How to Have Sex
Directed by Molly Manning Walker
Where to Watch How to Have Sex
- Kevin WardJuly 2, 2025How to Have Sex perfectly captures the chaotic mess you get when you mix a bunch of teens on the absolute brink of adulthood, their wildest expectations, mountains of insecurities……….and a sh🤩 ton of alcohol. We follow Mia McKenna-Bruce as the wide-eyed and vulnerable Tara, and her two classmates on holiday on a Greek Isle just after exams but before university. The trip in many ways represents a rite of passage, but the film paints an all too realistic portrait of how that permanent haze of alcohol and insecurity can easily veer things out of control. There’s a great deal of nuance in the relationships here that feels completely authentic. Sometimes, we establish trust, comeraderie and intimacy with complete strangers, and other times we can be insecure and adversarial with even our closest friends. I think that’s the part that resonated with me the most. Yes, there’s a cautionary tale about consent, but I think it’s a far more cautionary tale about the importance of who you choose to have in your corner. Mia gives a star turning performance in Molly Manning Walker’s impressive debut. Highly recommend.
- rg9400November 1, 2024Awash 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.
How to Have Sex Trivia
How to Have Sex was released on November 2, 2023.
How to Have Sex was directed by Molly Manning Walker.
How to Have Sex has a runtime of 1h 31m.
How to Have Sex was produced by Konstantinos Kontovrakis, Emily Leo, Ivana MacKinnon.
After her final exams, Tara heads to Crete with her friends Em and Skye for a party vacation. There, Tara hopes to finally lose her virginity. She soon thinks she's found "the one" in Badger, but the two don't end up together. When Tara starts seeing Badger's friend Paddy instead, suddenly nothing feels right anymore.
The key characters in How to Have Sex are Tara (Mia McKenna-Bruce), Skye (Lara Peake), Em (Enva Lewis).
How to Have Sex is rated Not Rated.
How to Have Sex is a Drama film.
How to Have Sex has an audience rating of 6.3 out of 10.
How to Have Sex has made $1.2M at the box office.