Remember when HBO was home to some of the most provocative and risque movies, shows, and specials on TV? Though much of that classic “late night” content (Taxi Cab Confessions is still around) is no longer included with an HBO Max subscription, the robust streaming service is home to its fair share of racy movies these days.
If you’re in the mood for some of the most sexually explicit movies on Max, you’ve come to the right place. From steamy erotic thrillers to great A24 movies to iconic French arthouse films, and so much more, there’s a lot to unpack here.
Showgirls (1995)
The Director: Paul Verhoeven
The Cast: Elizabeth Berkley, Kyla MacLachlan, Gina Gershon
What It’s About: An aspiring dancer arrives in Las Vegas with hopes of being Sin City’s biggest showgirl, but soon finds out dreams aren’t all they’re cracked up to be.
What To Expect: One of the most controversial and universally panned movies of all time, Showgirls is full of drama, excitement, and so much nudity. Unlike the version that used to play on VH1 with the digital bras during the dancing sequences, this one goes all the way.
Fight Club (1999)
The Director: David Fincher
The Cast: Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, Helena Bonham Carter
Based On: Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk
What It’s About: A chance encounter with a mysterious and charismatic figure leads a 30-something insomniac to make a radical change in his life. However, he soon learns that their “Fight Club” is just the beginning.
What To Expect: One of the movies that defined 1999 cinema, Fight Club is an angry, angsty, and unforgettable exploration of the male psyche and just how far people will go. There’s violence, there’s comedy, and yes, there’s a lot of sexuality.
The Big Lebowski (1998)
The Director: Joel Coen
The Cast: Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Julianne Moore
What It’s About: After being mistaken for the wealthy businessman with the same name, a slacker known affectionately as the “Dude” is thrust into the middle of a kidnapping plot that just gets crazier and crazier.
What To Expect: The Big Lebowski, one of the Coen Brothers’ best movies, is one of those classics that just never gets old. With its hilarious story, unforgettable characters, and a bizarre dream sequence, there’s a lot going on here.
Casino (1995)
The Director: Martin Scorsese
The Cast: Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, Sharon Stone
What It’s About: After being sent out to the desert, a mafioso creates a massive gambling empire in Las Vegas.
What To Expect: Like most of Martin Scorsese’s best movies, Casino is long, full of more cussing than a fleet of sailors out at sea, and some of the most iconic music moments. And considering it’s a crime epic set in Sin City, there’s a decent amount of nudity throughout this three-hour masterpiece.
Parthenope (2025)
The Director: Paolo Sorrentino
The Cast: Celeste Dalla Porta, Stefania Sandrelli, Gary Oldman
What It’s About: Told through a series of vignettes, Parthenope tells the story of an Italian woman whose hunger for knowledge, experiences, and life in general takes her to wild and unimaginable places.
What To Expect: Centering on a strikingly beautiful and charismatic woman (played by Celeste Dalla Porta), Paolo Sorrentino’s Parthenope is an exploration of love, loss, lust, and self-discovery.
It Follows (2014)
The Director: David Robert Mitchell
The Cast: Maika Monroe, Jake Weary, Daniel Zovatto
What It’s About: After sleeping with her boyfriend, a young woman finds herself being the latest person to be haunted by a mysterious force of evil passed down from one sexual partner to another.
What To Expect: David Robert Mitchell’s It Follows has a great premise and an even better execution with its tale of love, lust, and demonic forces passed along like a sexually transmitted disease.
Gloria Bell (2018)
The Director: Sebastián Lelio
The Cast: Julianne Moore, John Turturro, Michael Cera
What It’s About: A 50-something divorcee spends her evenings having fun and dancing away her nights at local nightclubs, but her breezy life is put to the test when she starts a new relationship.
What To Expect: Sebastián Lelio’s Gloria Bell, which features one of Julianne Moore’s best performances, has so many great dance scenes, a superb use of Laura Branigan’s “Gloria,” and some incredibly intimate moments along the way.
