By 2011, there appeared to be a trend to show more nudity and sexual scenes in the less restrictive cable-TV dramas and shows (the "boob tube"), not bound by the FCC, than in the movies. The series produced by the pay-TV networks are often saturated with nudity and sex.

Nudity and Sexual Scenes in Cable-TV Dramas and Shows
Californication SHOWTIME Sarah Power	Shameless SHOWTIME Emmy Rossum	Shameless SHOWTIME Laura Wiggins	Game of Thrones HBO Sahara Knite	Game of Thrones HBO Emilia Clarke
Camelot STARZ Eva Green	Boss HBO Kathleen Robertson	Mildred Pierce HBO Evan Rachel Wood	Homeland SHOWTIME Morena Baccarin	Homeland SHOWTIME Melissa Benoist
How to Make It in America - HBO Lake Bell	Spartacus: Gods of the Arena - STARZ! Jessica Grace Smith	Spartacus: Gods of the Arena - STARZ! Jaime Murray	Spartacus: Gods of the Arena - STARZ! Marisa Ramirez	Spartacus: Gods of the Arena - STARZ! Lucy Lawless
Spartacus: War of the Damned (Blood and Sand) - STARZ! Lucy Lawless	Spartacus: War of the Damned (Blood and Sand) - STARZ! Viva Bianca	Spartacus: War of the Damned (Blood and Sand) - STARZ! Katrina Law	The Tudors SHOWTIME Rachel Montague	Femme Fatales CINEMAX Anya Monzikova

Albatross (2011, UK)

Director Niall MacCormick (with his feature film debut) and screenwriter Tamzin Rafn's film was a coming-of-age/unraveling-of-a-dysfunctional marriage drama, set at a cliff-seaside hotel on the English coast. It told of a hotel-owning family with an unhappy marriage between frustrated novelist Jonathan Fischer (Sebastian Koch) and his unsatisfied and embittered wife Joa (Julia Ormond), and their oldest, bookish, introverted Oxford-bound teenaged daughter Beth (Felicity Jones).

In a star-making role, Downton Abbey's Lady Sybil (Jessica Brown Findlay) portrayed their sarcastic 17 year-old, Cliff-House cleaning lady Emelia Conan-Doyle, a free-spirited wannabe writer who befriended Beth and taught her bad behavior (exemplified by a T-shirt that said "I Put Out"), and even went so far as to engage in an affair with Beth's father Jonathan to seduce him into tutoring her in creative writing.

Emelia displayed her breasts, in a brief scene in a convenience store, to demonstrate her wild personality. To quickly "prove" to the cash register store clerk that she was old enough (18 years old) to purchase a bottle of alcohol - without an ID, she flashed her boobs and asserted:

"Are these not the breasts of an 18 year old?"

Bad Teacher (2011)

Director Jake Kasdan's irreverent and trite comedy, about adults behaving badly (following the success of The Hangover (2009) and Bridesmaids (2011)), won its three Teen Choice Award nominations - Choice Comedy Movie, Choice Actor (Timberlake), and Choice Actress (Diaz). It was a lesser variant of the popular and witty Bad Santa (2003) with Billy Bob Thornton - without its freshness and originality - and similar to Jennifer Aniston's take on Horrible Bosses (2011).

The foul-mouthed, rude R-rated farce featured Cameron Diaz as cynical, venal, and greedy Elizabeth Halsey (a bitchy caricature of herself) - a vulgar 7th grade middle-school "bad teacher" in the Chicago area (at John Adams Middle School). She was revealed to be a gold-digger, but then forced to continue her detested and despised career as an educator when her wealthy fiancee Mark (Nat Faxon) ditched her and cancelled wedding plans. She was notorious for boozing, smoking marijuana, and profusely speaking profanities, and on the first day of class showed videos to her students during the first week of classes, while she snoozed.

She believed she could attract the attention of a fellow teacher - a rich and nerdy, bow-tie-wearing substitute teacher named Scott Delacorte (Justin Timberlake, Diaz' real-life ex), although she had to compete with his red-headed love interest rival, New Agey teacher Amy Squirrel (Lucy Punch).

Breast Exam of Danni (Playboy Playmate and Miss December 2005 Christine Smith) in Doctor Vogel's (David Paymer) Office

In the plastic surgeon doctor's office, Dr. Vogel (David Paymer) described the huge breasts of another of his patients named Danni (Christine Smith) to Elizabeth: "As you can see, the weight is evenly distributed and there's minimal scarring." Elizabeth asked: "May I?" to the subject, and was encouraged: "Absolutely. Take 'em for a spin." She felt up the breasts, exclaiming: "Wow. These are amazing. And the nipples - ah! I'll take two!" Elizabeth examined computer generated images of herself with larger breasts and nipples.

Elizabeth schemed to fund-raise money (including a sexy car wash while wearing provocative short shorts, during which one observing male student had a major erection in his pants). Her objective was to have her breasts enhanced with gigantic implants (for $9,300), wrongly believing that Scott preferred females with large boobs (because his ex-girlfriend was well-endowed).

During an overnight field trip that she helped to chaperone, Elizabeth attempted to seduce Scott, and learned that his sexual turn-on (with clothes on) came from dry-humping. She was completely turned off by him after doing it with him (he was left with a big wet stain on the front of his pants).

At the beginning of the next school year, as it turned out, she declined having expensive plastic surgery for her chest, and became paired up with gym teacher Russell Gettis (Jason Segel) - "her Prince Charming" - and she was now the school's Guidance Counselor.

Barely Legal (2011)

Asylum's female-centric, moronic, 90 minute sex comedy with a script by Naomi L. Selfmann (and directed by Jose Montesinos) contained a gender-twisting major premise: three attractive teenaged virginal females, all college freshmen, vowed to lose their virginities on their shared 18th birthdays.

[Note: Other Asylum sex comedies of the same ilk included: 18-Year-Old Virgin (2009), Sex Pot (2009), #1 Cheerleader Camp (2010), MILF (2010), and later Bikini Spring Break (2012). This film was not to be confused with National Lampoon's Barely Legal (2003).]

The tagline expressed the plot precisely: "Presents Aren't the Only Thing They're Unwrapping." The three best friends, all born on the same day, were:

• Cheryl (Jeneta St. Clair), blonde, ditzy, good-girl-next-door - with long-time boyfriend Jake (Morgan Benoit), who ended up having a bestial oral sex experience with the seeing-eye dog of blind Frank (Matt Miller)!
• Lexi (Lisa Younger), slutty, horny and promiscuous, only 'technically' a virgin, and looking for a guy with the first initial J who provided her with cunnilingus the previous day
• Sue (Melissa Johnston), brainy, naive, neurotic, devout and religiously-conservative - targeting Chris (Wolfie Trausch) but finding more satisfaction with self-pleasuring (with a vibrator, the handle of a vacuum cleaner, spa jets, a buzzing electric toothbrush, and a detachable shower nozzle-head)

Cheryl (Jeneta St. Clair)
Lexi (Lisa Younger)
Sue (Melissa Johnston)

They planned to hold a pool party in Sue's home (a poolside giant mansion) in order to accomplish their goals - facing inevitably raunchy situations and unexpected hijinks. The film even featured a topless nun in a black leather bondage outfit while dominating a male submissive and offering advice about masturbation not being a sin.

By the conclusion of the party, none of the threesome had lost their virginity despite having sex with various persons, an animal and other objects.

Bridesmaids (2011)

Director Paul Feig's female-driven, R-rated raucous comedy (produced by Judd Apatow), with a script by star/SNL cast member Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo, was an extremely successful film for Apatow. It earned both a Golden Globe nomination for Best Comedy, and two Academy Award nominations: Best Supporting Actress (Melissa McCarthy) and Best Original Screenplay. Although it had no explicit nudity, the crude film was filled with non-stop risque jokes and some scatological humor (after unintentional food-poisoning).

The sassy story with a bachelorette-party-gone-awry subplot followed the misfortunes of:

• Annie Walker (Kristen Wiig), a single, mid-30s, failed bakery store owner (and now a miserable jewelry store clerk)

Annie was asked by her very best and oldest friend, recently-engaged Lillian Donovan (Maya Rudolph), to be her maid of honor at her impending wedding to a wealthy Chicago banker - Annie's boyfriend Doug (Tim Heidecker). At the engagement party at Lillian's house, Annie met the ceremony's bridesmaids:

• Rita (Wendi McLendon-Covey), Lillian's long-married, cynical and sexy older cousin
• Becca (Ellie Kemper), a naïve and idealistic newlywed
• Megan Price (Melissa McCarthy), loud-mouthed, raunchy, uncouth and slobbish, Doug's crass sister
• Helen Harris III (Rose Byrne), a wealthy, controlling, and vain sophisticate with a Type A personality, the wife of Doug's boss

Meanwhile, Annie developed two casual sex buddies: shallow and self-interested Ted (Jon Hamm), and later an Irish-American State Patrol Officer Nathan Rhodes (Chris O'Dowd).

