How to Have Sex
Written and Directed by Molly Manning Walker
Starring Mia McKenna-Bruce, Lara Peake, Shaun Thomas, Samuel Bottomley
Unrated
Runtime: 91 minutes
Streaming April on Mubi

by Tori Potenza, Staff Writer

Content Warning: Sexual Assualt, Rape

When you become a teenager, you feel like you are old enough for so many adult experiences, often ones you do not fully understand the gravity of. Many of us are socialized in cultures where we are not educated on these experiences, particularly when it comes to sex education, which unfortunately means that young people, especially young girls are put into dangerous situations without a map or compass to navigate their way out of. I often look back on my teen years and realize that–while I thought I was an adult ready for everything the adult world had to offer–I was really just a babe in the woods. This is the terrifying domain of burgeoning womanhood that writer and director Molly Manning Walker grapples with in her beautifully disturbing feature debut, How to Have Sex.

Tara (Mia McKenna-Bruce) is a 16 year old who goes on a summer vacation to Greece with her two best friends. Tara is a virgin and hopes that she will be able to have her first sexual experience with a cute boy. The trio spends their time dressing in scantily clad attire, going to clubs, drinking, hanging by the pool, and hooking up with strangers. All in the hopes of making some incredible memories before going back home to deal with exams and their futures. They all hope to make this a summer they will never forget.

Walker creates a world that is shockingly easy to spend time in. Even if you did not go partying on spring break, you may have grown up with MTV and other channels that frequently showed young people getting drunk and silly on television as they partied in various tropical locations. So there is something very familiar about the world even if you did not share these exact experiences. It is very easy to spend time with Tara and her friends, the unabashed love and optimism for their futures, the fearlessness they project, the drama that seemed all too important when we were their ages. They all feel fully flushed out and lived in and are reminders of people we may have been friends with, gone to school with, or even been when we were their age.

The world she creates is also gorgeous, with incredible filmmaking and cinematography throughout. It is a fascinating experience to grapple with the gorgeous filmmaking, the fun summertime vibes, and the terrifying realities of being a girl in a world of adults. Yet, somehow, this movie all handles it very well. For such mature and, at times, hard to watch subject matter, there is still an optimism about the future and friendship. It is a tough tight rope to navigate, but somehow the film handles it all well while also feeling very grounded in the realities of womanhood.

McKenna-Bruce gives an outstanding lead performance as Tara. Tara is often able to mask her innocent and uncertain nature by being hyperactive and fun. She is able to maneuver in the world but also realizes that she might be in over her head once she is confronted by adulthood. It is so impressive to watch a young actor hold so many conflicting emotions. The way she pushes down her feelings and acts like everything is fine is often heartbreaking but also relatable, as it is something many girls are socialized to do.

There is so much that is unsaid in this film. That is shown with expert camera angles and filmmaking, or with looks and body language of the actors. The writing is also so impressive because it does feel natural the way that these young people all interact with one another. There is magic here, in how it captures sexual exploration, party culture, and the socialization of girls and boys. Oftentimes, the most disturbing parts of the film are difficult because they do feel like the unspoken parts of our teenage years that we either forget or turn into a story to push away the pain that was there.

This film is a reminder of the beautiful carefree nature of our teenage years which are so short and fleeting. At the same time, it is a reminder how we fail young girls with how little knowledge we provide them and with how we socialize boys. Yet, by the end, Walker gives us hope that with more knowledge, vulnerability, and friendship, maybe we can find a better way forward.