Dream Scenario (2023)
The Director: Kristoffer Borgli
The Cast: Nicolas Cage, Julianne Nicholson, Michael Cera
What It’s About: A college professor finds his life being turned upside down after he starts showing up in the dreams of his colleagues, friends, and random strangers, making him a reluctant celebrity overnight.
What To Expect: Kristoffer Borgli’s Dream Scenario is a hilarious, maddening, and transfixing exploration of dreams, identity, and celebrity. With a mixture of genres and themes, this outrageous Nicolas Cage experience was one of the best movies of 2023.
Disobedience (2017)
The Director: Sebastián Lelio
The Cast: Rachel Weisz, Rachel McAdams, Alessandro Nivola
What It’s About: Upon returning to a community that shunned her years earlier, a photographer attempts to reconcile with her past and revisit a long-lost love, which creates an increasingly tense situation.
What To Expect: Led by moving performances from Rachel Weisz and Rachel McAdams, Sebastián Lelio’s Disobedience is a tense yet loving portrait of forbidden love and the power of redemption.
The Brutalist (2024)
The Director: Brady Corbet
The Cast: Adrien Brody, Felicity Jones, Guy Pearce
What It’s About: A holocaust survivor and world-renowned architect immigrates to the United States after World War II in search of the American Dream, kicking off an ambitious, decades-long project in the process.
What To Expect: Though you won’t see The Brutalist’s 15-minute intermission on Max, nothing else was cut from Brady Corbet’s Oscar-winning epic. The agony and ecstasy of art, the deconstruction of the American Dream, and some intense sex scenes are found throughout this three-hour drama.
Inherent Vice (2014)
The Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
The Cast: Joaquin Phoenix, Josh Brolin, Katherine Waterston
Based On: Thomas Pynchon’s Inherent Vice
What It’s About: A down-on-his-luck private eye goes to great lengths to solve three seemingly unrelated crimes that very well may end up being connected to the disappearance of his ex-girlfriend in 1970s Los Angeles.
What To Expect: Like Paul Thomas Anderson’s best movies, Inherent Vice is a complex, intense, and engaging drama exploring both the good and bad of humanity, this time through the eyes of a drug-addicted detective. Excess, suspense, and sexual encounters are peppered throughout this great crime flick.
Open Your Eyes (1997)
The Director: Alejandro Amenábar
The Cast: Eduardo Noriega, Penélope Cruz, Chete Lera
What It’s About: After a tragic car crash takes everything from him, including his handsome face, a former heartthrob finds himself on a maddening and frightening journey, one where he can’t tell the difference between reality and fantasy.
What To Expect: Alejandro Amenábar’s Open Your Eyes, which stars a young Penélope Cruz, is a wild and frenzied psychological thriller about one man’s downfall from being a highly sought-after bachelor to a disfigured prisoner. This one just gets more confusing as it unfolds.
Babygirl (2024)
The Director: Halina Reijn
The Cast: Nicole Kidman, Harris Dickinson, Sophie Wilde
What It’s About: A successful CEO (played by Nicole Kidman) finds her life at the office and at her home becomes increasingly more complicated after starting an affair with a much younger intern (played by Harris Dickinson)
What To Expect: A movie that took the world by storm, Babygirl isn’t for the faint of heart. With its fair share of sexually explicit moments throughout, much-talked-about scenes, and electric chemistry between the leads, this much-talked-about 2024 drama is worth watching.
All I See Is You (2017)
The Director: Marc Forster
The Cast: Blake Lively, Jason Clarke, Ahna O’Reilly
What It’s About: After a woman undergoes surgery to regain her eyesight, she not only begins to see the world around her in a different way, but also the complexities of her marriage.
What To Expect: With drama, romance, a thrilling story, and so much nudity, there’s a lot to feast your eyes upon with All I See Is You.
Portrait Of A Lady On Fire (2019)
The Director: Céline Sciamma
The Cast: Noémie Merlant, Adèle Haenel, Luàna Bajrami
What It’s About: Hired to secretly paint a wedding portrait of a wealthy woman reluctant to get married, the artist ends up forming a passionate yet forbidden relationship with her subject.