As plans for the festive wedding went into full gear, personal rivalry and jealous conflict about who was Lillian's best friend quickly developed between Annie and Helen. One of the funniest scenes occurred during a visit to a posh bridal gown studio where everyone except Helen came down with extreme diarrhea due to food poisoning from a restaurant lunch stop.

Also, one of the most talked-about scenes was of clumsy and awkward coitus between the romantically-unattached Annie and rude, dim-witted shallow, arrogant sex-buddy and playboy Ted (Jon Hamm), who admitted to her that she was his number three - or "third in line."

Bucky Larson: Born to Be A Star (2011)

Co-scripter and producer Adam Sandler teamed with director Tom Brady to create this universally-detested comedy and box-office bomb, which acquired six Razzie award nominations (Worst Picture, Worst Actor (Swardson), Worst Director, Worst Screenplay, Worst Screen Ensemble, and Worst Prequel/Remake/Rip-Off/Sequel (a poor imitation of the porn industry classic Boogie Nights (1997)).

Its tagline was:

"There are no small actors, just small parts."

The crudely-dumb, mostly-unfunny R-rated showbiz sex comedy was about nerdy, innocent, buck-toothed and foolish man-child Bucky Larson (Nick Swardson) who headed west from his small town in northern Iowa to become a porn star in Hollywood, after he inspiringly learned that his parents (Miriam Flynn and Edward Hermann) had been celebrities in the skin industry in the 1970s.

Although the naive, backward and chaste Bucky lacked sexual knowledge (he had never masturbated), experience, and macho qualities (with a nearly invisible, inadequate male member, known as his "equipment"), he was able to be filmed in a porn film - although his first on-camera experience consisted of two premature ejaculations (without contact) (he apologized: "I have no control").

His porn footage (shot by washed-up director Miles Deep (Don Johnson)) went viral on the Web, became a best-selling title ("Pinch My Inch"), and he won an Adult Film Award. But he jealously angered others in the adult film world - mostly established rival porn star Dick Shadow (Stephen Dorff), who was endowed with a "giant wiener."

The film's partial nudity was supplied by one of the film's minor actresses, Meredith Giangrande who starred as porn actress Blueberry in two XXX-rated filmed scenes:

• at a Dippers ice cream parlor (as she opened the front of her blouse, she quipped: "My sugar cones could really use some air")
• in a desert scene, as a sexy Indian princess, she exclaimed: ("Oh no, the wind just blew my clothes off").

Eventually, Bucky's sweet love affair (and ultimate marriage) with charming waitress Kathy McGee (Christina Ricci) derailed his porn career, but he had fallen truly in love.

The Change-Up (2011)

This David Dobkin comedy had the tagline: "Who says men can't change?" The premise was the body-swapping of two close male friends. After one night of drinking heavily, the two were peeing in a park fountain, when lightning struck, and each now were destined to trade with the other's body until they could revert back to their own lives:

• Mitch Planko (Ryan Reynolds), single, playboyish wanna-be actor
• Dave Lockwood (Jason Bateman), married to long-suffering Jamie Lockwood (Leslie Mann), with three kids; a corporate lawyer in Atlanta

It was notable that this comedy included "nude" scenes of both Leslie Mann and Olivia Wilde (as Dave's sexy legal associate, co-worker Sabrina McKay), but they later admitted that the nudity was entirely created in post-production:

• Olivia Wilde revealed using a body double for some shots and the wearing of pasties for close-up and upper shots
• Leslie Mann also admitted that her boobs were CGI and that her butt belonged to a body double

Leslie Mann's Computer-Generated or Faked 'Nudity'

The Crown Jewels (2011, Swe.) (aka Kronjuvelerna)

This foreign film drama from Ella Lemhagen came to people's attention after the success of four breakout films for its Swedish film star Alicia Vikander in 2015, including Burnt (2015), The Danish Girl (2015), The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (2015), and Ex Machina (2015).

An offbeat and surrealistic Swedish fantasy, Vikander portrayed sultry and exotic-looking Fragancia Fernandez (as a teen) who in the first scene was arrested and interrogated at a police station by Inspector Samnerud (Tomas von Bromssen), for the alleged murder of twentyish Richard Persson (Bill Skarsgård), the only child of a tyrannical wealthy factory owner. In a nighttime noirish scene, he was found in a pool of blood outside the Persson mansion, and Fragancia was discovered at the scene with a gun in her hand.

During questioning, the unreliable and emotionally-disturbed Fragancia narrated a wild tale of love and betrayal. She told about what had occurred around the village where she and Richard, with intertwined lives, had grown up:

• They were born on the same day in the small Swedish town - she was poor, while he was from a rich family.
• As a youth, Richard Persson fell in love with Fragancia, but she gave herself to another - future star hockey ice-skater Petterson-Jonsson (Bjorn Gustafsson).
• Soon after, when Fragancia's little brother disappeared, there was a mystery about his demise - had Richard been involved?

In one notable scene, she stripped down and went skinny-dipping in a cold lake. When Petterson-Jonsson jumped in to save her when she didn't surface (she was hiding under the wooden dock), she was forced to dive down and save him, and then they shared a kiss, and love-making.

Skinny-Dipping Scene
Afterwards, A Kiss-Thank You and Love-Making With Petterson-Jonsson

A Dangerous Method (2011)

Canadian cult director David Cronenberg's fascinating historical adult drama was about sexual perversity, extra-marital sex, and treatment of severe mental illness. It was set in the early 20th century, at the time of two legendary psychologists:

• Carl Jung (Michael Fassbender), Swiss psychiatrist
• Sigmund Freud (Viggo Mortensen), Viennese (Austrian) psychoanalyst, Jung's father-figure and mentor

The R-rated film opened with the transport of neurotic, 18 year-old, and well-educated Jewish-Russian patient Sabina Spielrein (Keira Knightley), forcibly restrained in a carriage due to her hysteria. The troubled female was first seen overwrought, contorted, and suffering from violent and frightening seizures as she was driven to Jung's Burgholzli Clinic near Zurich in August of 1904 (the film covered a nine year span until 1913) and admitted as a patient. Jung discovered that the sex-crazed female had been sexual abused and humiliated by her angry father who habitually spanked her when she was naked (an act of violence that she claimed sexually excited her and made her wet). She expressed self-disgust: "I'm vile and filthy and corrupt."

The self-aware and intelligent Sabina became the catalyst between the two giants in the field of psychology and their varying techniques and viewpoints. Jung successfully used the controversial and untested treatment practices of 'psychanalysis' of Freud on her, but questioned Freud's inflexible and strict theory that every symptom had to be interpreted in sexual terms ("all neurosis is of exclusively sexual origin"), especially in Sabina's case.

Jung was married and had an ever-pregnant and loyal wife Emma (Sarah Gadon). However, after the the virginal Sabina was cured of her seizures by Freud's method of counseling - with the experimental treatment method known as the "talking cure" (using free-association to bring out repressed feelings), she became his research assistant and his mistress in a long-term tortured love affair.

Her hidden sexual desires eventually emerged, during their S/M love affair in which Jung overstepped his professional boundaries, while mentoring her as a medical student. He was convinced to free himself and give himself up to pleasurable impulses ("Never repress anything") by dissolute psychoanalyst Dr. Otto Gross (Vincent Cassel), who himself was involved in a sex scandal and was drug-addicted. Spielrein made overt sexual advances and came onto Jung with a kiss, and then explained: "Don't you think there's something male in every woman and something female in every man?" Gross urged Jung to accept her proposition and give in to his urges: "I can't understand what you're waiting for. Just take her to some secluded spot and thrash her to within an inch of her life. That's clearly what she wants. How can you deny her such a simple pleasure?"

Sabina lost her virginity to Jung with the bloody rupture of her hymen during their first love-making. Although Jung felt deceitful for cheating on his wife, he couldn't stop his transgressions after the masochistic woman told him: "I want you to be ferocious. I want you to punish me." Sabina was forcibly bound, and spanked/whipped by Jung with a leather belt. The situation became scandalous when anonymous letters surfaced about their affair, and Jung became painfully conflicted (he confessed to Sabina: "I made a stupid mistake"), and tried to deny their sexual relationship. He was forced to admit he could now only love Sabina "as your physician." However, he resumed whipping her in 1910 after they reunited, while he was critiquing her dissertation ("I'll start gently ripping you to shreds"). Eventually, she moved away to Vienna, studied under Freud (who suffered a major split with Jung), married a kindly Russian-Jewish doctor and became pregnant.

In the final lines of dialogue in the film, Jung admitted to Sabina in 1913 that he regretted not fathering a child with her, although he had taken on another mistress by then:

"My love for you was the most important thing in my life. For better or worse, it made me understand who I am...Sometimes you have to do something unforgivable just to be able to go on living."

