The year’s most disturbing nudity in film

Celebrity skin on screen was more uncomfortable than titillating this year – as if actors displaying their bodies did not want to be in those bodies. Yet that was exactly why they held such power and fascination. It was not ogling nudity that excited audiences, it was seeing someone put on a mask or take one off and be (or become) their true selves — a rebirth as it were, literally, and in many films, figuratively.

The year in nudity was all about shedding skin and physical transformation. There were fetishes and fluids. There were masks and masochism. Things were more icky than erotic. 

And while cinema and actors have become more comfortable with showing full nudity, many of the frontal shots this year — along with one particular rear view — were disturbing. These vivid, visceral images conveyed so much meaning about how we see our bodies and how we think others see our bodies. It is self-examination coupled with voyeurism, that affected the viewer more than any mere turn-on.

The nudity in this year’s crop of films is mostly unglamorous, which may be why viewers can relate to them. We see ourselves in their skin. These characters are damaged, and in pain — sometimes physically, always emotionally. As they open up, and bare themselves, they reveal their imperfections. It was impossible to look away.

Jude Law and Alicia Vikander in “Firebrand” (Larry Horricks/MetFilm Distribution)

In “Firebrand,” Jude Law plays Henry VIII in the last years of his life as an outsized monster who bulldozes his way through the film, rotting, smelling and generally misbehaving. He’s abusive towards his wife Katherine Parr (Alicia Vikander), both physically and mentally. But perhaps the most egregious and discussed (or disgust-ing) offense is Law’s nude scene. This is a brief, but can’t-unsee-it image of his bare buttocks as he thrusts himself upon Katherine in a sex scene that many wags on Letterboxd described as a jump scare. Law’s butt double was eventually exposed as being Dale Farrow (a non-actor), but it is still one of the more visceral shots in this forceful drama about the epitome of toxic masculinity.

High Tide (LD Entertainment)

Lourenço (Marco Pigossi), the protagonist of this tender character study, is first seen stripping off his clothes on a beach in Provincetown and floating in the water. Director Marco Calvani (Pigossi’s real-life husband) shoots this from a God’s eye point of view, emphasizing not only how small Lourenço is in the world, but also to suggest that he is being baptized and cleansed — experiencing a kind of rebirth after a series of difficult and demoralizing episodes. “High Tide” shows what prompted Lourenço to spiral downward at this moment. It includes the heartbreak of a failed relationship and bad sex with strangers. Lourenço bares his body if not his soul as he tries to find his self-worth. The handsome Pigossi’s frequent nudity is his attempt to find comfort in his own skin. When he reluctantly strips down to go skinny-dipping with some friends he meets, he plucks up the courage to embrace his flaws and find comfort in his discomfort. It may be his best way to heal.

Love Lies Bleeding (A24)

This romantic thriller also deals in female bodily transformation as Jackie (Katy O’Brian) enters the gym where Lou (Kristen Stewart) works, to prepare for a bodybuilding competition. Lou finds Jackie alluring and offers her drugs to enhance her efforts, indicating, “Your body, your choice,” before she injects Jackie in her bottom. Jackie and Lou become romantically and sexually intimate, leading to some sweaty naked sex and even some shrimping (toe sucking). But as Jackie’s body get bigger — one montage features her biceps literally bulging — director Rose Glass showcases it with a kind of strange fascination. Jackie becomes superhuman, even oversized in one fantastic (as in great, as in wild) episode. But the most remarkable scene has Jackie competing on stage performing her routine only to be arrested by a bloody, hallucinatory vision in which she vomits — and out pops Lou. The surreal horror of this moment, which calls back to an earlier crime Jackie committed, leaves her feeling very exposed in ways that even her skimpy bikini outfit cannot hide.

Lily-Rose Depp stars as Ellen Hutter in “Nosferatu” (Focus Features)

Robert Eggers’ stylized take on Count Orlok includes naked virgins and a nude man on a septagram. Yet this is not a sensuous version of Bram Stoker’s most famous work, unlike, say, “Andy Warhol’s Dracula.” Eggers is using sex and death as a metaphor for our fears, and the scenes of a naked Count Orlok terrorizing the living and the undead emphasize the film’s body horror. There are some particularly gruesome moments when the Count is disturbed in his coffin. He rises fully nude and attacks — sucking the blood from one victim in a scene that is quite disturbing. Eggers shoots it all with atmospheric lighting and music to create true Gothic terror. He makes the experience cinematic, not sexual. A later sequence features Count Orlok having sex with Ellen Hutter (Lily-Rose Depp), and Eggers emphasizes his grotesque, deformed body penetrating her, with blood being spilled all over their naked bodies. It is creepy and squirm-inducing as it depicts a power struggle between good and evil. The white purity and the darkness are heightened by the luminous cinematography. The nudity in “Nosferatu” results from those who are spellbound, and Eggers makes it spellbinding with his rich and provocative visuals.  

