The Nerve Awards for Sexiness in Film

A look back at 2010’s most — and least — red-blooded moments on film.

By The Nerve Editors

Each year, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences gives out a bunch of awards. Here at Nerve, we also have an annual award show, with a more modest scope: sexiness. Welcome to the second annual Nerve Awards for Sexiness in Film. 

Sexiest Picture of the Year
Love and Other Drugs

We should be clear about one thing from the start: Love and Other Drugs is not 2010’s best movie. It’s not even a particularly good movie. But, of the year’s Hollywood crop, it is the movie most likely to result in intercourse. Love and Other Drugs takes two undeniably beautiful people — Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway — and loosely constructs a storyline that allows them to be sexually entangled for about three-quarters of the film. The plot is vaguely affirming and totally forgettable; it’s not deep, gloomy, or thought-provoking. By the time the credits roll, all you'll feel is slightly entertained and and more than slightly horny. — Ben Reininga

Runners Up: The American, Black Swan, Chloe, The Kids Are All Right

Best Sex Scene in a Motion Picture
George Clooney and Violante Placido, The American

"Formulaic" isn't as damning a description of a sex scene as it is of a film. Take, for example, The American: the story of a nearly-retired hit-man finding himself involved in one last plot is generic action-movie fare. But towards the end of the movie, when our protagonist finally has sex, who cares that we've seen actors pretend to have sex on screen before? The scene's equal parts George Clooney and Italian beauty Violante Placido, bathed in mid-afternoon light, and laced with just a hint of aggressive tension since Clooney's character is still not certain he can trust her. And while it may be familiar, there's nothing dull about it. — Ben Reininga

Runners Up: Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis, Black Swan; Amanda Seyfried and Julianne Moore, Chloe; Julianne Moore and Mark Ruffalo, The Kids Are All Right; Amy Adams and Mark Wahlberg, The Fighter

Worst Sex Scene in a Motion Picture
Michelle Williams and Ryan Gosling, Blue Valentine 

It’s no small feat to make a Michelle Williams sex scene unappealing, but Derek Cianfrance’s Blue Valentine manages to achieve this dubious distinction. A few years into an ill-conceived marriage, Williams’ charming slacker husband (Ryan Gosling) has mysteriously aged decades into a paunchy, balding troglodyte who asks things like, "Do you want me to hit you?" Add a sci-fi themed hotel room that’s like a cross between a morgue and a "robot’s vagina" and you’ve got a textbook case of bad romance. It's a great piece of filmmaking, but you'd never watch it for fun. — Andrew Osborne

Runners Up: Russell Brand, Elisabeth Moss, and Jonah Hill, Get Him to the Greek; Will Ferrell and Eva Mendes, The Other Guys; Ben Stiller and Greta Gerwig, Greenberg; Drew Barrymore and Justin Long, Going the Distance

Sexiest Performance in a Motion Picture, Female
Mila Kunis, Black Swan

It must be difficult to actually play sexy. Sure, someone can be sexy, but if we asked you to be sexy right now, you'd probably end up pulling some sort of Zoolander face. But Mila Kunis pulls off sensuality with aplomb in Black Swan, the perfectly lusty dark ballerina to Natalie Portman's virginal introvert. Eating rare hamburgers, hooking up with random dudes in bars — her Lily is our kind of girl. In fact, her performance is sexy enough to make us overlook the weird body-horror of that lesbian sex scene. — James Brady Ryan

Runners Up: Natalie Portman, Black Swan; Marion Cotillard, Inception; Emma Stone, Easy A; Amy Adams, The Fighter

Sexiest Performance in a Motion Picture, Male
Mark Ruffalo, The Kids Are All Right 

Mark Ruffalo's character in The Kids Are All Right is the perfect bohemian asshole, the shabbily gorgeous man who'll cook you breakfast with local, organic ingredients in the morning and trample blindly on your feelings at night. Part of the attraction — and probably part of why Julianne Moore cheats on her wife to sleep with him — is that sense of freedom his neo-hippie lifestyle entails. But Ruffalo's salt-and-pepper curls cannot be denied either. The movie probably said it best: "Donor dad's a stone-cold fox." — James Brady Ryan

Runners Up: Mark Wahlberg, The Fighter; Ryan Gosling, Blue Valentine; Vincent Cassel, Black Swan; Johnny Knoxville, Jackass 3D

Best Breakout in Sex Appeal, Female
Emma Stone, Easy A

Easy A is a movie that would have you believe someone as smart, funny, and drop-dead gorgeous as Emma Stone could somehow be a high-school outcast. In other words, it’s a fantasy that’s even more far-fetched than The Last Airbender. But it’s still worth watching as a showcase for Stone’s star-making performance. The smoky-voiced redhead first displayed her scene-stealing capabilities in Superbad, and by the time she showed up as a badass slayer of the living dead in Zombieland, it was clear she was no mere flavor-of-the-month. As Olive, the high-school student who improves her social standing by letting the rumor mill run wild with tales of her nonexistent slutty exploits, she manages to be the sexiest person onscreen without ever actually having sex. And she could definitely show Demi Moore a thing or two about how to wear that scarlet letter in style. — Scott Von Doviak

Runners Up: Anne Hathaway, Love and Other Drugs; Greta Gerwig, Greenberg