The end credits stated that Sabina returned to Russia as one of its first female psychoanalysts, where she trained a number of the most distinguished analysts of the new Soviet Union, before finally returning to practice medicine in her native town. A widow by 1941, she came to a tragic end when she and her two daughters were taken by Nazi occupying forces to a local synagogue and shot. Jung eventually became the world's leading psychologist. He outlived his wife Emma and his mistress Toni Wolff, and died peacefully in 1961.

Desire (2011, Fr.) (aka Q)

Déborah Révy starred in this French erotic drama by controversial filmmaker, writer/director Laurent Bouhnik. She portrayed a 20 year-old enigmatic female beauty named Cécile, who symbolized desire and unleashed sexual urges whenever she appeared.

The film's tagline in French was:

"Amours, desirs, et complications..." (translated "Love, Desire, and Complications")

The film opened with credits, accompanied by waist-down views of anonymous females as they group-showered and casually chatted about men and sex. (The shower sequence, with more revealing headless body shots, was reprised throughout the film.)

Shower Images During Opening Credits Sequence

This arty and graphic French film featured abundant full-frontal nudity and seemingly unsimulated sex from its great-looking cast members, as it explored the role of sexuality (in a non-pornographic manner) among modern European adults living in a French coastal town (with the current economic crisis as a backdrop).

The young inhabitants were aimless and uncertain about their future employment prospects, while they drifted about searching for love and romance. Young, mid-20s Cécile had just suffered the death of her father in a hospital. With a lustful desire for sex, she found peace from her underlying sadness through random sexual encounters with the lives of many of the film's characters, both male and female. Cécile had a boyfriend named Chance (Johnny Amaro), but she also had sexual encounters with local garage mechanic Matt (Gowan Didi), a local garage mechanic facing tough times, and his girlfriend Alice.

Part of the story followed the exploits of Alice (Hélène Zimmer), who lived at home with her repressively conservative parents. At first, she was bespectacled and nerdy looking, and gave her non-committal boyfriend Matt fellatio in a car. She kept secret her relationship with him. As the film progressed, she went through a sexual metamorphosis.

There were both heterosexual and lesbian sex scenes, and instances of fellatio, cunnilingus, and female masturbation.

Graphic Sex Involving Cécile (Déborah Révy)

Friends With Benefits (2011)

Director Will Gluck's modern romantic-sex comedy capitalized on the premise of sex benefits (without love) between friends (similar to the earlier less-fulfilling, cliched film No Strings Attached (2011) see below) - involving the two stars Mila Kunis and Justin Timberlake. It was a deconstructing updating of the theme of When Harry Met Sally... (1989) that sex between friends ("sleeping together. But it's just sex") inevitably leads to emotional complications and attachments.

The chick-flick styled movie was filled with fast-delivered, witty dialogue between the two protagonists, who often flirtatiously responded to each other with tart, playful banter:

• Jamie (Mila Kunis), an executive head-hunting recruiter for a NYC job agency, supposedly "emotionally damaged"
• Dylan Harper (Justin Timberlake), an LA internet company art director, supposedly "emotionally unavailable"

The two platonic friends tempted each other when they agreed to have sexual relations after he took a job at GQ in NYC. They decided to physically gratify themselves without any commitment or strings attached ("two people should be able to have sex the way they play tennis"). However, as expected, emotional feelings began to creep into their 'strictly-physical' relationship of casual sexual romps, and both were powerless to resist a sappy happily-ever-after ending (after two flash-mob scenes).

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (2011)

This mystery thriller was director David Fincher's US remake of the original Swedish-language film of the same name, made in 2009. Both films were based upon the 2005 novel by Swedish author/journalist Stieg Larsson.

In this more recent variation, Rooney Mara starred as emotionally-scarred, punkish computer hacker Lisbeth Salander (originally played by Noomi Rapace) opposite Daniel Craig as Millennium magazine publisher Mikael Blomkvist. He was wrongly-accused of libel by crooked businessman Hans-Erik Wennerstrom (Ulf Friberg).

Before Blomkvist was to be jailed, he and Salander teamed up to investigate the disappearance and assumed murder of businessman Henrik Vanger's (Christopher Plummer) grand-niece named Harriet - 40 years earlier. During their pursuit of the case, they discovered that various Vanger family members, all anti-Semitic, had committed a series of murders of other young Jewish women, but that Harriet (Joely Richardson), a victim of sexual abuse, had been smuggled out and was still alive.

In addition, Salander was subjected to savage abuse by her newly-appointed guardian, lawyer Nils Bjurman (Yorick van Wageningen), who raped her. She fought back as she was stripped, gagged, and tied to a bed face-down. She sought revenge by videotaping the rape, torturing him and dildo-raping him, and tattoo-branding him on his chest that he was a sick rapist.

Also, during her work together with Blomkvist to bring Wennerstrom to justice, she became his lover, revealing her nipple rings (she had them pierced in real-life) when she removed her top before having sex with him. In the end, she was dismayed when he was reunited with his longtime lover and business partner Erika Berger (Robin Wright).

Hall Pass (2011)

In this inane Farrelly Brothers' raunchy, gross and irreverent comedy, there was scatological toilet humor, jokes about adult masturbation, penis envy, full-frontal male nudity (from African-American Thaddeus Rahming), frequent sex talk and sexual innuendo, and even more.

It was mostly about the theme of infidelity, involving two middle-aged, adolescent-acting suburban husbands - two best friends - who were given a one week reprieve - or "hall pass" - from their marital vows from their long-suffering spouses (who also took advantage of the pact):

• Rick Mills (Owen Wilson), married to Maggie (Jenna Fischer)
• Fred Searing (Jason Sudeikis), married to Grace (Christina Applegate)

In the sole breast-flashing scene, attractive coffee shop waitress Leigh (Nicky Whelan) untied and lowered the straps on her colorful dress, to reveal her perfect breasts to Rick, who was muttering something about how he shouldn't be doing what he was doing, and talking about the commitments he had - followed by his one word response: "Wow!" She stepped forward and assured him that they could enjoy a one-time fling:

"You relax. Try not to think so much. You have your wife for the rest of your life, but tonight, you can have me."

She opened his shirt, smiled, and kissed his bare chest, but he suddenly cautioned and rebuffed her: "I'm sorry. I can't do this. I can't do this. I'm sorry." As she retied her straps, she quipped:

"Your wife didn't give you a hallway permission slip, did she?"

The Hidden Face (2011, Colombia/Sp.) (aka La Cara Oculta, or Bunker)

Writer/director Andrés Baiz's dramatic mystery-horror-thriller took place in the aftermath of a breakup due to jealousy. A girlfriend suspected that her Spanish boyfriend was flirting with violinist Veronica (Marcela Mar) in his orchestra. The broken-up couple were:

• Adrián (Quim Gutiérrez), 30-ish, successful Spanish musical conductor-maestro of the Bogota Philharmonic Orchestra
• Belén (Clara Lago), Adrián's girlfriend

Belén delivered the bad news via video message on Adrián's smart-phone with the simple words: "I'm leaving" and a warning: "Please don't look for me, and don't hate me." He kept it to himself that he was a prime suspect being investigated for Belen's mysterious disappearance.

Adrián turned for comfort to pretty and sexy waitress Fabiana (Martina García) in a local bar. Fabiana quickly moved in (after Belén had left) into Adrián's palatial, lush, and secluded house (once owned by a high-ranking Nazi) in the countryside of Bogotá.

While Fabiana was taking a bath there, strange ripples began to take shape in the water and she heard weird noises coming from the pipes. Also, wild fluctations in water temperature scalded Fabiana when she took a shower, and there were frequent power outages. She told Adrian: "I think there is a ghost." Was Belen's ghost haunting the house and seeking vengeance after being murdered by Adrian?

Fabiana (Martina García) in Bathtub and Shower

Then, in the film's twisting tale prefaced by a long flashback, Belen was only pretending that she was leaving Adrian. Her video farewell to Adrian was only a ploy, to test his fidelity and love for her, to "teach him a little lesson." When she originally toured Adrián's big countryside house with German lady Emma (Alexandra Stewart), she was shown a large bunker with a 'panic room' in the center of the house, impossible to detect (it was her husband's "darkest secret"). It was completely sound-proof, concealed and lockable, stocked with food, and equipped with one-sided bulletproof mirrors (used by the lady's Nazi SS officer husband to escape detection).

Belen was hiding in the room to spy on the couple, but then accidentally found herself trapped and locked in without the key. When Fabiana figured out the source of strange sounds, discovered the key, and decided to free Belen, Belen knocked her out and switched places with her.

The film left audiences with an unanswered question: Would Fabiana be rescued by Adrian in time?

Kill the Irishman (2011) (aka Bulletproof Gangster)

Writer/director Jonathan Hensleigh's crime drama was inspired by Rick Porello's true crime account "To Kill The Irishman: The War That Crippled The Mafia" in 1998.

The biopic told about the turf war in the summer of 1976 in Cleveland, between:

• Danny Greene (Ray Stevenson), a union rep and defiant Irish mobster
  AND
• the Italian Mafia

Greene, known as "The Man The Mob Couldn't Kill," rose to power as he successfully challenged all of the local syndicates and adversaries within the criminal underworld.