What To Expect: In addition to having great costumes and production design, Portrait of a Lady on Fire also has so much sensuality and forbidden love running throughout it. The tension builds to a fever pitch as these two strong and mysterious women fall madly in love with one another.
Queer (2024)
The Director: Luca Guadagnino
The Cast: Daniel Craig, Drew Starkey, Jason Schwartzman
Based On: William S. Burroughs’ Queer
What It’s About: An American expatriate (played by Daniel Craig) spends his days wasting in the sun and his nights looking for young lovers in Mexico City until he meets an American GI (played by Drew Starkey), kicking off an intense romance.
What To Expect: Considering this is a Luca Guadagnino movie based on a William S. Burroughs novella, it takes no stretch of the imagination to see Queer as an intense, unrelenting, and unforgettable tale of love, loss, and lust.
A Different Man (2024)
The Director: Aaron Schimberg
The Cast: Adam Pearson, Sebastian Stan, Renate Reinsve
What It’s About: An actor (played by Sebastian Stan) with neurofibromatosis and crippling social anxiety undergoes a revolutionary procedure to change his appearance, only to discover that it doesn’t fix everything he doesn’t like about himself.
What To Expect: Aaron Schimberg’s A Different Man is a bizarre, heartfelt, and unforgettable dark comedy about identity, image, and self-esteem in society. On top of a great story and outstanding performances (Adam Pearson and Sebastian Stan in particular), the movie also has a rather graphic sex scene that is truly wild.
X (2022)
The Director: Ti West
The Cast: Mia Goth, Jenna Ortega, Brittany Snow
What It’s About: After setting up a shoot at an isolated farm in rural Texas, an adult film crew is targeted by a vengeful and sadistic elderly couple who own the property. Survival isn’t guaranteed in X, the start of Ti West’s slasher trilogy.
What To Expect: Considering this is a slasher in which adult film stars and a production crew fall victim to angry killers, you’re going to see a ton of blood, nudity, and violence throughout this one.
MaXXXine (2024)
The Director: Ti West
The Cast: Mia Goth, Elizabeth Debicki, Moses Sumney
What It’s About: Adult film star Maxine Minx (Mia Goth) is on the cusp of becoming one of the biggest stars on the planet when a dark secret from her past comes back and tries to bring it all crashing down.
What To Expect: The finale of Ti West’s blood-soaked trilogy, MaXXXine, doesn’t hold back when it comes to thrills, chills, and so much sexuality. Like its predecessors, this is one of the best sexy horror movies around.
We Live In Time (2024)
The Director: John Crowley
The Cast: Florence Pugh, Andrew Garfield
What It’s About: Using a non-linear narrative structure, John Crowley’s We Live in Time tells the story of a young couple as they meet, fall in love, have a kid, and then come to terms with a serious illness that could upend everything they’ve built.
What To Expect: Though a movie about illness and loss, We Live in Time is very much a story of romance and passion, and that means we get some hot and heavy sex scenes along the way. Don’t worry, they are shot tastefully in one of the best movies of 2024.
The Lure (2015)
The Director: Agnieszka Smoczyńska
The Cast: Marta Mazurek, Michalina Olszanska, Kinga Preis
Based On: Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid
What It’s About: Not your standard adaptation of The Little Mermaid, The Lure follows two mermaid sisters as they become a popular routine at a Polish nightclub. But when one sister falls in love with a human, things take a turn for the worse…
What To Expect: If over-the-top and mind-bending versions of classic fairy tales are your thing, you’ll love The Lure. With sex and violence (as well as a great story about being true to yourself), this Polish horror flick is a rousing good time.
Belle De Jour (1967)
The Director: Luis Buñuel
The Cast: Catherine Deneuve, Jean Sorel, Pierre Clementi
What It’s About: Growing bored with life at home, the wife of a wealthy doctor decides to take a new path in life by spending her afternoons as a call girl at a Paris brothel.
What To Expect: Combining elements of surrealist erotica and psychological drama, Luis Buñuel’s 1967 film, Belle de Jour, is a cool and moody French film about everything from existential crises to sexual awakenings to finding meaning in a mad world.