Queer (A24)

“Queer” may feature alluring naked men as sexual partners, but there also some disturbing visuals, such as one vivid shot of a nude woman, cut off at the legs with a needle in her arm during one of Lee’s (Daniel Craig) fever dreams. The woman asks, “Aren’t you queer?” suggesting that Lee should not be imagining her. The film includes other trippy sequences — also far more sensuous — of Lee and Allerton (Drew Starkey) hallucinating with their naked bodies pressing against and away from each other in a kind of pas de deux that suggest both their attraction and repulsion. Director Luca Guadagnino emphasizes both the complicated desire between these men, and the messiness of their sex. The film’s nudity is candid — when Allerton answers the door naked, it is as much a tease as it is an invitation. But it is the longing Lee has throughout the film that reflects the emptiness of his sex and drug addiction. Naked and face down on a bed, spent after sex, he feels nothing. And Craig’s astonishing performance allows viewers to feel everything.

Ed Skrein in “Rebel Moon” (Netflix)

It is curious why the women being branded in Zack Synder’s space opera “Rebel Moon” have to be completely naked and disfigured, but this two-part sci-fi epic raises more questions when it comes to Admiral Atticus Noble (Ed Skrein) and his nude scenes. Skrein is seen naked with snakes clinging to his arms and portals on his chest that allow for cables (and snakes) to attach to his body. He even swallows one snake, which is bizarrely homoerotic. Noble is unselfconsciously naked, proudly displaying himself to his underling, Cassius (Alfonso Herrera). Noble wants to be looked at because he commands power. But he is mostly powerless; his nudity here is a façade. When Noble needs to be resurrected after possible death, a series of illuminated cables and portals connect him to a neurolink, and he is submerged naked into water where astral energy is used to revive him. Emerging from a chrysalis, he is reborn, but he has not changed. Skrein’s nudity is mostly discreet — seen from the side, with rear views visible in the director’s cut, but never any full frontals. Snyder films these episodes clinically, showing how Noble’s character is vulnerable and powerless. The tubes, water and electrical charges can transform him only so much, and like Cassius, we watch in disgust, knowing the emperor has no clothes.

Sasquatch Sunset (Bleecker Street)

Bigfoot may not exist, but “Sasquatch Sunset” makes the case that if these cryptids were real, they would be horny AF. David and Nathan Zellner’s film, which is shot in a deliberately observational, nature documentary style, opens with a scene of Sasquatch sex (the male even cleans himself off with leaves after mating), and features several episodes involving arousal — one involving a predator, which practically defines the term “unsafe sex.” But there are also deliberate shots of a Sasquatch’s genitalia (seen while the character is vomiting, no less), moments where the characters are marking their territory with urine, and a scene of childbirth that is infinitely better than Florence Pugh’s character having a baby in “We Live in Time.” “Sasquatch Sunset” displays nudity as natural, but it is rarely comforting. Perhaps that is the point. We are all sexy beasts.

The Substance (Mubi)

Demi Moore gives a bravura performance (arguably the year’s finest) as Elisabeth Sparkle in this stunning film about a woman of a certain age craving youth and beauty. But her extended unclothed scene in a bathroom, where she “births” a “younger, better self,” Sue (Margaret Qualley), after injecting the titular substance is one of the year’s best and most memorable nude scenes. It is not just that the 62-year-old Moore displays full-frontal nudity (as does her younger costar, Qualley) but that the film shows the flaws and features of their bodies. These women are idealized and objectified by the camera, while also being highly self-critical of their appearances. The actresses admire their looks — it defines who they are — as much as they like being looked at. (Note the framed photo of Elisabeth hanging on a wall of her apartment opposite a window where Sue is seen on a billboard.) Director Coralie Fargeat photographs these women in ways that flatter and fetishize them. (A man could never have made this film). But her camera is a mirror reflecting their false perfection back at us, showing viewers how superficial we really are. The nudity here is a symbol of power and vulnerability, especially in the final reel. And it is both shocking and breathtaking.

That Feeling That The Time For Doing Something Has Passed (Magnolia Pictures)

It is always interesting when a filmmaker appears naked, repeatedly, throughout their own film. In her feature debut, “The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed,” writer/director and editor Joanna Arrow stars as Ann, a submissive whose master is Allen (Scott Cohen). She’s first seen lying fully nude in bed with him and soon humps his sleeping body. “I love how you don’t do anything for me,” she intones, indicating the nature of their relationship, and providing a sense of the film’s dry, deadpan humor. She begs him to tell her what to do, and in various sessions, he instructs her to run to the wall naked or “bend over and spread her cheeks.” He even gags her in one scene. These moments showcase Ann’s submission, but in Arrow’s idiosyncratic drama, this is a sign of her strength and control. Arrow’s poker-faced performance and her extensive full nudity is an expression of her confidence. The perceived abuse here is desired and consensual, which is what makes it compelling. Moreover, the shots in “The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed,” while artfully composed, are as flat and unaffected as the dialogue. Unlike the glossy “Babygirl,” this year’s other BDSM drama, Arrow’s film has a detached tone that will get on viewers’ nerves, if not under their skin.