In one of the film's sexiest scenes, Ellie O'Hara (Laura Ramsey) offered Greene a drink from her refrigerator, while she slipped away and then returned to the living room from her bedroom. She entered through beaded curtains and offered herself to him in granny panties and a open silk robe displaying her breasts.

Killer Joe (2011)

Director William Friedkin's ultra-violent dark comedy was described as "A Totally Twisted, Deep-Fried, Texas Redneck Trailer Park Murder Story." The lurid, sexually-twisted film contained a number of scenes of physical nudity (including topless dancers in a strip-club) and love-making between the two principals, and a climactic (and controversial) brutal scene involving a fried chicken drumstick. Undoubtedly, these scenes contributed to the film's NC-17 rating by the MPAA (although there was also an R-rated version).

It told the sleazy tale of Chris Smith (Emil Hirsch) - a scruffy, white trash 21 year-old son living in a trailer park on the outskirts of Dallas County. He was indebted to drug lord G-Man (Danny Epper). His alcoholic mother Adele (Julia Adams) had stolen the cocaine he was supposed to sell.

Chris supported his bearded, failed patriarchal father Ansel (Thomas Haden Church) in hiring menacing yet neat, unpredictable and polished West Dallas hit-man/cop-detective "Killer Joe" Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) to murder Ansel's ex-wife Adele who had a hefty $50,000 life insurance policy. It was a money-making scheme, orchestrated so that the $50,000 proceeds from Adele's policy would benefit Chris' younger oddball teenaged sister with peroxide blonde hair, Dottie Smith (Juno Temple). As part of the deal (with the devil) before the money was obtained, the damaged and innocent Dottie was offered up to swaggering "Killer Joe" as sexual collateral rather than an advanced cash fee of $25,000.

"Killer Joe" (Matthew McConaughey) with Chris' Younger Sister Dottie Smith (Juno Temple)

Double-Dealing Sharla Forced to Simulate Oral Sex on "Killer Joe"

Ansel's slatternly new wife was Sharla Smith (Gina Gershon), who appeared naked from the waist down (with a concealing merkin) to answer the door when Chris arrived. After the killing was committed by "Killer Joe" (and Adele's body was set on fire in a car to make it look accidental), it was learned - in a twist - that the insurance claim didn't benefit Dottie, but paid Adele's boyfriend Rex (Sean O'Hara). The payout was a check for $100,000 (accidental death paid double). Ansel realized that Rex had duped Chris into hiring Joe to kill Adele. The plot to kill Chris' mother Adele had ultimately been devised by Sharla so that she could run-off with the newly-rich Rex.

In the film's lewdest scene, "Killer Joe" humiliated double-dealing Sharla by first punching her in the face. Then, he told her: "I'll be your boyfriend just for a little while." He forced the battered and bloody woman to simulate oral sex ("Suck this!") - she was to 'pleasure' a K Fried C chicken drumstick that he held in front of his crotch (a phallic substitute), as he acted out having an orgasm. Joe also announced that his "retainer" - Dottie, now belonged to him, since he wouldn't be collecting cash for his services due to the mix-up with the insurance company.

When Chris arrived, he announced his intention to run away with Dottie and escape to Peru. When they were all seated at the dinner table, Joe announced his engagement to Dottie, prompting Chris to attack him. Dottie asserted herself by picking up a gun and firing - one shot killed Chris, and another mortally-wounded Ansel. She was about to fire at "Killer Joe," but then announced she was pregnant with his baby.

The Ledge (2011)

Writer/director Matthew Chapman's poorly-reviewed dramatic thriller was mostly told via flashback, in its tale of cocky ladies-man and SF hotel manager Gavin Nichols (Charlie Hunnam), perched on a ledge 20 stories off the ground and about to commit suicide. He was coaxed back by hostage negotiator Hollis Lucetti (Terrence Howard) with his own family problems, and then the plot revealed a love triangle, marital infidelity and revenge.

The love triangle was between Gavin and:

• Joe (Patrick Wilson), a religiously-zealous, born-again, dogmatic Christian fundamentalist, and Gavin's new neighbor; before his conversion, he had a wife and two kids, but was unfaithful (with hookers) and abused drugs
• Shana (Liv Tyler), a college student working part-time at the same hotel as Gavin; a shy and reserved woman, often verbally abused, bullied, and caused to feel guilty as the shy and reserved wife of Joe; before marrying Joe (and being rescued by him), Shana was a drug addict and a prostitute

An avowed atheist, Gavin lived with his gay best friend Chris (Christopher Gorham), causing Joe to misinterpret Gavin's sexual preference and promise to pray for their "abomination" against God.

Gavin soon engaged in extra-marital flirtation and seduction (although he originally had cruel intentions) with the sweet-natured Shana, beginning with lunches, riverside walks, and roof-top philosophizing sessions, to liberate her from Joe's oppression. They eventually become sexually intimate (and Gavin truly fell in love with Shana) - and then Joe discovered his wife's infidelity and sought diabolical revenge - culminating in Gavin hovering on the ledge.

As the film ended, a diabolical bargain with Gavin was revealed. Joe threatened Shana at gunpoint, and proposed killing her at noon if Gavin didn't jump off the ledge (as punishment for adultery). Either Shana or Gavin must die, he asserted. Before his suicidal death, Gavin told hostage negotiator Lucetti to tell Shana that he loved her before jumping off the building.

Madrid, 1987 (2011, Sp.)

Writer/director David Trueba's engrossing, dialogue-rich drama about youth, love, idealism, sex, and life, and featuring a May-November romance, was about two main characters on a hot summer's day in 1987:

• Miguel Batalla (José Sacristán), a celebrated, but bitter sexagenarian newspaper columnist-journalist, also a chain-smoker and drinker
• Angela Castroviejo (María Valverde), a beautiful, idealistic, yet coy university journalism-student, a member of an affluent family, and flunking out of one of her journalism classes

When Angela came to interview the writer, first in a bustling cafe (during the opening credits), and then in the borrowed, empty studio of his painter friend Luis (Ramon Fontserè), uninterrupted for the weekend, he asked her to undress ("I'd like you to take off your clothes for me").

Angela (Maria Valverde) with Miguel

At first, she balked ("I won't get naked"), but then appeared before him bare except for an open shirt. He finger-painted both her naked back and around her small breasts with blue paint before they entered the bathroom to wash off the paint. Inside, they accidentally became locked in the claustrophobic space for almost a day. They called from an open window ("Neighbors? Is anybody out there?"), but apparently no one heard their cries.

Their intimate experiences together was marked by numerous speeches and sexual overtures (for example, "Meeting someone you admire is the first step towards not admiring them anymore"). At one point, the nymphet dropped her towel, and had sex with Miguel (his goal was to "get a little taste of youth") when she climbed onto his lap.

Melancholia (2011, Denm./Swe./Fr./Germ.)

Controversial Danish writer/director Lars von Trier's haunting, depressing and nihilistic psychological disaster film brought its star Kirsten Dunst a Best Actress Award at the Cannes Film Festival. Trier's own bout with severe depression in 2006 helped him to channel his feelings into this bleak independent arthouse film.

In the dazzling, stylized, slow-motion 8 minute-prologue to the film, set to the funereal prelude of Richard Wagner's Tristan and Isolde, the world came to a cataclysmic end - an apocalyptic preview of what would ultimately happen.

In the first half of the film (titled "Justine"), bride Justine (Kirsten Dunst) was celebrating her wedding to kind-hearted Michael (Alexander Skarsgard) at the palatial Swedish country estate-castle of her older sister Claire (Charlotte Gainsbourg) who was married to her rich, snobbish brother-in-law, amateur astronomer John (Kiefer Sutherland). Also present were the sisters' divorced parents: drunken and womanizing Dexter (John Hurt) and disdainful, acid-tongued, emotionally-distant Gaby (Charlotte Rampling). Justine was unhappily moody and suffering from crippling clinical depression, causing her to leave the awkward festivities of the lavish wedding reception and take a bath. With personal melancholia and violent mood swings, Justine wandered off onto the grounds of the mansion. (Later in the film, she laid naked by a bubbling stream next to an 18-hole golf course).

Justine also repudiated and refused to make love to her new husband on their wedding night, and instead had sex with one of her boss' young associates, his nephew Tim (Brady Corbet), thus breaking up her marriage. She also jeopardized her employment with her advertising executive boss Jack (Stellan Skarsgard) when she insulted him and called him repellent.

In the second half of the film (titled "Claire"), the mysterious, newly-discovered green rogue planet Melancholia was on a crash-course towards Earth, and by film's end had obliterated the planet. In comparision to her hysterical sister and her suicidal husband, the afflicted Justine was calm about the impending catastrophe: "Life is only on Earth, and not for long." She calmly assured Claire and her young son Leo (Cameron Spurr): "Hold my hand. Close your eyes."

