Film

Kiki: Love to Love

Paco León's ensemble comedy braids five Madrid couples together, each wrestling with a specific sexual hang-up or fetish, and plays every one for warmth and absurdity rather than shock. It's frank, silly, occasionally filthy, and fond of its characters' oddities rather than embarrassed by them. Good for adults who want desire treated as ordinary and funny, not for the squeamish.

TMDb rating6.1

If you liked this

The Little Death2014no page yet

Kiki's closest cousin: an Australian ensemble comedy stacking a street's worth of neighbours' secret fetishes into gentle chaos, treating kink as comedy rather than scandal throughout.

But Lower-budget indie feel, less starry, and some segments land far harder than others.

Crazy, Stupid, Love.2011no page yet

Several couples untangle fidelity and desire with big laughs and a genuinely moving structure, with Steve Carell and Ryan Gosling at their most likeable.

But Neater and more conventional than Kiki, with no real interest in kink or taboo.

Love Actually2003

The ensemble template Kiki borrows wholesale — multiple couples circling love and desire over one crowded holiday, engineered for maximum charm.

But Sentimental to the point of syrup, and its gender politics haven't aged gracefully.

Love Actually poster

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Belle de Jour1967

Kiki's Álex-and-Natalia thread is a comic remix of exactly what Buñuel took dead seriously half a century earlier: a partner trying to satisfy a very specific fantasy, and what happens when it meets reality.

Catherine Deneuve plays a bored bourgeois wife spending her afternoons at a brothel acting out precise, secret fantasies, filmed with cool elegance instead of prurience.

But Glacial 1960s arthouse pacing and ambiguity — don't expect punchlines or a tidy resolution.

Belle de Jour poster
More like this (8)

Friends with Benefits2011no page yet

A brisk, horny rom-com about two friends trying to keep sex and feelings separate, sharp about how bodies wreck the best-laid plans.

But Glossy Hollywood polish where Kiki is scrappier, stranger, and less interested in a tidy ending.

Vicky Cristina Barcelona2008no page yet

Sun-soaked Spain, two women pulled into an open and unconventional romance, sensual and funny about how desire refuses neat labels.

But Woody Allen's involvement is a dealbreaker for plenty of viewers now, understandably.

Sex Tape2014no page yet

A long-married couple's stunt to reignite their sex life spirals into farce, broad and silly in the same spirit as Kiki's set-pieces.

But Thin plot stretched past its natural length, more slapstick than insight.

He's Just Not That Into You2009no page yet

Interlocking couples work through love, sex and mixed signals across a big starry cast, easy comfort viewing with real bite in places.

But Focused more on dating anxiety than sexual specifics, considerably tamer than Kiki throughout.

The To Do List2013no page yet

A frank, funny coming-of-age comedy about a young woman methodically working through a sexual bucket list, unembarrassed about bodies and desire.

But American teen-comedy register is broader and cruder than Kiki's grown-up warmth.

Kinsey2004no page yet

A biopic about the researcher who dragged American sex talk into the open, serious where Kiki is silly but sharing its curiosity about what people actually want.

But A drama, not a comedy — slower, more clinical, with no jokes to speak of.

Wetlands2013no page yet

Same instinct as Kiki — sexual frankness played as comedy rather than scandal — pushed into a genre and country where the taboo-breaking goes all the way, not gently.

A teenage heroine's frank, gleefully gross relationship with her own body and desires, a coming-of-age film that refuses every taboo about female sexuality going.

But Genuinely stomach-turning in places — this is Kiki's filthy-mindedness with none of the safety net.

Orgasm Inc.2009no page yet

Ma Candelaria's orgasm subplot is played for gentle comedy in Kiki; this film asks the same question for real and finds a multi-billion dollar industry with its own opinions about women's bodies.

A real investigative documentary into the medical industry's attempts to diagnose and treat 'female sexual dysfunction,' equal parts funny, infuriating and genuinely eye-opening.

But It's a documentary with an agenda, not a story — no characters or resolution, just research and outrage.

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