Female Perversions (1996)

What was deviant in 1996 is vanilla now. The anxiety is still real though.

Did a double feature with Moonlight, and I was struck by the similarities between Chiron and Tilda Swinton’s character in this. Both have built hard armor to protect themselves from childhood traumas. Both are dealing with “sexual perversions” they fear won’t allow them to be accepted in the lives they’ve constructed with all that armor and all those swords. The pairing made sense.

Tilda Swinton is incredible in this - which makes total sense given she won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress ten years later playing another insecure, sweaty, hard corporate lawyer in Michael Clayton. She’s good at this. Women holding themselves together with white knuckles, barely containing everything underneath. And she’s so incredibly sexy here.

I loved the dream sequences. I learned after watching that this was based on a theoretical psychological text, which is fascinating. I can’t think of another film I’ve seen that builds a fictional narrative around a psych theory book like that. Very interesting approach.

It is funny watching this in 2026 - none of their “perversions” would really be considered deviant today. Times change.

Anyway, if you like seeing Tilda Swinton suck on titties and eat pussy in a hammock, you’re gonna love this movie.

Also on Letterboxd