Love Lies Bleeding (2024)
The Director: Rose Glass
The Cast: Kristen Stewart, Katy O’Brian, Jena Malone
What It’s About: Two lovers – a gym manager and an on-the-rise bodybuilder – think they have a good thing going with their budding romance. However, their dreams come crashing down as quickly as they build them in this crime thriller.
What To Expect: Love, lust, drama, and violence are in no short supply in Rose Glass’ Love Lies Bleeding, one of the best thrillers of 2024.
Demonlover (2002)
The Director: Olivier Assayas
The Cast: Connie Nielsen, Chloe Sevigny, Gina Gershon
What It’s About: An ambitious and cutthroat media executive goes to great lengths to acquire a Japanese animation house to give her company the upper hand. But that’s where things get out of hand.
What To Expect: Probably one of the most notorious examples of the New French Extremity movement, Demonlover combines elements of erotic thrillers with corporate espionage to create an unforgettable and boundary-pushing experience.
Le Bonheur (1965)
The Director: Agnès Varda
The Cast: Jean-Claude Drouot, Claire Drouot, Marie-France Boyer,
What It’s About: A seemingly happy father of two has everything going for him in life until he meets and falls in love with a young postal worker.
What To Expect: Beautifully written and directed, Le Bonheur features tremendous performances from its cast, who participate in some artfully shot sex scenes. While nudity is present throughout most of these sequences, it is done ever so delicately.
Desert Hearts (1985)
The Director: Donna Deitch
The Cast: Helen Shaver, Patricia Charbonneau, Audra Lindley
What It’s About: Traveling to the desert to file for divorce, a college professor is swept off her feet by a free-spirited woman who exposes her to a life and kind of love she never knew existed.
What To Expect: This celebrated LGBTQ+ romance story is full of passion, new beginnings, incredible dialogue, and beautifully shot scenes of romance that push the envelope while not being over-the-top. This magical film about finding what it means to love and be loved is a gem.
Working Girls (1986)
The Director: Lizzie Borden
The Cast: Louise Smith, Amanda Goodwin, Marusia Zach
What It’s About: A day in the lives of a group of sex workers as they are visited by multiple clients at a New York City brothel in a single day.
What To Expect: The movie is full of nudity, sex scenes, and all kinds of risque behavior that pushes the envelope and the boundaries as to what’s acceptable in a movie. This is one of those movies you definitely wouldn’t want your parents walking in on you watching on some late-night HBO showing back in the day.
Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down (1990)
The Director: Pedro Almodóvar
The Cast: Antonio Banderas, Victoria Abril, Loles León
What It’s About: A recently released psychiatric patient tries to find a former adult film star and convince her to fall in love with him, though how he goes about this is far from romantic.
What To Expect: One of Antonio Banderas’ best movies, Tie Me Up!, Tie Me Down! leaves little to the imagination and displays exactly why the MPAA gave it an X rating before replacing it with the NC-17 distinction.
Gia (1998)
The Director: Michael Cristofer
The Cast: Angelina Jolie, Elizabeth Mitchell, Faye Dunaway
What It’s About: The life and times of supermodel Gia Carangi (Jolie) are explored in great detail, as are her various romantic relationships.
What To Expect: The biographical drama, which doesn’t hold back when it comes to the depictions of the model’s battle with drug abuse, AIDS, and her sexuality, also features some incredibly sexual scenes.
Behind The Candelabra (2013)
The Director: Steven Soderbergh
The Cast: Michael Douglas, Matt Damon, Rob Lowe
What It’s About: An exploration of legendary Las Vegas pianist Liberace and his intense relationship with a lover in the final years of his life.
What To Expect: The 2013 HBO original movie, which doesn’t hold back on the excess that fueled Liberace’s life off-stage, as well as his attempts to preserve his public image, has more than a few explicit sex scenes.
Whether you’re a fan of erotic thrillers, classic dramas, or everything in between, these steamy titles will certainly do the trick.
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