In late January, the nominations for the 96th Academy Awards were announced, with “Poor Things” receiving 11 well-deserved nominations. The film is easily my favorite from last year, thanks to its directing, score, performances and wicked sense of humor mixed with feminist themes. However, I believe that there was another film from last year that also deserved attention from the Academy.
“Passages” is a romantic drama by Ira Sachs (“Keep the Lights On”), and it follows a gay couple whose marriage starts to fall apart after one of them has an affair with a woman. “Poor Things” is a sci-fi/dark comedy film from Yorgos Lanthimos (“The Lobster”), based on the novel of the same name. The plot follows the recently resurrected Bella, a young woman in a fantastical Victorian England, as she embarks on a journey of self-discovery.
Both films deal with sexuality with little to no sugarcoating, but “Passages” was completely ignored during awards season, and I think that it’s because of a frustrating double standard.
Depictions of gay sex in film have been demonized for years, and “Passages” was no exception. After the film’s premiere at last year’s Sundance Film Festival, the Motion Picture Association (MPA) announced they would release the movie with a bizarre NC-17 rating for its sex and nudity, which would have made it so that movie audiences had to be 18 or older to watch it in the United States. Sachs and distributor MUBI instead opted to release the film without a rating, leaving the film completely intact.
In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Sachs said he considers the rating “a form of cultural censorship that is quite dangerous.” The danger comes when we consider what movies earn the most extreme ratings. “Passages,” while having sex scenes, isn’t very explicit, to the point where it seems to me that the rating is partially homophobic … and I think that “Poor Things” proves that.
A significant element of “Poor Things” is Bella’s journey of self-discovery, particularly in sexual pleasure. The film portrays this about as graphically as it can, with full-frontal male and female nudity and numerous sex scenes throughout the film’s 141-minute runtime. Yet, this film was given an R-rating, while the less graphic “Passages” was slapped with the cursed NC-17.
The thing about “Passages” is that it really isn’t even about the sex. It’s a movie about intimacy and infidelity, and the sex scenes are just depicted as honest ways of expressing that. The film feels quite real, and its sex scenes are not dragged out for an overly long time. But, unfortunately, there is this sort of double standard with the American rating system that favors raunchy straight sex over intimate gay sex in media, which is something that needs to change.
It is important to note that I don’t believe that either of these depictions of sex are right or wrong; it ultimately depends on what the film is going for tonally and/or thematically. However, I do find it unfair that a graphic film like “Poor Things” can be given an R-rating, and subsequently, a wider theatrical release and more awards recognition, while a less graphic and more intimate film like “Passages” is given an NC-17 rating and little to no attention outside of Sundance.
In summary, there’s an unfortunate double standard when it comes to queer sex onscreen and awards recognition due to unfair ratings by the MPA. While we have seen queer films like “Moonlight” and “Call Me By Your Name” nominated for Best Picture, with the former winning the award, we also have films like “Passages” that are deemed to be overly explicit for no real reason and cast out by the Academy. It’s time for this stigma to end, and it needs to happen soon.
