How to Have Sex is a 2023 coming-of-agedrama film written and directed by Molly Manning Walker, in her directorial debut. The film stars Mia McKenna-Bruce, Lara Peake and Enva Lewis as three sixteen-year-old best friends who encounter new friendships, sexual pressures and self-discovery during a holiday. The cast also includes Samuel Bottomley, Shaun Thomas and Laura Ambler.
How to Have Sex had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in the Un Certain Regard section on 19 May 2023, ultimately winning that section's top prize.[5] The film was released theatrically by Mubi in the United Kingdom on 3 November 2023,[6] and in the United States on 2 February 2024.[7]
Plot
Sixteen-year-old best friends Tara, Em, and Skye head to the party resort of Malia on the Greek island of Crete for a rites-of-passage holiday. While Em will be off to college in the autumn, Tara and Skye are less certain of their futures. The girls all look forward to drinking, clubbing, and hooking up in what should be the best summer of their lives. Tara, the only virgin in the trio, feels pressure to match the sexual experiences of her friends.
While on her hotel room balcony, a neighbouring guest, Badger, flirts with Tara, who reciprocates his advances. He and one of his roommates, Paddy, invite Tara and her group to spend the night partying with his friends. Skye, who is secretly attracted to Badger, openly teases Tara about her lack of experience despite Tara's embarrassment, and encourages her to lose her virginity to Paddy, while Em intends to hook up with one of Badger's female friends. Tara grows closer to Badger, but is disheartened when she witnesses him volunteer to go onstage at an outdoor club to have multiple strangers perform sex acts on him as part of a game, and she leaves. She runs into Paddy, and he takes her to the beach and pressures her for sex, which she reluctantly agrees to.
The next morning, Em and Badger become concerned when Tara is missing, having not returned to the hotel. However, Tara reappears, and reveals that she spent the night disillusioned and groggy after sex with Paddy and partied with kind strangers who let her spend the night at their villa. Tara seems embarrassed at her sexual experience and only privately reveals it to Em, and attempts to avoid admitting it to Skye. Tara also learns that she failed her exams and will have to retake them, further upsetting her. Paddy treats Tara poorly and distantly around their friends, but Badger, who learned of Tara's virginity through Skye (who confided in him in an attempt to humiliate Tara), takes care of her when she grows distant from the group and declines their invitation to skinny-dip at the beach. He takes her back to the hotel, and when she falls asleep, he puts her to bed and departs.
In the morning, the final day of the trip, Tara attempts to sleep in, but Paddy enters the room and makes romantic overtures, which Badger witnesses and is heartbroken by. When they are alone, Paddy tries to initiate sex with Tara again, but is rebuffed. Shortly afterward, Tara is awoken to Paddy on top of her, initiating intercourse despite her visible discomfort. He is soon interrupted by Skye and Badger entering the room and groggily settling in between the two on the bed to sleep. Skye quietly teases Tara about apparently sleeping with Paddy again, prompting Tara to silently leave the bed in tears.
In the afternoon, the friends depart the hotel, sharing goodbyes with the other group and discussing plans to meet up in the future. Tara hugs Badger goodbye, avoiding interacting with Paddy. At the airport, Skye again presses Tara for details of her encounters with Paddy, which Tara attempts to evade. When alone with Em, Tara privately admits that Paddy raped her by having sex with her while she was asleep. Em initially asserts that Tara should have said something during the trip, but then assures Tara that what happened was not "fine". On their way to board the plane back home to England, Em promises Tara that together they will overcome their troubles.
Prior to its debut, Mubi acquired distribution rights to the film for North America, United Kingdom, Ireland, Italy, Latin America, Turkey and Benelux.[12] It was also invited screened in the Flash Forward section of the 28th Busan International Film Festival on 7 October 2023.[13]
The film was released theatrically in the United Kingdom on 3 November 2023,[6] and in the United States on 2 February 2024.[7]
Reception
Critical response
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 97% of 143 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 8/10. The website's consensus reads: "A powerful debut for Molly Manning Walker, How to Have Sex authentically captures female adolescence and friendship with sobering effervescence."[14]Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 79 out of 100, based on 37 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[15]
Manning Walker's direction and McKenna-Bruce's performance received praise.[16][17][18][19]The Observer's Wendy Ide wrote, "Walker's handling of the film's tonal range is remarkably assured: the picture is skittish, spirited and very funny, and at the same time troubling and bruisingly sad."[20] Guy Lodge of Variety described McKenna-Bruce's performance as "star-making", adding the film "lays out the minefield of sexual education and consent for a post-#MeToo generation, with a precision to its ambiguities that will draw gasps from its characters' contemporaries and elders alike".[21] Clarisse Loughrey of The Independent commented, "Described by its director as loosely autobiographical, How to Have Sex is built around a subtle but devastating rug-pull that exposes the culture of sex and consent in the same way F Scott Fitzgerald put the Jazz Age on blast in The Great Gatsby."[22]
