Cozy Netflix nights and rich hot chocolate aside, winter isn’t the sexiest time of the year. If you live somewhere that experiences all the seasons, you know it well: legs aren’t shaved for weeks (thanks leggings!); bulky sweaters trump anything remotely figure flattering; and everyone you meet has a three-month-long case of the sniffles. It’s not cute. Fortunately, the film industry is turning the heat up in 2016, and there are quite a few upcoming 2016 sexy movie releases to look forward to. So while you sip your flu medicine and add another Snuggie to the growing pile on top of your limbs, be strengthened by the fact that these sultry pictures are coming your way.
From lusty thrillers to half-naked college comedies to sensuously directed period dramas, the 2016 calendar is stacked with movies that will get anyone’s blood pumping. True, movies can be a mirror for society and instruments of change. But they can also be a showcase for hot people doing steamy things. And in the very best cases, they can be all of the above. Take a look at these nine sexy movies hitting screens in 2016 and let their heat cure you of your cold-weather funk.
1. The Neon Demon
Check your pulse: Elle Fanning is now old enough to star in a stylish, sexy horror noir by Drive director Nicolas Winding Refn. Jena Malone, Christina Hendricks, and Australian supermodel Abby Lee Kershaw join her in the Alice-down-the-rabbit-hole tale of a beautiful girl who finds herself at the mercy of ruthless, youth-obsessed women when she moves to Los Angeles.
2. Neighbors 2
The sequel to the Zac Efron/Seth Rogen college rager comedy will be as gross and ridiculous as the original, but the addition of Selena Gomez and her fellow sorority sisters makes for equal opportunity ogling of beer-soaked fictional co-eds.
3. Passengers
I'm shocked that it took this long to get Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence — America's goofball sweethearts — in a film together. Pratt plays one of several frozen space travelers, on their way to colonize a faraway planet. He wakes up decades early and with no way to put himself back under. The only alternative to aging and dying completely alone is waking up a second passenger to be his companion — guess which one he picks.
4. Nocturnal Animals
This drama comes from former Gucci mastermind Tom Ford, who made middle-age ennui look devastatingly stylish in A Single Man. Jake Gyllenhaal, Amy Adams, Isla Fisher and Armie Hammer star in the adaptation of the mind-bending novel Tony And Susan, which weaves together two stories: a women reading a manuscript sent to her by her ex-husband, and the deeply seductive manuscript itself.
5. The Legend Of Tarzan
Do I have to draw you a picture? It's a animalistic and shirtless Alexander Skarsgård swinging from things and learning about love for the very first time. Add the shockingly gorgeous Margot Robbie to the mix and Fantastic Beasts director David Yates (who knows his way around a fantasy) and this fall release is a must-see.
6. Knight Of Cups
A struggling screenwriter played by Christian Bale tries to "find himself" in the debauched high-roller culture of LA. He finds several women instead, including Natalie Portman, Freida Pinto, and Isabel Lucas.
7. A United Kingdom
Amma Assante's Belle was one of the most sumptuous and affecting period dramas of the last few years. She follows it up with a film based on the true story of the forbidden romance between Botswana President Seretse Khama (David Oyelowo) and a white, English store clerk (Rosamund Pike). Love triumphs over all, with a late '40s/early '50s backdrop? Put it in front of my face right now.
8. The Real Wound
Details about this one are scarce, but Blue Is The Warmest Color director Abdellatif Kechiche is going back to the well of teen sexuality and misty-colored first love with an adaptation of a French novel about a young boy on vacation in Tunisia and on a quest to lose his virginity.
9. High Rise
Put Tom Hiddleston in a tailored suit, and I'll watch him in just about anything. But the trailer for High Rise suggests that the thriller has got a lot more going for it than just its leading man. Unsettling, sexy, and dangerous, High Rise pulled mostly positive reviews on the festival circuit; it gets a wide release in March.
2016 is shaping up to be quite the sexy year at the movies, and it's just getting started.
Images: Magnet Releasing; Amazon Studios; Giphy
