Our Staff Picks column takes you back to a time when video stores reigned supreme and the "Staff Picks" section was the place to find out what films were worthy of one's time. Of course, our version of Staff Picks has a decidedly skintillating angle, as we suss out which films from a certain genre or year with great nudity. This week: coming-of-age films.
I love coming-of-age movies because they remind me of what it was like to be young and feel like the entire world was ahead of us. Everything felt dreamy and possible...and horny. Not only are these sweet stories that fill us with nostalgia, but it's a time when things feel hornier than ever before.
Here are my staff picks for hot coming-of-age films:
The Last Picture Show
I have to start my recommendation lists with one of the best and most American coming-of-age stories ever told: The Last Picture Show. Peter Bogdanovich's adaptation of the novel (which I would be remiss if I didn't mention was entirely his wife and co-collaborator Polly Platt's idea to do!) set in a small Texas town as a group of teens try to figure out what to do after high school.
Cybill Shepherd made her nude debut when her friends egged her on to strip for a skinny-dip. Kimberly Hyde and Sharon Ullrick also went nude and the great Cloris Leachman seduces a young man. There's a lot of sensuality in this black-and-white film.
The Diary of a Teenage Girl
Folks, this film is hot. Don't worry - the "teenage girl" in the movie is played by the beautiful Bel Powley who was 23 when she made this movie. This film by director Marielle Heller follows Bel as a horny teenager who finds herself wanting to bang everyone and everything in sight. Her friend Madeleine Waters, her mom's new boyfriend, everyone turns her on as the teen grapples with these adult feelings for the first time.
The film is gorgeous to look at - not just because of Bel, Madeleine, and co-star Kristen Wiig. It is set in 1970s San Francisco, several years after the Summer of Love when hippie-chic was only just starting to fade. Bel's character is only just now discovering how groovy free love really is! She has five stunning nude scenes in the movie, including one where she checks out her topless tits in the mirror.
Call Me By Your Name
While this movie is typically thought of as a gay male movie, there is a hot straight sex scene that features nudity from Parisian actress Esther Garrel. The plot follows Timothee Chalamet as a teen boy whose parents are professors and American ex-pats living in Italy. He forms a crush on his father's new assistant and tries to explore these feelings that he has never had before, all while juggling having a hot girlfriend played by Esther.
It's a great film overall with moving storytelling, beautiful Italian landscapes, and this sexy French fox who shows off her skin when Timothee Chalamet takes off her bikini and goes down on her:
Sixteen Candles
Molly Ringwald was famous for a reason. Not only was the spunky redhead gorgeous to look at, but she really captured what it meant to be a misunderstood teen in the 1980s. She and John Hughes worked together to show off teen angst and teen issues like they never had been before. Pretty in Pink and The Breakfast Club are total classics, but I am especially fond of Sixteen Candles. Molly's family forgets her sixteenth birthday in lieu of her sister's wedding. It's every teen girl's nightmare.
While she is sulking about it, some salt gets added to her wound when she and her friend spy Haviland Morris showering in the locker room with her perfect body. It's a body double, but this is GREAT nudity. Um...this is rated PG?!
Thirteen
And now for something a little more intense. This ain't your mother's coming-of-age movie - this was a SHOCKING coming-of-age movie for an entirely new generation of rebellious teens. Even Bender from The Breakfast Club would be scared of Evan Rachel Wood and Nikki Reed from Catherine Hardwicke's 2003 feature film.
Nikki Reed actually co-wrote the script and based it on her life from tattoos to drugs to alcohol to tongue rings. This movie captures a quiet teen who becomes friends with a wild girl and lets that girl's influence totally take over her life. Evan's concerned mom is played by Holly Hunter who has a nude think about how to control her out-of-control daughter. Thinking naked is the best way to do it!
Saved!
This 2004 satire does not have explicit nudity, but it's too good not to mention. Plus Susan Sarandon's daughter Eva Amurri Martino plays the kind of badass bad girl that your preacher warned you about. Jena Malone is a teen Christian at American Eagle Christian High School. She is second-fiddle to popular girl Mandy Moore who is scary good as a Christian Regina George.
Their friendship and cheery faith get shaken up when Jena's character becomes pregnant. Uh oh! She had premarital sex! We didn't get to see the sex scene, but we see Jena in her bra and undies. There is a lot of cleavage in this film, but it is otherwise PG-13. That being said, it's very good. It's a great satire and it does a wonderful job taking Jena's character from a scared teen to a confident woman.
Almost Famous
Ah, Almost Famous. What teen boy didn't dream of having this kind of coming-of-age story? Cameron Crowe directed this wonderful story about an eager young writer and music fan who breaks into music reporting at Rolling Stone when he was still underage. He covers the band Stillwater under the tutelage of the one and only Lester Bangs (played by Philip Seymour Hoffman to perfection) and he gets to see what it's like to be a rockstar firsthand.
Apparently, being a rockstar is partying with sexy groupies played by Fairuza Balk, Anna Paquin, and Kate Hudson.
Kate Hudson is the iconic Penny Lane who charmed audiences and became a dreamy It Girl for us all. I'm forever in love with Kate after seeing her carefree portrayal of the blonde and beautiful Penny Lane.
