How to Have Sex: Awareness of Young #MeToo

Release Date：Feb/2/2024

Genre：Drama

Director：Molly Manning Walker

Cast：Mia McKenna-Bruce、Lara Peake、Enva Lewis、Samuel Bottomley、Shaun Thomas

Viola's Rating：8.1

When it comes to sex, most people tend to become more conservative, not to mention discussing it in their debut feature film. British cinematographer and director Molly Manning Walker successfully addressed the issue in How to Have Sex and won Un Certain Regard Award at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival. The film was released limited in the US on Feb 2, 2024.

Adapted from the director’s own experience, How to Have Sex tells the story of three British teenage girls going on a coming-of-age holiday after the big exam they take. In this summer which should be the best of their lives, there is clubbing, drinking and of course, hooking up. 

Leading actress Mia McKenna-Bruce started her career at an early age as a dancer. With a baby face and height of only 4ft 11, McKenna-Bruce could easily play a high school student and be plausible. In How to Have Sex, her character Tara, changes from a joyful, hilarious and outgoing girl and the life of the party to an absent-minded, hurt and sad one. The camera more than once stopped on Tara’s eyes and face to show all the complicated emotions she can’t express through words.

How to Have Sex examines British youth culture, consensual sex, date rape and sexual pressure among peers. Everyone’s going to earn their first sexual experience in some way, but when not having the experience becomes something to make jokes about, teens usually feel the urge to “hurry up” without really considering their own feelings towards it. Also, whether one means yes when they utter yes is something worth paying attention to. Sexual assaults in any form are not something easy to bring up, so it’s even more critical for the young generation to ponder on the flick.

Besides sex, How to Have Sex also touches upon other identification problems a British teen might face. While Tara’s besties are talking about their future schools and what kind of jobs they want to do in the future, she doesn’t even know whether she’ll pass the exam or not, the sense of the unknown is dreadful. It’s not rare for teenagers to be perplexed about their futures, but having the needed support is very important.

How to Have Sex also demonstrates the various feelings different friends could provide us. When the protagonists try to get drunk and get laid each night, it’s easy to imagine that one day they won’t go back to their hotel rooms as a group. However, when that finally happens, audiences see some friends show worry and others sneer and believe that their friends must be having fun on their own, no wonder Tara would feel left out.

From the plot synopsis and title, one may think How to Have Sex is just another young adult motion picture. Well, that’s not wrong, but it discusses topics way deeper than regular young adult movies
and definitely deserves Un Certain Regard Award.

Picture Credit: Proview Enterprises Inc.