separating the art from the artist with Vincent Gallo's THE BROWN BUNNY (2003) whereas Maggie mines empathy for toxic masculinity. We celebrate the wonder of prosthetics in Paul Thomas Anderson's BOOGIE NIGHTS (1997), talk twincest (and the double D showcase) in Bernardo Bertolucci's THE DREAMERS (2003), and tackle the ever-burning question - does size really matter? --- UPDATE, MAY 2025: This episode features some panty creaming for actor Michael Pitt, who as of May 2025, was indicted for horrific sexual and physical abuse suffered by one or more partners. At the time of this episode's publication in August 2023, Michael Pitt had history of bizarre explosive behavior spurts like many talented actors ("perhaps the sexy sad boy has untreated mental illness! or addiction! hopefully he figures it out!") but in light of these allegations, his SITC Hall Pass is now officially revoked. We will continue to do our best to separate the art from the artist but unconscionable acts should not be disregarded. We stand with the victims. If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 800-799-7233.  
• 
  EMMANUELLE MADNESS w/ Bryan Connolly 07.04.2025 1h 35min

  SITC is back in the studio with this long-awaited episode covering the softcore juggernaut that is the Emmanuelle film franchise!  Expert Bryan Connolly joins Torie to dissect this smutty phenomenon which is SO expansive and SO diverse, it's basically an ecosystem. From Thailand to Africa, to Outer Space, Emmanuelle knows no bounds. In the original EMMANUELLE (1974) starring Sylvia Kristel, we watch Emmanuelle the girl become Emmanuelle the woman thanks to a few trips to the Mile High Club and guidance from a mansplaining creep named Mario. We take a detour outside of official Emmanuelle "canon" with EMANUELLE AND THE WHITE SLAVE TRADE (1978), one of the many (and one of the best) ripoffs that make up the multifaceted Emmanuelle universe. Starring Laura Gemser, Emanuelle with One M is a slick and ambitious journalist with the savvy and sexual appetite to rival James Bond. We conclude our journey with the first installment of Emmanuelle's Skinemax/ straight-to-video era, EMMANUELLE: FIRST CONTACT (1994). Starring Krista Allen, Emmanuelle takes her sage-like knowledge of sex to outer space where she educates hunky alien Haffron and his brethren about the joys and politics of human sexuality.    — Bryan Connolly is a writer and filmmaker in Austin, TX. Thanks to a lifelong obsession with the Emmanuelle films, his encyclopedic knowledge has cemented him as a de-facto Emmanuelle expert. Bryan has contributed to Severin Films' Black Emanuelle Box Set, the Emmanuelle comic book series from Fantagraphics, and is currently writing a colossal tome covering every Emmanuelle movie ever made. Bryan's cinema expertise also extends well beyond the boundaries of Emmanuelle. He is the co-host of the podcast The Directors Wall alongside A.J. Gonzalez, the author of Destroy All Movies: The Complete History of Punks on Film, a feature filmmaker, and much more.  LINKS! Listen to The Directors Wall podcast here! Check out Bryan's feature film MAKE POPULAR MOVIES free on Tubi here! Snag a copy of Bryan's book Destroy All Movies: The Complete History of Punks on Film on eBay for a mint here!
• 
  SPECIAL EPISODE: Babygirl 24.02.2025 37min

  Torie and Maggie go full-on Siskel and Ebert for this special episode reviewing Nicole Kidman's latest in a series of steamy, psychosexual cinematic narratives, BABYGIRL. Torie hated it and Maggie loved it but both ladies agree this flick with a feminist bent made a valuable contribution to the conversation around women, age and sexuality (aka debunking the myth that women become sexless empty vessels as soon as the baby farm closes).    PS - follow Torie on Letterboxd @Torie88 !!
• 
  2025 AFTERGLOW AWARDS 06.02.2025 41min

  Awards season is here is SITC is kicking off 2025 with our inaugural *AFTERGLOW AWARDS*!! With winners selected from the pool of every film covered on SITC to date, all winners of these prestigious awards have been carefully chosen by an esteemed panel of two (aka us). We also go into some long tangents around NOSFERATU, THE BRUTALIST, and movie theater hot dogs.   Check out the categories below and tune in to reveal the winners of ! - Best Sex Scene in a Motion Picture Hottest Actor in a Motion Picture Hottest Actress in a Motion Picture Hottest Couple in a Motion Picture Best Unconventionally Hot Sex Scene in a Motion Picture Best WTF Unsexy Scene in a Motion Picture Best Masturbation in a Motion Picture Best Full Frontal in a Motion Picture Best Orgasm in a Motion Picture Sexiest Sound in a Motion Picture
• 
  WINTER SOLSTICE HOLIDAY SPECIAL: The Love Witch, Virgin Witch, Hagazussa 21.12.2024 1h 24min

  Happy Yule, cinephile freaks! This holiday season we're celebrating the Winter Solstice in this very special episode starring wonton, willful and wonderful witches! Self help goes lethally awry in Anna Biller's ingenious meta-Technicolor treasure THE LOVE WITCH (2016). Sexploitation is style over substance in the VIRGIN WITCH (1972). Cinematic art finds a new masterstroke in the haunting, enigmatic (and f**king awesome) folk horror fable HAGAZUSSA (2017).