Four Favorites: Kate Hagen on cinematic sex, David Lynch and 80s vampire Westerns

Cinematic-sex sleuth, Kate Hagen (director of community for The Black List) discusses her four favorites—Near Dark; Baby It’s You; Wild at Heart; and Morvern Callar—with hosts Gemma (Letterboxd editor-in-chief) and Slim (of 70mm podcast). Also: the genius of how Bigelow stages action; Verhoeven’s kink for unisex shower scenes; the unacceptable decline of sex scenes in American movies; an awkward conversation about David Lynch’s films; the worst movies with the best sex scenes; Oscar Isaac thirst; the rarity of male frontal nudity; why you should get a region-free Blu-ray player. And, Kate unpacks Hollywood’s “cult of perfection” and what that means for fat actresses on and off screen (her essay for Letterboxd is publishing soon). Links: The Letterboxd list of films mentioned in this episode; The Black List; Kate’s long-form sex essay for Playboy; Shudder on Letterboxd; Brendan’s review of Morvern Callar; Kate’s lists of Essential Erotic Thrillers; 365 Sex Scenes; three eggplant emojis (a companion to Slim’s man-ass list); and the Cinematic Canon for Fat Grrls; NWorbb’s list of Films in the Splatter-Cannibal She-Devil Vein. Credits: This episode was recorded in Los Angeles, Pennsylvania and Auckland, and edited by Slim. Facts by Jack. Booker: Linda Moulton. Theme: ‘Vampiros Dancoteque’ by Moniker. Transcripts by Sophie Shin.