Think of it as a minor insurrection: In a year when Hollywood tent-pole movies were enjoying their predictable, if unpredictably short, tenures atop the weekly box-office charts, in rolled Wedding Crashers. Not long ago such a merry sex romp might have trimmed its bawdiness and wedged itself into a PG-13 rating to attract throbbing adolescents. Instead, Owen Wilson, Vince Vaughn et al. took an R and unleashed their inner hounds. Moviegoers rejoiced; tired of masked men and special effects, they seemed glad to see some flesh and blood.
There were other, more serious risk-takers this year, most notably Atom Egoyan's Where the Truth Lies, in which an ambitious journalist exposes the kinky inclinations of a Martin and Lewis-type comedy team. Pushing the envelope as well were Michael Winterbottom's 9 Songs, which shows full-on sex by actors Margo Stilley and Kieran O'Brien; European art-house items Ma Mère, with S&M-tinged mom-son incest, and Anatomy of Hell, Catherine Breillat's examination of gynophobia; and homegrown films such as The Woodsman, about a recently paroled child molester, and Pretty Persuasion, in which a high school student accuses a teacher of sexual harassment. The sexiest films, though, were those in which simple pulchritude was vividly displayed. Think of Mr. & Mrs. Smith, with the charismatic Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt; Alfie, with Jude Law and Sienna Miller (left); or the fun film noir Sin City, which alluringly showcases Carla Gugino, Brittany Murphy and especially Jessica Alba as a lasso-swinging pole dancer. Yahoo!
