The past several years have welcomed a great deal of excellent gay movies (see Tom of Finland, Beach Rats, BPM (Beats Per Minute), God’s Own Country and Call Me by Your Name from 2017 alone). There are also a ton of all-time “Greatest Gay Sex Scenes” lists online (we may even be responsible for a few). So we thought we would narrow the category and just focus on releases from the past five years – trying to find those scenes that really got our pulses racing. In no particular order, here are out TOP TEN stand-outs!
Beach Rats © Universal
2017, United States
On the outskirts of Brooklyn, Frankie, an aimless teenager, suffocates under the oppressive glare cast by his family and a toxic group of delinquent friends. Struggling with his own identity, Frankie begins to scour hookup sites for older men. When his chatting and web-camming intensify, he begins meeting men at a nearby cruising beach while simultaneously entering into a cautious relationship with a young woman. As Frankie struggles to reconcile his competing desires, his decisions leave him hurtling toward irreparable consequences. A thoughtful meditation on burgeoning gay desire and denial, Beach Rats was a breakout indie hit in 2017, featuring a stellar, thoroughly brave performance by up-and-coming British star Harris Dickinson (playing a New York teen with total authenticity). In the film’s hottest scene, Dickinson fights past his nervousness to strip down to nothing but his socks and seduce his attractive, much older male partner (Douglas Everett Davis) – who, though we know little about him, sports a wedding ring (and some questionable palm-reading skills).
Call Me by Your Name © Sony
2017, Italy
It’s the summer of 1983 in the north of Italy, and Elio Perlman (Timothee Chalamet), a precocious 17- year-old American-Italian boy, is about to experience an unforgettable summer romance. Oliver (Armie Hammer), a charming American scholar working on his doctorate, arrives as the annual summer intern tasked with helping Elio’s father (Michael Stuhlbarg), an eminent professor studying Greco-Roman culture. Amid the sun-drenched splendor of the setting, Elio and Oliver discover the heady beauty of awakening desire over the course of a summer that will alter their lives forever. Nominated for Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Original Song and Best Adapted Screenplay (which it won), Call Me by Your Name has already cemented its status as a gay cinema classic. So much of the movie is filled with sexual tension and longing that it’s hard not to watch it without breaking a sweat. The top scene, however, has to be now-notorious peach-fucking. Who knew dismantling and having your way with a piece of fruit could be so sexy?
Departure © Wolfe Releasing
2015, France
In Departure, Beatrice (Juliet Stevenson) and her teenage son Elliot (Alex Lawther) are preparing for the sale of their vacation home in the south of France. Elliot struggles with his dawning sexuality and an increasing alienation from his mother. Beatrice in turn is upset over the sale of the house and her crumbling marriage. When Clement (Phenix Brossard), an enigmatic local teenager, enters their lives, both mother and son are compelled to confront their desires and, finally, each other. While Elliot and Clement are out together on a boating adventure, things get a little heated. While drying off after a quick dip, Elliot works up the courage to caress Clement, and his wandering hand seems to be pretty welcome. Though it’s not graphic, the scene gets pretty intense as Elliot reaches into Clement’s shorts and gives him the friendliest handshake of all.
God’s Own Country © Samuel Goldwyn Films
2017, United Kingdom
Johnny Saxby (Josh O’Connor) works long hours on his family’s remote farm in the north of England. He numbs the daily frustration of his lonely existence with nightly binge-drinking at the local pub and casual sex. But when Gheorghe (Alec Secareanu), a handsome Romanian migrant worker, arrives to take up temporary work on the family farm, Johnny suddenly finds himself having to deal with emotions he has never felt before. As they begin working closely together during lambing season, an intense relationship starts to form which could change Johnny’s life forever. There’s much explicit sex and nudity to be found in God’s Own Country, a truly touching and romantic gem, but the hottest scene of all revolves around the leading pair’s first encounter. Johnny aggressively grabs Gheorghe while he’s taking a leak. With animosity having grown between them early in the film, the two don’t know whether to fuck or fight – so they do a bit of both. Wrestling on the cold ground, they start undressing, their bare bodies streaked with mud. It’s a primal expression of an attraction that can no longer be contained.
Henry Gamble’s Birthday Party © Wolfe Releasing
2015, United States
Henry Gamble’s Birthday Party unfolds over the course of one very eventful day in the life of preacher’s son (Cole Doman). At Henry’s afternoon birthday pool party, the guests include an assortment of grown-ups from the family church, as well as Henry’s secular and religious teen friends – including the closeted young Logan (Daniel Kyri), who clearly has eyes for Henry. As Henry treads through various sexual possibilities, seeking to come into his own, so too do the adults and teenagers of the party, all struggling to navigate the public and private, and their longing, despite themselves and their faith, for earthly love. If you’ve ever secretly lusted after a straight friend, there’s a particular scene in this film that will resonate. Adorable “Stranger Things” breakout star Joe Keery plays Henry’s horny buddy Gabe. While the two of them lay shirtless in Henry’s bed, they split a pair of tube socks and proceed to spank it under the covers. Gabe talks (or whispers and moans, more accurately) about a fantasy he has about a girl, but Henry’s mind seems to be elsewhere. We can’t really blame him.
