A Serious Man came out in 2008 and that's the best movie that's ever been made, but I take your point, there is a distinct quality dropoff, I just don't think it's attributable to sex scenes, or even "everything being PG now", because as you said there were real bangers in the Hayes code era (although often because they did everything they could to get around it). I think the problem is more to do with the demands of marketing, of which "less sex" is only a sliver, like, all those shitty Michael Bay movies everyone holds up as the height of trash are very sexy in an unappealing way
A Serious Man came out in 2008 and that's the best movie that's ever been made, but I take your point, there is a distinct quality dropoff, I just don't think it's attributable to sex scenes, or even "everything being PG now", because as you said there were real bangers in the Hayes code era (although often because they did everything they could to get around it). I think the problem is more to do with the demands of marketing, of which "less sex" is only a sliver, like, all those shitty Michael Bay movies everyone holds up as the height of trash are very sexy in an unappealing way