Friday, 23 February 2024

VOD: How To Have Sex (dir: Molly Manning Walker, 2023)

"Sounds really romantic."
"No..."

Three British teenage girls go for a wild holiday in Malia and have to contend with issues of consent, peer pressure and gender attitudes in this upfront and provocative drama.  The loose reality/documentary style of the film complements the naturalistic performances of the three lively and engaging leads.  Although it could be argued that most of the film plays through the expected teens-go-wild rites-of-passage holiday abroad tropes with woefully thinly-written males, when young Tara (a wonderfully-pitched performance by Mia McKenna-Bruce) is confronted with the realities of sex in a drink-fuelled full-on party-town environment as a young woman clearly out of her depth, the film's mood changes in the blink of an eye and is well-handled by cast and director alike.  The movie offers a sad and sobering reflection on the loss of innocence and it is a promising debut for its writer/director.



 

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