No Strings Attached (2011)

Director Ivan Reitman's low-key, contemporary romantic comedy had the same worn-out premise of a film later in the year, Friends With Benefits (2011) - see above, about a sex-only partnership of a hooked-up pair who didn't want to fall in love. This idea was also seen in the long-running TV show Seinfeld, Knocked Up (2007), He's Just Not That Into You (2009), and Hall Pass (2011).

The film - originally titled F--k Buddies - even had a similar thematic tagline: "Friendship Has Its Benefits."

Although there was considerable sexual content in the film (including unfiltered raunchy jokes about cunnilingus and fingering), profanity and drug references, it was devoid of explicit nudity.

The film's two lovers were long-time acquaintances who met again years later:

• Dr. Emma K. Kurtzman (Natalie Portman), a hard-driving medical resident employed at an LA hospital
• Adam Franklin (Ashton Kutcher), the production assistant for a Glee-like musical TV show

Upon their first contact, the two had sex with each other. Too busy for a real committed relationship or to fall in love in an old-fashioned way, the smart and independent Emma proposed (a twist on gender roles) that Adam become her friendly, convenient, romping sexual partner for consequence-free, casual coitus: "What I need is someone who's gonna be in my bed at 2 am who I don't have to lie to, or eat breakfast with...Do you wanna do this?...Use each other for sex, at all hours of the day and night. Nothing else...Good." She also made it clear that sweet talk, Valentine cards, cuddling (spooning), and other romantic endearments were forbidden.

Adam later bragged about their 'no strings attached' relationship: "We're sex friends...Friends with benefits. F--k buddies," but it was clear that he would persistently push for love, exemplified when he presented her at work with a "Congrats" balloon after sex: "You did a good job so I thought you deserved a balloon."

During one drunken love episode, Adam shook his penis at Emma, who later described the incident:

Emma: "It was exciting. It was like, you were cheering while you were doing it. You were like, 'look at my dick!'"
Adam: "Did you look at it?"
Emma: "Yeah, I looked. It was nice. You have a really nice penis."
Adam: "Nice?"
Emma: "Seems kind of, like, carefree."

It was entirely predictable, formulaic, and cliched what would occur in the scripted conclusion, in this sub-genre of rom-coms (When Harry Met Sally... (1989)).

Nobody Else But You (2011, Fr.) (aka Poupoupidou)

Director/writer Gérald Hustache-Mathieu's offbeat comedic crime-mystery was about best-selling crime-murder novelist David Rousseau's (Jean-Paul Rouve) investigation of an apparent young woman's suicide by sleeping pills, although the victim may have been murdered. The dead female's story might end up being a new storyline for the author.

The film's title was a play on the lyrics of the song "I Want to Be Loved By You" - sung by actress Marilyn Monroe (as Sugar) in Some Like it Hot (1959).

The body was identified as 20 year-old Marilyn Monroe look-alike model, Martine Langevin, a local celebrity known as Candice Lecoeur (Sophie Quinton) with platinum blonde-dyed hair. She had patterned her own behavior and personality after the legendary movie star, and coincidentally, was born on the first of June, just like Marilyn.

During the opening credits, the look-alike 'Marilyn' danced naked behind a sheer silk sheet, duplicating the famed 1962 nude photo session of 36 year-old Marilyn with photographer Bert Stern for Vogue magazine - just six weeks before she died.

The corpse of the young starlet Candice, a local model for a cheese company and weather-girl, was found frozen and buried under some snow on the French-Swiss border near the tiny French town of Mouthe - a area known as 'Little Siberia.' During his investigation, when David pulled back the sheet on her body in the hospital's morgue, she intoned: "Now that I'm dead, I finally meet a nice guy."

The dead victim narrated her troubled history from beyond-the-grave, taken from words in her own diaries discovered by Rousseau after he broke into her house. Soon, he became obsessed and haunted with her and fell under the spell of the dead female.

Recreation of Marilyn's Red Backdrop Pin-Up Calendar Shoot and the "Happy Birthday, Mr. President " Song for a Local Political Leader known as JFB (similar initials to JFK)

The name of the cheese factory for which Candice did advertisements was "Belle de Jura" - a nod to Bunuel's Belle de Jour (1967, Fr.) film.

The Roommate (2011)

Danish director Christian E. Christiansen's slow-moving PG-13 psychological thriller was a remake (unofficial) of the sexier and more effective Single White Female (1992). Its unsuspenseful, lukewarm, and cliched premise was about two college dorm roommates and the unhealthy (ultimately violent) relationship that developed between them:

• Sara Matthews (Minka Kelly, voted Esquire Magazine's sexiest woman alive in 2010), a college freshman, an aspiring fashion designer, who had a boyfriend named Stephen (Cam Gigandet)
• Rebecca Evans (Leighton Meester), a seemingly-happy, but psychotically-deranged, clingy and dangerously-obsessed roommate, who resorted to impersonation, cat cruelty, stalking, self-inflicted wounds, imitative tattooing, and other more disturbing behaviors

This routine and bland teen flick's sparse sex scenes included a Hitchcock-ripped off shower scene, and a girl-on-girl lesbian kiss between Rebecca and Sara's lesbian friend Irene Crew (Danneel Harris) (a "trashy party whore").

In the end, there was a violent confrontational breakdown and catfight between the dorm-mates. Rebecca met her fateful end when Sara gorily stabbed her in the back with a box-cutter and uttered: "You were never my friend."

Shame (2011, UK)

This dark, chilling, intense and highly provocative NC-17 rated sex addiction film from British director Steve McQueen was a powerful, non-judgmental drama about handsome NYC businessman-yuppie Brandon Sullivan (Michael Fassbender), who suffered from a serious problem or obsession - with compulsive or addictive sex, and the resultant shame and self-loathing. Although the film was bold, it never portrayed pornographic sex, and the sex itself was quite joyless, shameful and self-destructive.

The graphic yet respectful unsexy film (with full-frontal nudity) examined his self-loathing, shame, compulsive masturbation, short-term impersonal relationships, flirtation with homosexuality, the hiring of prostitutes, and addiction to Internet pornography (even at his place of work), including private web-cam chat sessions, and perusal of hardcore images (in magazines and videos).

The startling opening image of the film was of a passive, almost lifeless and sterile Brandon, only a stiff shell of a man, lying in his bed, unmoving and staring directly into the camera (the ceiling). His pale white skin was contrasted with the blue bedsheets that he was wrapped in. His morning routine always found him walking around his apartment naked. The next images were of him waiting for and taking a subway from the 28th Street station. The flaws in his character were completely telescoped in the first few minutes.

Live Chat Woman (Charisse Bellante) in Web-Cam Sessions

In the psychological drama, he struggled with his own issues and tried to keep his sexual needs a secret, although in one early scene in a bar, he circumvented his married and unfaithful boss David Fisher's (James Badge Dale) plan to pick up a woman at a club, and had sex with her on a quiet street. Shortly later, his disgusted boss discovered "dirty" pornography on Brandon's work computer hard drive.

At the same time, Brandon's wayward, estranged younger sister, Sissy Sullivan (Carey Mulligan), unexpectedly arrived from Los Angeles without warning to live with him. He came upon her the first time when she was fully nude in a shower scene - she was viewed through a bathroom mirror in the middle of the screen. A professional musician and lounge singer from the same troubled and pathological family, she confronted him about his problems ("I'm trying to help you...We're family, we're meant to look after each other"), and upset his need for privacy, while being emotionally damaged herself (with evidence of scars of self-inflicted suicidal scar wounds). She admitted: "We're not bad people. We just come from a bad place."

For example, in one single evening, Sissy had sex with David in Brandon's bedroom. After hearing them through the door, he left to go running (with headphones loudly playing Glenn Gould's interpretation of Bach's 'Aria from the Goldberg Variations'). Later that night, Sissy also attempted to get in bed with Brandon, but he ordered her back to the couch. Sissy's arrival completely upturned and interrupted Brandon's private sexual routines and practices when she found evidence of his sexual proclivities. He angrily reacted: ("You come in here and you're a weight on me. Do you understand me? You're a burden. You're just dragging me down") and removed all of the pornography in his apartment, including his laptop.

Numerous females engaged him for quick, mechanical-styled, animalistic sex and he would always oblige to desperately perform carnal acts:

• Alexa (Mari-Ange Ramirez) - she slowly stripped off her red panties by his bedside, revealing from the side that she was fully shaved, before having sex with him
• Marianne (Nicole Beharie) - Brandon's co-worker revealed her breasts and body to him before having sex, although he was temporarily impotent
• Hotel Lover (Amy Hargreaves) - she had sex with him pressed against a high-rise NYC hotel window
• DeeDee Luxe and Calamity Chang (both burlesque dancers who played "Late Night Lover #1" and "Late Night Lover #2") engaged in simulated sex with Brandon during the film's notorious threesome scene in a cheap hotel room

The film culminated with another attempt by Sissy to kill herself by bloodily slitting her wrists in his bathroom. This event shocked Brandon to his core, but would he be able, in the ambiguous ending, to rein in his out-of-control, insatiable urges and change his self-destructive behavior?

