Amazon Studios
A hesitant hush fell over the Cinépolis theater in Chelsea a few weeks ago, during the first of the sex scenes in My Policeman. Michael Grandage’s new film, which hit theaters over the weekend and lands on Prime November 4, is the story of two men from different social circles in late-1950s England, who fall into a forbidden love after a chance meeting in the streets of Brighton.
Much has already been said about the way intimacy is performed in the film, most notably—and controversially—from its megawatt star, Harry Styles. “So much of gay sex in films is two guys going at it,” Styles told Rolling Stone in August. “And it kind of removes the tenderness from it.”
It took about five minutes for Styles’ quote to set the internet ablaze. “Pretty much the entirety of queer cinema is about sensuality and coded references,” one Twitter user said. “‘Two guys going at it is pretty much only a description of porn.” Several other people speculated that Styles had never actually seen any queer cinema.