There has been quite a bit of discussion about sex scenes in cinema this year, spurred in part by reactions to Florence Pugh and Cillian Murphy baring all in Oppenheimer and in part by a UCLA study that claims young people want less sex on TV and in movies. Sex scenes have almost always been a part of cinematic storytelling because sex has always been a part of the human experience, but there has actually been a serious decline in the movie sex scene in the past decade. In 2019 writer Kate Hagen dug into publicly available data on IMDb and posited that there are fewer sex scenes in contemporary mainstream cinema than at any time during the medium’s history, so less sex in movies means almost none at all. Thankfully, there’s a wonderfully sexy, sort of silly thriller from this year that feels like a ‘90s throwback with the gloss of an arthouse indie to shake up the sex scene debate: Sanctuary.
Sanctuary, directed by Zachary Wigon from a script by Micah Bloomberg, is set during the final “date” between a dominatrix named Rebecca (Margaret Qualley) and her submissive, Hal (Christopher Abbott), the heir to an international hotel chain. After enjoying a session together that was scripted by Hal, he gives her an expensive watch and tells her that he’s taking over the business in the wake of his father’s death and he cannot continue to see her. She takes it pretty badly and tries to blackmail him into paying her millions because she helped him come out of his shell, which sends the whole film into a vicious back-and-forth between Rebecca and Hal.
Though Sanctuary starts as a thriller, it changes genres a few times throughout, eventually ending as something like a romantic comedy (yes, really). What never changes is the film’s sexuality and the deeply sexual relationship between its only two onscreen characters, and honestly feels like the perfect response to the idea of sex scenes being “unnecessary.” Sanctuary couldn’t work without its sex scenes, and it’s a refreshingly fun erotic thriller that gives Abbott and Qualley the chance to really shine. The words “fun” and “erotic thriller” are all too rarely used together, because there seems to be an idea that movies based around sex either have to be deadly serious or raunchy comedies, but the genre-bending delights of Sanctuary prove otherwise.
Look, there aren’t many movies about BDSM, and the only thing that comes close to Sanctuary in both tone and execution is the 2002 erotic dark comedy Secretary starring Maggie Gyllenhaal and James Spader as a secretary and her dominating boss. Sanctuary turns some of the typical gender roles in the genre on their head, though it’s interesting to note that economic roles remain the same, as Qualley’s Rebecca is still dependent on Hal for income. It forces the audience to question how they view different power dynamics, especially as the genres shift and the story reveals more about its central pair. This is a very different kind of relationship than the ones from Secretary or even the most famous BDSM-inspired series, Fifty Shades of Grey, because Rebecca and Hal both have power over one another, just in different ways. Their relationship is pretty dysfunctional, of course, as no healthy couple threatens to have their partner killed and say that it would cost less than a watch, but healthy couples don’t make for good erotic thrillers.
It’s worth noting that Sanctuary is nearly bookended by its sex scenes. The movie starts with an extended sexual fantasy scripted by Hal that capitalizes on his humiliation fetish, while the climax centers around a sex scene where Rebecca claims she is going to trap Hal for life with a pregnancy. Both have very different reasons for happening and depict very different elements of Hal and Rebecca’s relationship, but they are pivotal to understanding these two characters. Not every sex scene has to be “necessary” to justify its existence, of course, but both of Sanctuary’s scenes prove that sex can sometimes be an integral part of storytelling.
Sanctuary is a movie that subverts expectations at every turn, taking what could be a pretty standard erotic thriller and making it a little funny, a little sweet, and extremely stylish. Qualley and Abbott are both perfect in their respective roles, with Abbott playing the part of scared, stunted little boy trapped in a man’s body with equal parts seething wrath, entitlement, and self-pity. Meanwhile Qualley is electric and it’s hard not to fall in love with her while also being a tiny bit terrified of her, because it’s clear that this is a woman that will stop at nothing to get what she wants. Combined with Ludovica Isidori’s stunning cinematography, Qualley and Abbott become impossible to look away from. It’s not a masterpiece, but it is well-acted and shot and, more importantly, a hell of a lot of fun. The world needs more movies like Sanctuary that are willing to get loose with material that’s traditionally a bit more serious, because isn’t life serious enough?