Courtney Howard // Film Critic
HOW TO HAVE SEX
Directed by: Molly Manning Walker
Starring: Mia McKenna-Bruce, Lara Peake, Enva Lewis, Shaun Thomas, Samuel Bottomley, Laura Ambler
If I could ever reach through the screen and give a character reassuring comfort, it would be bestowed on the heroine at the center of HOW TO HAVE SEX. The peaks and valleys she traverses make for harrowing, heartrending travails. Writer-director Molly Manning Walker captures a fiercely feminine, poignant portrait of a young woman’s loss of innocence over a weekend getaway with her best friends. Bikinis, booze, brine and EDM beats place us in the all-nighter circus happening in the foreground with co-eds frolicking in the sand and salt air. However, it’s an internalized backdrop where much of the action takes place, rooting our beloved protagonist in an emotionally evocative and provocative journey.
Petite, raspy-voiced Tara (Mia McKenna-Bruce) is vacationing on Crete with her besties Em (Enva Lewis) and Skye (Lara Peake), hoping to blow off steam from intensive school exams. She’s the kind of steadfast pal who would (and does!) give the shirt off her back to someone in need. This last hurrah before adulthood has led the trio to a poolside room – an upgrade smooth-talking Tara was able to score – where they can bed down after all-hours ragers on and off property. Their goals for this trip are simple: have fun, get drunk and laid – the last of which Tara has no experience in since she’s a virgin.
At first, Tara’s a little shy and overwhelmed assessing the sea of bodies, floating like a pungently chlorinated soup of horny strangers, conversing in the motel pool. But she slowly acclimates to the hormonally-charged atmosphere, engaging in a flirty relationship with balcony neighbor Badger (Shaun Thomas),who’s rooming with Paddy (Samuel Bottomley) and Paige (Laura Ambler). And, on the insistence of Skye, they make plans to pre-game and party. The sextuplet’s night on the town, drinking heavily and drifting through neon nightclubs and sandy streets, leads Tara to enlightening insights about herself and others. Yet these revelations about how our culture treats sex, sex appeal and sexual agency don’t manifest easily for Tara (nor should they) and her travels illuminate an unexpected reality.
Walker is continually tracking our pint-sized protagonist’s mindset right from the start, meeting her in a proto-baptism in the freezing ocean waters. Her transformative arc is a formidable, fertile one, informed by handheld camera movement, cinematographer Nicolas Canniccioni’s almost imperceptible shifts in color palettes, and editor Fin Oates’ crisp cuts. Tara’s stereotypical “walk of shame” is composed as if she’s last survivor of a post-apocalyptic horror, strolling down the island’s now desolate main strip strewn with trash, set to the sound of soft waves and wind chimes. We can also chart these characters’ psyches through George Buxton’s costume designs, from Tara initially cloaking herself in soft girlish pastels to wearing aggressive neon colors on her unforgettable evening, ending on a juxtaposition of white and gray garb.
Without being moralistic or offering a hint of prudish pearl-clutching judgement, Walker examines the ephemeral phenomena of holiday frivolity, with its commodification of hookups and exhibitionistic “ice-breaker” activities that stimulate and force sex upon voyeurs both willing and reticent. Badger’s public, passive-yet-participatory gameplay seems the ringing example of a crass underbelly of these festivities. Consent and peer pressure, as well, are other topics handled with great care and meaningful sentiment.
The title itself, echoing an instructional manual, is of course ironic as what’s shown isn’t anything a handbook could ever teach. Walker’s picture is more of a sobering cautionary tale for virginal spring breakers. Her artistic vision connects through empathy and hits like a punch in the gut.
Grade: 4.5 out of 5
HOW TO HAVE SEX opens in theaters on February 2.