Silent But Deadly (2011, Can.)

This was a cheaply-made, independent, slasher-horror-comedy by director Stephen Scott (his feature film directorial debut).The film was intended to spoof the classic slasher horror films of the 1970s-1980s. Although filmed in 2008, it was finally released for showings in Canada in late 2011. Its tagline was:

"It's the Quiet Ones You Have to Watch Out For..."

Many Gory and Gruesome Murders - See Descriptions

It told about a series of gruesome murders by mysterious, mute, goat-loving serial killer Thomas Capper (Jason Mewes) in a small Southern rural town. The incongruous film starred inept dwarf Sheriff Shelby (Jordan Prentice) (who detested the term "midget"), who was accompanied by his black deputy Jimbo (Benz Antoine) to investigate the series of murders.

The killings were highlighted by gory special effects, including:

• old man Capper's (William Sadler) brutal shotgun-blasting of the head of a goat
• his son Thomas' revenge - a pitchfork stuck into his father's neck
• the murder of two lesbian lovers/dykes, Capper's Russian mail-order brides, Anya (Vanessa Burns) and Titianna (Rebeka Coles-Budrys), "muffin-munchin' Moscow magpies" who were both hacked to death with an axe when young Capper found them making love to each other
• Capper's killing of the fired director's assistant (for mistreating his goat) by hurling a large saw at him and horizontally bisecting him at the waist
• Capper's revenge against another crew member, Jamaican Winston (Jai Jai Jones) - for decapitating his beloved goat for preparation of a stew, with a spinning delicatessan meat slicer; he placed the man's head in the slicer and sprayed his bloody brain parts around before hacking off his head; later, the victim's headless torso was found in the craft tent's refrigerator
• Sheriff Shelby's hand (holding a gun) was sliced off and sent flying
• Jimbo's torso was vertically cut in half when he was sliced with Capper's scythe from his head downward

Documentarian film maker and blonde videographer Sandra Gibson (Kim Poirier) was in town shooting a feature about the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and rode along with the cops. She also met up with the Hollywood movie crew making a film titled Silent But Deadly on the outskirts.

In one sexy sequence, Sandra flirted with the crew's cinematographer Bobby (Marc Hickok), telling him that "size matters" (referring to her own camera's condenser microphone). He responded with two blatant and cliched requests to have sex: "I'm not a farmer but I would really love to plow your field," and "Did you just get out of the oven? 'Cause you are f--kin' hot." One night, she joined him at a campfire, and afterwards they strolled away to a lake, when she pushed him into the water to confuse him:

Sandra: "How's the water?"
Bobby: "Uhm, lonely and confused."

Then, she lowered her tank top's straps and slipped her blouse over her head, and began unbuckling her pants. He responded: "Hey now!" She tantalized him further by slowly stripping out of her red thong panties as he silently whispered to himself and prayed skyward: 'Thank you.' She joined him for a nude embrace and kiss after wading into the water.

To further spice things up, the horror-comedy was peppered with gratuitous topless nudity provided by Jackie (Nicole Arbour), a 'scream queen' who was acting in the production. She was complimented for being "a superlicious, big-titted mega-star" a few moments before director Victor (Patrick McKenna) was macheted in the back by Capper.

The Skin I Live In (2011, Sp.) (aka La Piel Que Habito)

Celebrated writer/director Pedro Almodovar's controversial, boundary-pushing dramatic horror-thriller was accused of being perverse and Frankenstein-esque. Its bizarre and kinky tale involved kidnapping, graphic rape, sex and nudity, burn victims, bloody murder, pill-popping, and a forced sex-change operation. There were references to at least two other similar films: Eyes Without a Face (1959, Fr.), and Boxing Helena (1993).

The film's main character was:

• Robert Ledgard (Antonio Banderas), a renowned yet alienated plastic surgeon who had developed a new super-strong, durable artificial skin which was impervious to burns, insect bites and diseases. [The skin was named GAL, in memory of his deceased wife.]

The scientific community frowned upon his 'illegal' tests and experiments. Within his secluded estate, he secretly kept captive a beautiful young female named Vera Cruz (Elena Anaya), often wearing an odd, flesh-colored body stocking. She was locked in a room and fed via meals delivered on a dumbwaiter, where he conducted experiments upon her and remotely monitored her through closed-circuit TV. During various sessions, he grafted new pieces of skin onto her nearly-perfect body, to transform her into an exact duplicate of Gal (his deceased wife).

The twisted and outrageous story ultimately revealed, in a lengthy flashback, how Robert's wife Gal had been disfigured after being burned in a car crash (while running off with Robert's half-brother Zeca - see below). Afterwards, when Gal saw her charred face in a mirror reflection, she committed suicide. Robert's beloved daughter, male-phobic Norma (Blanca Suarez) was traumatized by the incident and eventually killed herself after an attempted rape by pill-popping Vicente (Jan Cornet). Norma killed herself in the same manner that her mother Gal did.

Robert's mother Marilia (Marisa Paredes), now his loyal servant-maid in the estate, had also borne a sadistic son named Zeca (Roberto Alamo), a criminal thief and drug-smuggler. Marilia admitted the truth about both Robert and Zeca - they were both fathered by different men (and therefore half-brothers):

"Their fathers were very different but they were both born insane. It's my fault."

While Robert was away from the mansion, his estranged half-brother Zeca (wearing a tiger-costume during Carnival) saw Vera and appeared to recognize her as his former lover Gal (with whom he once had an affair, when she was married to Robert). He savagely raped Vera, and upon Robert's return, Robert murdered Zeca.

It was then revealed in the convoluted plot that over a six year period, 'Vera' had been a captive of the diabolical Robert. After Norma's death, Robert tracked down her killer Vicente, kidnapped him, and held him in captivity. And then startingly, Robert transformed Vicente (through sex-change surgery and vaginoplasty) into 'Vera,' making him a replica of his deceased wife Gal.

Sex-Change Reassignment Surgery Performed on Vicente/Vera (Elena Anaya)

In the startling conclusion, Robert and Vera began to engage in sex, but 'Vera' complained that intercourse was painful after Zeca's attempted rape. Momentarily leaving the room for vaginal lubricant, she returned with Robert's gun and killed him. Alerted by the gunshot, Marilia entered and was also shot by Vera (who was hiding under the bed). As Marilia died, she exclaimed: "I knew it."

In the finale, Vicente (now freed from Robert's 'sex-change' control over a six-year period), returned to his mother's dress shop (where he had worked six years earlier). When his mother entered the room, he delivered the film's last line - to identify himself: "Soy Vicente" (translated: "I am Vicente").

Sleeping Beauty (2011, Australia)

This stark, unrated erotic, arthouse drama from writer/director Julia Leigh (her debut film) was based upon a 1961 Japanese novella (The House of the Sleeping Beauties), although with a reversed viewpoint. The film highlighted the practice of somnophilia - the arousal or stimulation of sexual urges via the presence of an absolutely submissive individual - a sleeping or unconscious person.

Petite, porcelain-skinned and sexy redhead Emily Browning starred in this fetishistic, naughty sex drama as a young, risk-taking university student named Lucy. The cash-hungry college coed worked a number of odd dead-end jobs until she eventually joined up to work freelance in an exclusive, high-class brothel as a quasi-prostitute.

At first, she was hired to offer silver-service waitress-hosting at a formal dinner party, under the supervision of madam Clara (Rachael Blake). She wore white lingerie and worked with her breasts' nipples barely visible and peeking above her white bra, alongside other older female workers who wore black, breast-baring, cut-out bras. During her first evening of waitressing when she assumed the name of Sara, Lucy was instructed to wear lipstick with the color matching her labia. She and the others served caviar, quail and truffles to guests at a black-tie private dinner.

Sleeping Beauty Lucy (Emily Browning): Her Occupation as a Silver-Service Waitress in Lingerie

Then, she was offered a more lucrative opportunity as a passively 'sleeping escort'. In many creepy, voyeuristic scenes of debauchery, she professionally serviced perverted older male clients who paid to be with "sleeping beauties," although one of the ground-rules disallowed penetration (she was instructed: "Your vagina is a temple").

She was subjected to drinking drugged tea in a country mansion, to cause her to fall asleep so that the male customers could cuddle next to her, fondle and caress her body. In most cases, the ingenue was drugged to pass out or sleep, and lie next to the elderly gents. As she slept, men who spent the night with her exhibited both tenderness, sadistic abuse (cigarette burns), and carelessness (dropping her).

In the conclusion of the film, she had become curious about what actually occurred while she was asleep, so she surreptitiously brought a camera with her to record what was happening. As the film ended, her male sleep partner intentionally overdosed on the tea mixture and died lying next to her. When she awoke, she began screaming.

The Traumatic Death of Lucy's Male Sleep Partner

The film’s concluding shot was grainy surveillance video footage of Lucy asleep next to the dead man, filmed with her own camera.