Paris 05:59: Theo & Hugo © Wolfe Releasing
2016, France
Theo and Hugo (Geoffrey Couet and Francois Nambot – both of whom were cast after responding to a Facebook post that called for extensive nudity) are two young gay men who meet one night during an all-male orgy at an underground sex club in Paris. After building a special connection, they meet outside the club where they realize they had unprotected sex. During the next 90 minutes, we follow them as they leave the club, get to know each other and struggle with an uncertain future. Unfolding in real time, the action of Paris 05:59: Theo & Hugo takes place entirely between 4:27 am and 5:59 am. It’s a clever conceit – and one of the main aspects of the film that sets it apart is the fact that the unbridled sex scene takes place BEFORE all the “getting to know you” stuff. Co-writer/directors Olivier Ducastel and Jacques Martineau don’t hold anything back. The opening sequences of Paris 05:59, which run about twenty minutes, are wildly graphic, but always tasteful – and, though it’s hard to tell from shot-to-shot, they seem to be largely unsimulated.
Pit Stop © Wolfe Releasing
2013, United States
Recovering from an ill-fated affair with a married man, Gabe (Bill Heck) finds solace in the relationship he maintains with his ex-wife and daughter. On the other side of town, Ernesto (Marcus DeAnda) evades life at home with his current live-in ex-boyfriend by spending much of his spare time in the hospital with an ailing past love. Impervious to the monotony of their daily lives, they maintain an unwavering yearning for romance. Then… they meet. The beautiful thing about Pit Stop is that it aims to buck any possible gay stereotypes by focusing on two super masculine, blue collar protagonists, the kind of guys we don’t often see in romantic films like this one. Director Yen Tan stages the film’s key sex scene simply. The camera is focused on the upper halves of the two leads and they passionately kiss, grind and caress. The camera slowly inches in closer to their faces. We can imagine what’s going on just out of frame, but it’s their breathing and facial expressions that make the scene so incredibly erotic. It’s very well-acted (as is the movie as a whole).
Stranger by the Lake © Strand Releasing
2013, France
Frank (Pierre de Ladonchamps) spends his summer days hopelessly searching for companionship at a popular cruising spot on the shores of a lake in rural France. One day, he meets Michel (Christophe Paou), an attractive yet darkly mysterious man and falls blindly in love. When a death occurs, Frank and Michel become the primary suspects… BUT they choose to ignore the dangers and instead continue to engage in their passionate and potentially lethal relationship. With Stranger by the Lake, acclaimed director Alain Guiraudie crafted a compelling avant garde gem with Hitchcockian style to spare. He also managed to pepper in a ton of explicit sex and nudity. Though the lead actors stated that they would have been uncomfortable going all the way in the sex scenes themselves, Guiraudie uses body doubles for cut-away shots that feature unsimilated penetration – and the editing is seamless. Winner of the Queer Palm Award at the Cannes Film Festival, Stranger by the Lake is an erotic thriller that tests the lengths and limits of sexual desire.
The Third One © TLA Releasing
2014, Argentina
Unfolding over the course of one night, The Third One concerns a ménage à trois. In the extended pre-title opening, we’re treated to raunchy online conversations and video chats between Fede (Emiliano Dionisi), a college student, and Hernan and Franco (Carlos Echevarria and Nicolas Armengol), an attractive, slightly older gay couple. After a few heated internet encounters, they decide to meet in person. The film features numerous long takes – the camera fixed in one position as this trio gets acquainted and builds sexual tension. Once that tension is released, in an incredibly long and intimate three-way sequence, it’s all the more riveting for the slow build that precedes it. Light on conflict, The Third One simply aims to simulate a modern gay threesome as believably as possible – and it succeeds. This is a sex positive movie that looks at taboos – open relationships, intergenerational affairs – with a fair eye and celebrates the enchanting effect that one night of honest, uninhibited passion can leave you in the morning.
Wild Awakening © TLA Releasing
2016, Spain
Siblings Emma and Toni (Julia Hernandez and Fabian Castro) inherit their family’s horse riding school – a place where men are seemingly forever running around shirtless. Though they’re the rightful owners, neither Emma nor Toni seem well equipped to keep the business going. Emma is still young and Toni has an uncontrolled and promiscuous gay sex life, which is the subject of much gossip within their close-knit community. Leadership responsibilities fall to Ramon (Richie Ormon), the capable foreman. Things get tricky, though, when both Emma and Toni fall in love with homophobic Ramon’s smoking hot, sexually fluid son Aaron (Christian Blanch). A highly erotic and over-the-top forbidden love story, Wild Awakening is equal parts melodrama and steamy gay soap opera. There are a lot of sex scenes to feast your eyes on, but our favorite takes place during a gorgeously-lit slow-motion fantasy sequence that frames the two leading men angelically.
