Easily avoiding "strong nudity, strong sex scenes"

I saw a very compelling movie last night about a dangerous loner in the age of social influencers and Russian bots, called The Hater. It's Polish. It just debuted on Netflix on Wednesday, and I'll be reviewing it. In fact, I may have already by the time you read this.

As it started, though, the 13-year-old kid in me got a little excited when I saw Netflix warn us that the movie contained "strong nudity, strong sex scenes."

When I saw what it was, I had to laugh -- and write this post.

Oh, it was strong nudity and strong sex alright. But it could have been lifted right out and probably made the film far less problematic -- at least if it were playing in regular theaters, rather than Netflix.

So I should say that of course I'm not opposed to "strong nudity, strong sex scenes" in a film, if it really needs it. Maybe even sometimes if it doesn't really need it. But when it really doesn't need it, it's just silly.

So at one point during the movie, the main character is breaking into a location -- it isn't necessary to explain what location, since this post isn't about the plot. The security guard has unexpectedly returned to his post, and the interloper has gotten stuck in the very same room with him. The interloper recedes into the shadows to see what will happen.

What will happen is the security guard starts watching porn. As you do.

And it's realistic porn. In other words, for about three seconds, you see a penis being inserted into a vagina, in the doggy style position if you must know. It's not the main image on screen, as you see it over the guard's shoulder as the character would, but it's clearly visible and there's no mistaking what's going on.

Did you really need that much verisimilitude, director Jan Komasa?

Movies have been showing characters watching porn for decades, but they don't have to actually, you know, show porn. You can play some sounds of characters in the throes of ecstasy and then just show their upper bodies. That communicates what's going on well enough. You can even get away with it in a PG movie by not showing any nudity, and the audience is still well aware what is happening.

But no, Jan Komasa thought that a throwaway scene in his movie would be made that much more, I don't know, realistic if you saw that penis going into that vagina.

It seems likely to be the first time a penis has ever gone into a vagina on Netflix. There may have been another instance, but I'm hard-pressed to imagine what it might have been. Did In the Realm of the Senses ever play on Netflix?

I almost wonder if Komasa did it as a gag, on a dare from his friends to see if he could get away with it. "Okay, Jan, you've got the power. You're going to put porn on Netflix."

Because if I were a 13-year-old boy, I'd be all over the "back ten seconds" button on that one.