RG9400

6/10

Awash in neon colors and a thumping score, How to Have Sex hyper-fixates on the experience of 3 young women during a party-heavy vacation, exploring the disconnect between their expectations and their reality. A weird comparison that I found myself drawing was to Spring Breakers (both in terms of style and in terms of themes and plot), and like that movie, you kind of know where this is headed. I did find the first half of the movie to be compelling as it sets the stage, but I found the second half to not land with the impact required to make this movie stand out from the slew of similar movies. Certainly, the events have a truth to them, and there sort of mundane nature being the real culprit is a message I do appreciate. However, I felt like the movie didn't do a strong enough job to make this distinction on its own, instead just sort of depicting events as they played out without emphasizing and accentuating the more universal message at its heart. In that regard, I think Spring Breakers is an interesting comparison because whereas that movie struggles with subtlety and hits you over the head so many times with its point, this one leaves too much lifting to the viewer. There is a time and place for that, but I feel like with the type of stylized colors and directing, as well as the topic, this was not the right movie to take that approach with. Mia McKenna Bruce brings an earnestness and humanity to the role that definitely helped elevate it though.

Bradym03

7/10

I have to admit that at the start of the movie, I wasn’t sure if I was going to enjoy it. I initially thought it was a party movie or a slice-of-life film about experiencing emotions. I’m not a party person, which is why I believed I wouldn’t get much out of it. But then, something happens in the story that completely shifts the tone. My biggest takeaway from this is: Are your friends truly your friends? Are they the kind of friends you can trust? If you're sad or something's wrong, will they notice? Are you sure there isn't any backstabbing? "How to Have Sex" is a film that explores these questions while also addressing the peer pressure young teens face and the situations they find themselves in. It’s one of those movies that, when it’s over, you wonder what happens next. And no, I don’t need a sequel to this, but to imagine what happens next for the main character, and based on what we’ve seen happen to them, you can picture a sad ending. It feels like a lively successor to "Aftersun"; both are summer-themed sad films set against a bright backdrop where the main character should be happy and enjoying their holiday, but that feeling is overshadowed. A film that stays with you even after it’s over.

CinemaSerf

0/10

I think any parent of a late-teenage child will be mortified at what goes on when three girls head off to Heraklion in search of sun, sea and sex. They arrive full of beans - determined too have a good time and to get laid. We quickly learn that "Tara" (Mia McKenna-Bruce) has yet to experience that, and she is keen to tick that particular event from her bucket list. Together with pals "Skye" (Lara Peake) and "Em" (Enva Lewis) they hook up with the folks whose balcony is next door. "Tara" takes a bit of a shine to tattooed, van driver, "Badger" (Shaun Thomas) who is there with his friends "Paddy" (Samuel Bottomley) and "Paige" (Laura Ambler). It's on their third night that the film stops being a video-diary of hedonistic behaviour as her friend "Badger" gets blown away by a poolside experience and she finds herself on her own, then on the beach with... What now ensues begin the elements that provides the crux of the point of the film. When is what we want not what we want, when does yes not really mean yes - or it means yes because you just want to get something over with, or yes because you are just curious, or yes because you are too stoked up to think anything through - and are in the arms of a charismatic person? This isn't a violent film in any graphic sense, but it does have quite an emotionally potent impact for a while as the very much on-form McKenna-Bruce juggles her outward, bouncy and lively persona, with a young woman who is still very much growing up - and vulnerable. I didn't love the last twenty minutes - they robbed the film of the much of the ambiguity that hitherto had made it poignant and a talking point. At this point the behaviour becomes just plain wrong and odious - before they all head home. This is a story about a girl, but it could just as easily be about a boy - under self and peer imposed pressures to perform/conform unaware of the longer-term consequences of sand getting everywhere. Snag for me is that the film is just too much of a fly-on-the-wall documentary for the most part. We have to wait too long before the story starts to make it's point effectively, and then I think it rather rushes and compromises the message. It's still worth a watch, though - and McKenna-Bruce is very confident and impressive.

MarciaClarke

0/10

Classic American Pie setup of a bunch of youngsters on a mission to lose their virginity, except set in reality where the drug and alcohol fueled antics of people whose brains are still developing is more horrific than comedic. Well acted and believable characters, but I just didn't find it all that compelling. Maybe because the plot points are all too common, both in film and reality.

Brent Marchant

0/10

It’s truly disappointing when a film tackles a serious subject but mishandles the execution of the story associated with it. Such is the case with writer-director Molly Manning Walker’s debut feature about the troubling ramifications associated with undercooked decisions about adolescent sex. When a trio of British teens (Mia McKenna-Bruce, Lara Peake, Enva Lewis) embarks on a spring break-style vacation to the resort town of Malia on the island of Crete, they anticipate a raucous, fun-filled time of drinking, dancing and sexual hedonism. The last of those goals is especially important to Tara (McKenna-Bruce), the lone virgin in the group, who’s anxious to cross the threshold of becoming a woman. But, as she pursues the fulfillment of that objective, she finds the decision fraught with more complications than she anticipated, some of which weigh heavily upon her as she seeks to sort them out. That’s understandable, too, given the profound nature of this rite of passage. Unfortunately, that conundrum is couched in a narrative that’s fundamentally implausible. For starters, what parent in their right mind would give their minor child permission to go on such an unchaperoned journey as this, one that’s easily bound to be looked on as an exercise in reckless abandon? And then there’s the plot, which is riddled with clichés and predictability, telling a story that’s more than a little familiar. In fleshing out this trite narrative, the picture is filled with endless footage of screaming, unbalanced partygoers imbibing to excess, singing karaoke off-key and falling over when the night’s over. It’s also difficult to understand much of what the characters say, given their unruly drunken behavior and thick cockney accents, making them look and sound like a mob of rowdy, inarticulate soccer hooligans. Despite the gravity of the topic involved here, it’s hard to take this release seriously – and to maintain interest in the story and its characters – as the film unfolds. It’s even more puzzling how this important but shopworn material managed to captivate so many during the 2023 awards season with the honors and nominations it received at the Cannes Film Festival and in the BAFTA Awards competition. Had this offering been a little less obvious, it may have made its point more effectively, but there’s little here that we haven’t already seen many times before, weakening the significant message it’s seeking to convey.