Review of Molly Manning Walker’s film “How to Have Sex”

British Molly Manning Walker’s directorial debut How to Have Sex, which won the Un Certain Regard program at the Cannes Film Festival this year, has been released. The seemingly simple story of three young Englishwomen who went on vacation to Crete turns out to be smarter and deeper than its title suggests, says Julia Shagelman.

The question posed in the film’s title is actually not exactly what worries fresh graduates Tara (Mia McKenna-Bruce), Skye (Lara Peake) and Em (Anva Lewis). How – they have a good idea, even Tara, in her and her friends’ opinion, has been a virgin for too long. They are more interested in who and when this will finally happen, and the most opportune moment seems to be when the girls go to Malia for a week to celebrate their graduation from school – a town in Crete, a Mecca of budget holidays for young Britons from poor families.

The vacation begins with a dawn swim in the cold sea and a small victory – thanks to Tara’s ability to chat with anyone, the friends get a room in a cheap hotel with a view of the pool. True, the first night out in the city brings complete disappointment: no interesting acquaintances, and an exemplary excellent student Em, the only one of the trio who has prospects of entering a university and breaking out of a provincial hole (we learn about this from chatter in the breaks between applying makeup, choosing dresses and discussing sexual hopes), and spends almost the entire night bent over the toilet.

But in the morning, on the next balcony, a guy (Sean Thomas) is discovered, although he introduces himself with the stupid nickname Badger, but he is handsome and has a sense of humor. He is relaxing right there with his friends – the even cuter Paddy (Samuel Bottomley) and the tomboyish Paige (Laura Ambler). Two companies merge and the six of them begin to go to all the discos, pool parties with idiotic competitions and other amusements. Tara likes Badger, although the more experienced Skye calls him a clown, but both of them are too timid to take the first step, and the initiative is seized by Paddy, who is not used to wasting time on long thoughts.

There seems to be nothing new in the film, which has some intonation echoes of last year’s film, also a debut and also a favorite of film critics, “My Sunshine” by Charlotte Wells. The usual points of teenage initiation: drinking to the point of complete insanity, hungover mornings, first sex – awkward, unpleasant and not with the one you really wanted. The emotional response here is not what is shown, but how. How intimately Nicholas Canniccioni’s camera gets close to the characters (Walker, herself a former cameraman, frames frames that seem sloppy and rough with impeccable precision), how Tara’s face changes under the mask of heavy makeup and becomes confused and completely childish.

An experience that should have been joyful and liberating for her turns out to be painful – but neither she, nor her friends, nor Badger, who strives but fails to show tenderness and care, have the emotional and intellectual tools to cope with it. They don’t know how to talk about this or even what exactly to feel, again hiding behind drinks, stupid jokes and the exchange of meaningless remarks. But these guys still have someone who really loves them – a director who brings them into the light and promises that maybe everything will still be good.