How to Have Sex review: "A fresh, female POV to the subject of sexual consent"
Nov. 1, 2023This eye-catching, Cannes-crowned tale about hard-partying Brits offers a complex, authentic take on teen hedonism.
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Hungry for parties, passion and fishbowl cocktails, BFFs Em (Enva Lewis), Skye (Lara Peake, TV’s Mood) and Tara (Mia McKenna-Bruce, Vampire Academy) throw themselves recklessly into Malia’s frenetic tourist nightlife. Walker’s fearless camera dives after them into bacchanalian pool parties, shrieking karaoke sessions and neon-strobed bars thumping with EDM.
When the pals team up with their hard-partying hotel neighbors, goofy Badger (The Selfish Giant‘s Shaun Thomas) and self-styled shagger Paddy (Samuel Bottomley, Everybody’s Talking About Jamie), the film skilfully tracks the sudden cracks in the trio’s friendship, as they vie for these Northern likely lads’ attention.
Tensions are ratcheted even higher when bubbly Tara, the baby of the group, suddenly finds herself unwittingly swept into a chaotic night or two of bad choices and tough truths.
Alongside the wild carousing and sweary banter, the unflinching close-ups of McKenna-Bruce’s wary, watchful face showcase how her piercing performance covers Tara’s disorientation with wobbly bravado (kudos too to cinematographer Nicolas Canniccioni).
Refusing to become a cautionary tale, How to Have Sex explores the pitfalls as well as the pleasures of teen-holiday hook-ups; it also brings an admirably fresh, female POV to the subject of sexual consent.
How to Have Sex opens in UK cinemas on November 3. Read our interview with thecast and director here.
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Kate is a freelance film journalist and critic. Her bylines have appeared online and in print for GamesRadar, Total Film, the BFI, Sight & Sounds, and WithGuitars.com.
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