Comment on This Year, Sundance Was All About Sex

Moral outrage may be in vogue and cancel culture always lurks, but sex was everywhere at this year’s Sundance. Last year’s edition had a few hot takes ranging from Emma Thompson’s empowering decision to bare all in the moving “Good Luck to You, Leo Grande” to Lena Dunham’s curious exploration of a ravenous teen’s post-hysterectomy horniness in “Sharp Stick.” This time, Sundance movies confronted sexuality through a darker, even tragic lens. While mainstream American cinema still treats the subject as taboo – beyond a fleeting sequence in “Eternals,” no one gets down in a Marvel movie — our preeminent cinematic vessel for marginalized perspectives provided some bracing, somber alternatives, often tinged with acid-tongued humor. From the moment the hotshot couple at the center of “Fair Play” sneak off to the bathroom for a quickie, only to wind up bathed in period blood, it’s clear that writer-director Chloe Domont isn’t here to sanitize her subject.