How to Have Sex
Molly Manning Walker’s Cannes winner takes an individual approach to contemporary sexual behaviour.
Mia McKenna-Bruce
This first feature by Molly Manning Walker is an impressive example of filmmaking that feels immersive. The film begins as a plane lands at an airport and we are invited to share in the experiences of three of the passengers. They are 16-year-old girls from Britain who are best mates and have come to the holiday resort of Malia in Crete for a few days. The intention is to live it up while they await their GCSE results and, indeed, How to Have Sex is a study of present-day teenagers and their behaviour when it comes to getting laid. One of the girls, Tara (Mia McKenna-Bruce), would be pleased to lose her virginity on this trip while her friends, Skye (Lara Peake) and Em (Enva Lewis), both already experienced, also have sex in mind, be it on the beach or in their poolside accommodation.
The emphasis here on a foreign location (the film is limited to their time in Malia and ends with their departure) has caused comparisons to be made with another British debut feature, Aftersun, but, while that film was centred on a father and his daughter, this piece is focused entirely on the sexual behaviour of contemporary teenagers. In seeking to portray that truthfully, Manning Walker gives us a serious but not a solemn film, one which is miles away from recent comedies which are sexually frank but keen to get laughs, the more outrageous the better. The director’s observant eye is not blind to humorous aspects, but her concern is to provide an accurate, non-judgmental view of what many will surely recognise as representative of what teenage experiences are likely to be these days.
Manning Walker gives us no detailed background portrait of these very English adolescents but simply brings us in close to observe them as they party away from any adult influence. The disco music surrounds us as much as it impacts on the girls and the first half of the film hardly develops a story although it does introduce the girls to other visitors with whom they will become involved. In particular there’s another set of three consisting of Badger (Shaun Thomas), the friend he has known for most of his life – that's Paddy (Samuel Bottomley) - and the lesbian Paige (Laura Ambler) who has linked up with them. There's frolicking in the pool, drinking that is usually to excess and always an awareness that these young people are constantly on the lookout sexually. In this latter respect what we see is clearly a world in which, however much the boys want to score (Paddy in particular relishes his prospects), the girls are equally set on getting laid.
For at least half of its length How to Have Sex relies for its appeal on two things: the conviction with which it captures the atmosphere of youngsters holidaying abroad together and the sense that the characters are wholly true to life. To be fully caught up by the film you possibly have to be a teenager who can identify directly and can then respond to the behaviour shown on screen according to your own outlook and experiences. For others, however, the film is open to interpretation in other ways. In the course of the film Tara does lose her virginity to Paddy and whether or not it was sensible is not made that big an issue. In a sense it is portrayed as just part of growing up. But in deft strokes that never feel forced the film does suggest that by indulging themselves in this way both the boys and the girls are acting up to what is expected of them in the eyes of their generation. There is a sense here that fully embracing hedonistic pleasure is itself now a matter of conforming.
In a fine ensemble cast it is Mia McKenna-Bruce who most impresses partly because it is her character, Tara, whose responses make her stand out from the others. Although Badger quite lacks the assurance of Paddy, there is a sense that he would be a better match for Tara and it is he, not Paddy, who shows a concern for what has happened to her. It is these two who show signs of individual potential, something that asks for more than just fun as defined in the 21st century. The film never lectures and each viewer can take from it what they will but, while the night-time pleasures are portrayed at length, the two brief shots of an early morning street, one that is essentially empty but for discarded rubbish from the night before, carry a weight far beyond the length of time for which we see them. Structurally, the naturalism of the piece is such that it feels strange when chronological progression is suddenly ignored by showing a key event belatedly as a flashback, but that's a minor point. How to Have Sex offers a look at life that may interest some more than others but it never feels false and, despite its title, it chooses to do without any excessive indulgence of scenes of sexual intercourse. It's in character that Manning Walker should recognise that as being the right choice for her film.
MANSEL STIMPSON
Cast: Mia McKenna-Bruce, Lara Peake, Enva Lewis, Samuel Bottomley, Shaun Thomas, Laura Ambler, Anna Antoniades, Daisy Jelley, Finlay Vane Last, Eilidh Loan, Elliot Warren.
Dir Molly Manning Walker, Pro Emily Leo, Ivana MacKinnon and Konstantinos Kontovrakis, Screenplay Molly Manning Walker, Ph Nicolas Canniccioni, Pro Des Luke Moran-Morris, Ed Fin Oates, Music James Jacob, Costumes George Buxton, Dialect coach Mary Howland.
Film4/BFI/A Wild Swim/Heretic/MK2 Films/Headgear Films/Umedia-Mubi.
91 mins. UK/Greece. 2023. UK Rel: 3 November 2023. Cert. 15.
