Sixteen-year-old Tara has one goal on vacation, but nothing is simple in the British director's touching debut film.
Drama
How to Have Sex, directed by Molly Manning Walker. 91 min. K16.
★★★★
Crete Malia is a beach resort that the travel agency advertises with a lively nightlife and affordable hotels. He knows what it means.
British director Molly Manning Walker has made his first film in Malia and created an incredible party hell there, where no one over 25 can fit in. Young people go wild and drink alcohol all day long.
Three 16-year-old friends are celebrating there with others, of whom Tara has made it clear that she plans to get rid of her virginity during the vacation. You wouldn't think the task would be difficult.
How to Have Sex however, it is not a teen comedy, although the partying is done so convincingly that it makes you laugh. It describes the life-changing phase of teenage girls in a painfully realistic way. Tara's friends Skye and Em are already a step ahead, but the girls are united by uncertainty about the future, adulthood, and their own sexuality.
From next door suitable friends can be found on the balcony, and tensions develop quickly. Em takes an interest in a girl, Paige, Skye sets her sights on a more handsome boy, Paddy, and Tara falls for the two of them. Badger is cool, but Paddy is more interested in Tara than Skye.
Complicated! In the end, the pattern develops in an unpleasant direction, and Tara's mind darkens. Let's step into the gray area of consent.
After the change in mood, the film stagnates for an unnecessarily long time, stomping in its places into gloom, but there is a lift again at the end.
Director-writer Manning Walker lives in the world of thought of both girls and boys. The boys are also plagued by insecurity and role expectations, and the young people stand out in the film as their own individuals.
Also friendships have their pain points. Skye falls into envy and jealousy, distrust rubs between the boys.
Right in the scene of the beginning, the so-called is passed The Bechdel Test: the three girls aren't talking about boys but about their career plans, and the final grades at school play a key role in the course of events anyway. Girls are like that, nowadays also in movies.
How to Have Sex is a film that deserves to be mentioned separately by the name of the actor. Isabella Odoffin was nominated for a Bafta award for his work.
His discovery, the actor in the lead role, was also nominated Mia McKenna-Bruce, which makes me want to use the word packaging. He cares about both Tara's uncontrollable energy and sensitivity.
Screenplay by Molly Manning Walker. Starring Mia McKenna-Bruce, Lara Peake, Samuel Bottomley, Shaun Thomas, Enva Lewis, Laura Ambler.
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