Straw Dogs (2011)

Sam Peckinpah's brutal and violent film (forty years earlier) was remade by film-critic-turned director Rod Lurie. The remake was based on the 1971 film, and as before on Gordon Williams' novel "The Siege at Trencher's Farm."

It was now US-centric - made contemporary and transposed from rural England to the Deep South (Blackwater, Mississippi, a place echoing the Iraq War contracting company) where the married couple had moved to escape from Hollywood:

• David Sumner (James Marsden, replacing Dustin Hoffman's nebbish, pacifist US mathematician), a wimpy and meek LA TV screenwriter
• Amy (Kate Bosworth, replacing Susan George), his strong-willed, free-spirited wife

They were out of place living in her late father's farmhouse (in her hometown), where their values of education and non-interest in sports (football), drinking beer, hunting (and guns), country music and God put them at odds with the brutish locals. He was working on a feature-film screenplay about the Siege of Stalingrad.

As in the original, the tempting and seductive wife ran afoul of the local, lustful hillbilly barn roof-layers, including hulking high-school ex-boyfriend Charlie (Alexander Skarsgard). In the original film, the workmen peeping in on the wife, but in this film, Amy defiantly taunted the workers by going topless (although unseen off-screen). Some of the newer implications of this film, unlike Peckinpah's more ambiguous version, was that Amy was purposefully asking for it ("Are you saying I'm asking for it?" she quizzed her husband).

The climactic scene of the laborers' home invasion was a shot-for-shot remake of the original, culminating in Amy's sexual attack and rape. As in the original, the roofers lured David away from the house on a hunting trip, and then returned to the house for the disturbing (rather than titillating) rape.

In this scene (different from the original), actress Kate Bosworth kept her bra on, and her nudity was shielded from the camera. When the rapist climaxed, David was simultaneously shooting a deer in the woods. The film ended with David's base, savage and crude revenge upon the perpetrators, as expected.

Take This Waltz (2011, Canada)

Director Sarah Polley's naturally-acted R-rated feature film, her second attempt at writing and directing, was a romantic drama about cheating, flirtation and the temptation to have an affair. It had its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival in the fall of 2011, but didn't have its theatrical debut in US theatres until late June 2012.

Its tagline described its plot:

"A funny, bittersweet tale of love."

Moody, impulsive, emotionally-anguished and immature 28 year-old writer Margot (Michelle Williams) was in a boring, sexless, unfulfilling yet stable five-year marriage to anal-retentive yet affable husband Lou Rubin (Seth Rogen), a chicken cookbook writer - they lived in a Toronto suburban home. Their relationship was based upon infantile cutesy baby talk and childish passive-aggressive private games (e.g., he often threw cold water on her during showers).

On a work trip to Nova Scotia, Margot met handsome, free-wheeling, struggling artist Daniel (Luke Kirby), a rickshaw owner who turned out to be her across-the-street neighbor. When she admitted: "I'm married," he responded: "Oh, that's too bad."

In the film's most sexually-tinged and striking scene of verbal seduction (with clothes on) in a cafe over martinis, Daniel flirtatiously tempted her with the promise of romantic exhilaration, using graphic sweet-talk. She initiated the conversation when she asked him:

Margot: "I want to know what you'd do to me."
Daniel: "Wow."
Margot: "I just said that."
Daniel: "You just said that. I just kissed the top of your head ever so gently."
Margot: "You did."
Daniel: "Yes, and then I kissed your eyelids, and they fluttered underneath my lips just a little."
Margot: "A little."
Daniel: "And, very, very slowly I just grazed your lips with mine, but because you're married, I didn't dare kiss them."
Margot: "No."
Daniel: "No, instead I worked my way slowly down your neck and I kissed every inch of it, and I lingered over your birthmark on your left shoulder, ya that one, and I smelled you. I really inhaled and I smelled you."
Margot: "What do I smell like?"
Daniel: "You smell like you do. The way you smell like you did on the plane, the way you do right now, a mixture of sweetness and f--k. Hmm. And I kissed your breasts. And I licked your nipples, and I stayed there for about an hour. And I was gentle at first, but I found out how that worked and you weren't all that interested in me being gentle. And then I thought to myself, 'I need to find out how she works, how every part of her works.' And I spent about a week and a half with your body and I began to learn it and know it, every detail of it. And I played with you before I entered you, before I spread your legs and f--ked you hard. I f--ked you harder than I wanted to. But I couldn't help myself. And I pulled your hair gently while I rocked inside you. I f--ked your mouth and every part of you, until we were so intensely fevered that we couldn't see straight anymore, and I filled you with my cum, and I told you again and again, 'I love you. I love you.'"

As a follow-up, she told him that she would be free for a date (and a kiss) in about 30 years. The film's title was derived from Leonard Cohen's song of the same name, heard when Margot and Daniel soon had sex together in his sun-drenched loft space during a risque arty montage sequence. They had intercourse on a blue-sheeted mattress in the middle of a mostly-empty room, and then in a blue chair next to the bed.

The film's most crucial moment occurred during an un-self-conscious, full-frontal nude shower scene following a water-aerobics aqua-fitness class at the local pool. While showering with lots of female body types, sexually-straying Margot listened as her happily-married, recovering alcoholic sister-in-law Geraldine (Sarah Silverman) commented frankly and wisely on the inevitability of domestic boredom, and the way female bodies aged: "New things become old."

The Female Shower Scene (l to r) Michelle Williams, Jennifer Podemski, Sarah Silverman

30: Minutes Or Less (2011, Germ./Can./US)

Director Ruben Fleischer's adult-oriented, R-rated action comedy was filled with profanity, violence, drug-use, and some partial nudity.

The main storyline (eerily reminiscent of an actual incident that occurred in 2003 in Pennsylvania) of the fast-paced heist comedy was set in Grand Rapids, Michigan. It told about an overly-ambitious plot to raise money (to hire a contract killer to commit a murder in order to claim an inheritance), by two immature dimwits (with a semi-homosexual relationship) who had been friends since childhood:

• Dwayne King (Danny McBride), unemployed, a criminal-delinquent
• Travis (Nick Swardson)

Numb skull Dwayne wished to open a tanning salon (a front for a brothel) with his partner Travis, but the only possible avenue open to the two idiots was to kill Dwayne's ex-retired Marines father - the Major (Fred Ward), who had won the lottery in 1998 with a prize of $10,000 dollars. Hiring a hit-man would be expensive - with a fee of $100,000. Therefore, their crazed plan was to kidnap a complete stranger, strap a bomb and timer to the abductee's chest, and force him to rob a bank for them within ten hours.

Their targeted victim (who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time) was Vito's Pizza delivery-man Nick (Jesse Eisenberg), who had difficulty fulfilling his employer's motto of "30 minutes or less" delivery. The victimized Nick immediately raced to his friend Chet's (Aziz Ansari) place of work - an elementary school - where he pleaded for help - and of course, things spun out of control.

The scene most-talked about regarding sexiness and gratuitous nudity was set in a stripclub, where topless lapdancer Juicy (Bijanca Kajich) performed for Dwayne, one of the bad-guys, who was in the midst of plotting the heist. As he confided in her and complained about his "asshole" lottery-rich father, the Major who had wasted most of his $10 million dollar lottery winnings (and "burned through" most of Dwayne's future inheritance through "senseless spending"), she gyrated on his lap, and comfortingly offered her breasts for his enjoyment.

She opened her top for him to ogle at her breasts as she stroked them. She also suggested a possible hit man candidate for him from Detroit - an assassin who would require a payment of $100,000, while also placing his hands on her breasts to embolden him:

Juicy: "You know, for a million dollars, you could have anything. Could be like a king. King Dwayne."
Dwayne: "Right on. You could be like my queen, polish my royal sceptre."
Juicy: "Practice makes perfect. Maybe I can help you get that money now...before he spends another penny."
Dwayne: "And how would you do that?"
Juicy: "I know a guy in Detroit who could help you, probably do it for a hundred G...Kill your mean old dad. So, whaddya say? Are you ready for your crown?"
Dwayne: "Hmm-mm."

In the meantime, after Nick had been kidnapped and deployed with the vest to rob the bank, Juicy met with her sometime lover, tattooed Mexican Changa (aka "Sugarmilk") (Michael Pena), and convinced him to kill the Major for a $100,000 fee.

3-D Sex and Zen: Extreme Ecstasy (2011, HK)

Director Christopher Sun Lap Key's Hong Kong production, filmed in Cantonese, was advertised as the "world's first 3D erotic film" although it was a false claim - the first was The Stewardesses (1969). It was inspired by Yu Li's 17th-century ancient Chinese book of erotica, titled The Carnal Prayer Mat. The box-office hit was also controversial and restricted for viewing - no one under 18 was allowed (with a local Category III rating). Although sometimes called a "porn film," it was mis-labeled, but it did include a number of sex scenes and plentiful images of nudity.

