Film review: How to Have Sex navigates the perilous waters of late adolescence and consent

Mia McKenna-Bruce in How to Have Sex

• How to Have Sex
• ★★★★☆
• Cinema release/MUBI

How to Have Sex (15A) begins with a trio of English teens — Tara (Mia McKenna-Bruce), Skye (Lara Peake) and Em (Enva Lewis) — touching down in Malia, Crete, for a week of riotous excess. 

There they meet Badger (Shaun Thomas) and Paddy (Samuel Bottomley), who promise to show them a good time, but as a kaleidoscopic blur of booze-fuelled karaoke, pool parties and clubbing swiftly follows, Tara, who has resolved to lose her virginity, finds herself navigating perilous and uncharted waters.

Written and directed by Molly Manning Walker, How to Have Sex is a sobering account of the expectations and pressures experienced by young women, and particularly when it comes to consent.

Initially an upbeat tale of the hyperactive trio’s embrace of possibility and opportunity, the film takes on a darker tone as Tara’s becomes the dominant story; outwardly bubbly, Tara is quietly conflicted as to who she really wants to be, and whether she’s prepared to do the kinds of things the rest of the world seems to take for granted. 

It’s a superb performance from Mia McKenna-Bruce in her first big role, and she gets strong support from Lara Peake as Tara’s secretly jealous best friend, and from Shaun Thomas playing a tattooed despoiler with a heart of gold. Loud, brash and unexpectedly profound, How to Have Sex establishes Molly Manning Walker as a writer-director to watch.