Unpop Culture

In 2004, the television series LOST introduced the world to several new (or fairly unknown) faces, not the least of which was Evangeline Lilly. And unknown until very recently, LOST introduced Evangeline Lilly to a seedy undercurrent of Hollywood’s secret subculture. A few weeks ago, Lilly made a guest appearance on a LOST-related podcast hosted by Jack Shepherd (yes, really) and Jacob Stolworthy. During the interview, Lilly revealed how she was coerced into partially disrobing for a scene:                                                                                          In Season 3, I’d had a bad experience on set with being basically cornered into doing a scene partially naked, and I felt I had no choice in the matter. And I was mortified and I w...

A Hollywood set is a professional work environment. Whenever a sex scene is filmed, the atmosphere is far from erotic. It’s only as real as two actors pretending to argue, or two actors pretending to fight to the death. Because the sex is only simulated, it can’t really be counted as sexual—and certainly not as actual sex. So the argument goes. It’s an argument I’ve addressed before ( here and here ). Last week, we looked at the first of five problems with the “sex scenes aren’t real sex” logic. Now let’s look at problems two and three.                                                               2. It’s Not True This second point comes into greater focus after taking into account what we learned from Mindy Kaling earlier: there are actors who find sexual enjoyment and/or arousal during scenes of simulated intimacy. ...

A couple weeks ago, we looked at a chapter from Mindy Kaling’s book  Why Not Me? , entitled “I Love Sex Scenes!” In it, she claims that she isn’t the only one who enjoys onscreen simulations of sexual intimacy. And even though she uses some hyperbolic language to make her point, she’s still right in that she is not alone: “ The conventional response to sex scenes is that they’re horrible and not sexy and it’s all so unnatural. But I’ve always found filming sex scenes to be quite a turn-on. I like the experience of being in a sexual position when you’re not supposed to be in one.” ( Hugh Grant ) “Sex scenes are great. A lot of my costars have been sexy guys my age who are really respectful and cool. So, why not? I’m not going to pretend it’s  not  fun .” ( Amanda Seyfried ) “You are not supposed to say that you enjoy doing sex scenes, you are supposed to say ‘Oh it’s really difficult, you know with the lighting and the cameramen and the boom operators are all ...

I confess that I found the trailer for Fallout to be one of the most engaging, thrilling, and exciting ads of my trailer-watching experience. I loved it (and still do). The cinematography, frenetic action, and fight choreography—all edited in sync with Imagine Dragons’ song “Friction” and layered with Lalo Schifrin’s Mission: Impossible theme—made my cinephile self’s mouth rabidly water with ecstatic anticipation. Of course, few movies can live up to that kind of hype. Was my excitement justified, or did I crush Fallout with the weight of my unrealistic expectations? That’s what we’re here to find out. As a reminder, I rate movies based on three criteria: objectionable content (C), artistic merit (A), and my personal opinions (P). CONTENT (C): 9 out of 10 During the CIA headquarters break-in scene in the very first Mission: Impossible film, Ethan Hunt stops one of his team members from killing a guard. His instructions are emphatic: “Zero body count.” Hunt’s nob...