Streaming
From Brokeback Mountain to Portrait of a Lady on Fire.
Just as eating spicy foods during the dog days of summer can help cool you down, raising your core temperature with some steamy content may help you ignore the sweltering heat outdoors. Purely in service of your health and well-being, here are the 22 sexiest movies streaming on Hulu, available right now to help you get a little flushed — and quench those lusty desires.
There's something for everyone’s particular taste on this list. For fans of history, Hulu has plenty delightfully anachronistic (and sapphic) period pieces, including Ammonite, Portrait of a Lady on Fire, and The World to Come. There are also plenty of present day love stories, like Free Fall, Brokeback Mountain, and Premature. And of course, what roundup of sultry films would be complete without some version of Pride and Prejudice — in this case, the BBC version with fan-favorite Mr. Darcy played by Colin Firth. For those interested in more modern fare, and enjoy a side of social alienation with their casual sex, the conflicted emotions and identities on display in 28 Hotel Rooms, Women and Sometimes Men, and Beach Rats should do the trick. And of course, there are a few straightforward romances with the heat turned up just a wee bit higher.
So unbutton that shirt, keep the handkerchief on deck, and press play on one of these steamy films now streaming on Hulu.
11
28 Hotel Rooms
In effort to evoke the anonymity and transience of the one-night stand, 28 Hotel Rooms takes place in the various hotel rooms in which its central couple meet, and no character in the film is named. It follows a married corporate accountant (Marin Ireland) who goes on a business trip, and ends up having a casual rendezvous with a novelist (Chris Messina). But when they run into each other a year later, their affair turns out to be less fleeting than they intended.
12
Sliver
Sharon Stone, the ultimate queen of ’90s erotic thrillers, stars in Silver alongside a young and handsome William Baldwin. The film follows Carly (Stone), a woman who moves into an exclusive New York City apartment building, and soon discovers her fellow tenants have all kinds of shocking secrets — including Zeke (Baldwin). Things get very heated very fast. The film may have earned an abysmal 11% on Rotten Tomatoes, but Sharon Stone looks like a 10 out of 10 the entire time.
13
The World To Come
This is one of those movies that is simultaneously as sexy as it is tender. Yet another sapphic period film (there can never be too many), The World To Come is based on Jim Shepherd’s story of the same name. Katherine Waterson and Vanessa Kirby star as the two farmer’s wives who enter into a passionate affair, while Christopher Abbott and Casey Affleck round out the cast.
14
Plus One
Pen15’s Maya Erskine takes on a more adult role in Plus One. She and Jack Quaid star as longtime friends who remain single at an age when everyone else seems to be getting married. To counteract the stigma of singledom, they decide to be each other’s “plus one” at all the weddings they attend. Think The Wedding Date meets 27 Dresses, except funnier and much sexier.
15
A Teacher
This small indie flick that’s as provocative as it is intense. The film follows a Texas high school teacher, Diana Watts, who gets involved with one of her male students, Eric. As their relationship grows increasingly passionate, so too does the threat of being found out. But as Diana tries to extricate herself, she also becomes increasingly obsessed with learning every detail of Eric’s life. A Teacher premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, and was later adapted as a miniseries, which is also available on Hulu.
16
Monogamy
Chris Messina stars in Monogomy as Theo, a disillusioned wedding photographer who decides to launch a side business — in which he stalks clients with his camera. Theo's own wedding to Nat (Rashida Jones) is threatened by Theo’s photographic obsessions, especially a woman whom he watches on the streets performing sex work. It’s simultaneously steamy and strange.
17
Pit Stop
Not unlike Brokeback Mountain, Pit Stop depicts queerness in rural America. Gabe (Bill Heck) and Ernesto (Marcus DeAnda) both live in the same small Texas town — and soon develop feelings for one another. Directed by Yen Tan, the film was a hit at its premiere at the Dallas International Film Festival in 2013, and took home the Texas Grand Jury Prize.
18
Shared Rooms
What’s hotter than gay sex during the holidays? Directed by Rob Williams, Shared Rooms follows three queer friends who are still trying to figure things out while everyone around them is settling down, getting married, and adopting children. Between Christmas and New Year’s, each member of the trio makes a connection with someone who gives them clarity about the future. ’Tis the season, right?
19
The Shape of Water
A more unorthodox love story, The Shape of Water proves that there’s someone out there for everyone — though that someone might be a fish-man. That’s certainly the case for Elisa (Sally Hawkins), who works as a cleaner at a government laboratory that’s holding a humanoid amphibian hostage; the two fall in love, and it’s surprisingly sweet. Hawkins delivers a glorious performance with just her face and body — her character is mute, and does not speak in the film.
20
Brokeback Mountain
Does Brokeback Mountain really need to be described? The queer neo-Western, based on the short story by writer Annie Proulx, follows two cowboys who spend the summer herding sheep on a fictitious mountain in Wyoming. The two begin a decades-long affair that ends… unhappily. Brokeback Mountain features one of the most passionate movie romances of the 21st century, and Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhall’s chemistry is divine, as are their performances. If you haven’t seen it yet, now is your chance.
21
The Photograph
Issa Rae and Lakeith Stanfield star in this stunning film about love and loss in post-Hurricane Katrina New Orleans. Mae (Rae) is an assistant art curator who falls for Michael (Stanfield), a journalist who reaches out in search of archival material for a story. This one leans more tender than sexy, though the chemistry between Rae and Stanfield is still hot.
22
Vita & Virginia
Yes, we know it’s another same-sex period film. But this one has Virginia Woolf! Vita & Vanessa explores the real-life romance between the iconic Bloomsbury writers Virginia Woolf (Elizabeth Debicki) and Vita Sackville-West (Gemma Arterton). It wasn’t so much of an affair as it was a genuine relationship that ran parallel to their respective marriages, and with their spouses’ consent — though those limits would eventually be pushed.
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