It was the last in a series of Sex and Zen films, and considered an update of the original 1991 film:

• Sex and Zen (1991)
• Sex and Zen II (1996)
• Sex and Zen III (1998)

Set at the time of the Ming dynasty, it followed the life and sexual adventures of conceited young scholar Wei Yangsheng (Hiro Hayama). He found affection and fell in love with the daughter of Taoist priest Tie Fei - the patient and loving Tie Yuxiang (Leni Lan). The two experienced sexual problems - and he felt he was disappointing her in the bedroom and unable to satisfy her sexual needs. His manhood was too small for her, and he was afflicted with premature ejaculation and climaxing.

Tie Yuxiang (Leni Lan) with Wei Yangsheng (Hiro Hayama)

Wei sought ultimate sexual pleasure and wanted to learn the secrets of passion and erotic fulfillment. He participated in villainous Prince Ning's (Tony Ho) cliffside Pavilion of Ultimate Bliss (or Extreme Ecstasy), causing his wife to leave him. (Later, in one of the more difficult scenes to watch, her gardener Quan Laoshi (Kirt Kishita) broke into Tie's bath chamber and began to vigorously rape her, although she afterwards appeared satisfied.)

In Ning's treasure house of eroticism, including calligraphy, painting, and antiques, he counseled with the Pavilion's bizarre and scheming sorcerer Elder of Bliss (Vonnie Lui), a gender-changing, androgynous hermaphrodite in female disguise with breasts (which could be magically augmented) and a long penis. The Elder demonstrated how he/she could emulate male prowess. His/her snake-like dildonic penis, which was unwrapped from his/her leg, picked up a large wooden cart-wheel and inflicted pain by slapping one of the people in her male entourage.

Androgynous Hermaphrodite Elder of Bliss (Vonnie Liu)

Elder of Bliss With Swelling Breasts

Elder of Bliss With Elongated Penis

Wei also became Prince Ning's slave, by indulging himself and having sex with the Prince's many harem wives, including lusty courtesans Dongmei (Yukiko Suô) and Reizhu (Saori Hara). Again though, he realized he had too small a penis, so he decided to have a transplanted donkey penis (in the film's most memorable sequence, in 3-D), to make himself more virile. However, the operation was botched - he was attached to a dog penis, which had to be removed.

However, he finally realized, in the tacked-on happy ending for this moralistic tale, that he really did love his ex-wife (whom he had divorced), and he was reunited with her.

Turn Me On, Dammit! (2011, Norway) (aka Få meg på, For Faen)

Writer/director Jannicke Systad Jacobsen's romantic comedy (his debut narrative feature film) was about teenage sexuality, female coming-of-age and awakening. The main character was:

• Alma (Helene Bergsholm), a 15-year-old, pale-skinned, budding blonde teen in the small town of Skoddeheimen, Norway, technically a sexual virgin but with raging hormones

This low-budget breakthrough film was told from a refreshing new perspective. In the opening sequence, Alma was sprawled on the kitchen floor masturbating with her hand in her panties, while talking on an expensive adult sex chat phone line - Wet and Wild Dreams - with a familiar phone sex line operator Stig (Per Kjerstad), while the family dog watched quizzically.

[Note: the scene was the female equivalent of the opening scene in American Pie (1999).] )

Her preferred method of satisfying herself was by using a roll of coins taken from the cash register at her supermarket job. At other times, the sex-obsessed Alma with an overactive imagination daydreamed about being intimately touched and having sex with schoolmate and choir boy Artur (Matias Myren).

Alma's Fantasy of Dream Sex with Artur

She was competing for Artur's affection with one of her girlfriends, busty blonde Ingrid (Beate Støfring), known as "the choir slut," who continually applied icy pink gloss to her lips from a long phallic-tube. Alma's best friend was dark-haired Saralou (Malin Bjørhovde), an anti-establishment type who was constantly writing (but not mailing) letters to death-row inmates in Texas.

The Film's Pivotal Event (Dick-Poking): Real or Imagined

When Artur 'poked' Alma with his crotch (rubbing his penis (a prosthetic) on her thigh) at a party one night at the Youth Center, she told her friends ("He poked me with his dick...He stood beside me, got out his dick. He pushed it against my thigh"), but then Artur denied it (was the encounter only in Alma's imagination?), and Alma acquired the nick-name Dick-Alma. She was considered a sex-crazed pervert.

As evidence of the double standard, Alma's slutty and abnormal behavior led to name-calling, shunning as an outcast, and being ostracized. Feeling like a misfit, she resorted to booze, hash and porn magazines. One thing she had in common with her girlfriends was that they all despised their isolated, "lousy" small-town home ("I'm sick of this hole"), for its sheep, hay bales and 'trampoline girls' (who chanted Alma's detested nickname while bouncing up and down) - and they often flipped off the town's welcoming town limits sign.

During a hitchhiking trip to Oslo and visit with Ingrid and Sara's older college-aged sister Maria (Julia Bache-Wiig), a university student, Alma had her confidence and self-worth restored.

Virgin Alexander (2011)

A married couple, Charlotte Barrett and Sean Fallon, partnered together to direct and write the film's screenplay - with the tagline:

"What is your definition of a pimp?"

The premise of this madcap "smart comedy" was the coming-of-age of 26 year old virginal Alexander (Rick Faugno), a shy garbage/scrap hauler. His recently-inherited house from his grandfather was faced with foreclosure, so he was forced to quickly raise $125,000 dollars in ten days.

With his co-worker Cliff Christiensen (Patrick Zeller), Alexander decided that the fastest way to save his home was to turn it into a brothel. The leader of the sexy, young hookers for the whorehouse was Ruby (Paige Howard, director Ron Howard's daughter). Two of the other brothel members were Brooke (Mika Boorem) and the incredibly busty Lo (Elizabeth Masucci).

Brooke (Mika Boorem)

Lo (Elizabeth Masucci)

In the most revealing scene, Lo burst out of one of the brothel doors, completely topless. She criticized Alexander for complaining about his predicament with her "professional opinion," in a long intelligent monologue:

"Stop whining....You're an idiot...My professional opinion is that you lost your parents at a young age, you were raised by a con-man, and you spend the rest of your life avoiding real human interaction, including working in a job with individuals who show the same level of immaturity. You started a collection of these things in order to grasp at a past that doesn't exist, while ignoring the future in front of you. You're incredibly repressed, and that's why you're still a virgin. (pause) You're still a virgin because having sex would cause you to open up and grow as a person. To leave these childish things behind if you will. How was that?"

Alexander sheepishly admitted that Lo was "surprisingly accurate." By the conclusion of the film, he had opened up to Ruby about his virginity and she kissed him - their romance had finally blossomed.

Young Adult (2011)

Juno Oscar-winning scribe Diablo Cody provided the script for this dark, anti-romantic comedy by director Jason Reitman.

The unlikely heroine of the tale was:

• Mavis Gary/Crane (Charlize Theron in a go-for-broke performance) - a rude, judgmental, unlikable, shallow and acerbic divorcee, who also happened to be the ghost-writer of a number of young adult books

However, the popularity of her cookie-cutter teen-book series was waning. While struggling to write the final installment of the soon-to-be defunct books, she was often unapologetic about her behavior, self-absorbed, and frequently and excessively drunk.

After receiving a gloating emailed baby announcement from her HS boyfriend's wife Beth (Elizabeth Reaser), the selfish, narcissistic, aging "psychotic prom queen bitch" left the big city of Minneapolis to return to her small hometown of Mercury - delusionally hoping to reclaim her small-town HS crown. She wished to connect with (and possibly rescue?) her happily-married HS sweetheart, Buddy Slade (Patrick Wilson) - the father of a newborn daughter!

[Later in the film, she shockingly confessed to everyone that she had been pregnant with Buddy's child at age 20 before she miscarried at about 12 weeks.]

While in town, she became acquainted with another former HS classmate, nerdy, handicapped (with a walking stick), embittered and lonely Matt Freehauf (Patton Oswalt), now a local restaurant's bookkeeper.

[Note: Years earlier, he had been beaten up with a crowbar by jocks who thought he was gay, and had acquired the nickname "the hate crime guy." He angrily told Mavis later in the film: "Those jocks that you used to blow shattered my legs, mangled my brains, and mutilated my dick, then left me for dead."]

When Mavis first ran into Matt at Woody's bar, she didn't recognize his name, even though they had lockers next to each other for four years. He warned her that her desire to win the married Buddy back was foolish: "Buddy Slade has a life."

Mavis found herself oddly matched with him, as he became her brutally-honest, truth-telling confidant and drinking partner ("You’re f--king mentally ill") who could see her real shortcomings. Finally feeling vulnerable after an embarrassing incident at the baby-naming ceremony, she drove over to Matt's house:

Mavis: "I screwed up. No one loves me. You don't love me."
Matt: "Guys like me are born loving girls like you."

She stripped down to her pantyhose and plastic breast cups, and asked to wear Matt's shirt (to replace her wine-stained white silk blouse and skirt). She requested: "Hide me" and he hugged her, before they had sex together on his bed.