How to Have Sex
Release poster
Directed byMolly Manning Walker
Written byMolly Manning Walker
Produced by
  • Emily Leo
  • Ivana MacKinnon
  • Konstantinos Kontovrakis
Starring
CinematographyNicolas Canniccioni
Edited byFin Oates
Music byJames Jacob
Production
companies
  • Film4
  • BFI
  • MK2 Films
  • Head Gear Films
  • Metrol Technology
  • Umedia
  • Wild Swim Films
  • Heretic
Distributed byMubi
Release dates
  • 19 May 2023 (2023-05-19) (Cannes)
  • 3 November 2023 (2023-11-03) (United Kingdom)
Running time
91 minutes[1]
Countries
LanguageEnglish
Box office$921,933[3]

How to Have Sex is a 2023 coming-of-age drama film written and directed by Molly Manning Walker, in her directorial debut. The film stars Mia McKenna-Bruce, Lara Peake, Samuel Bottomley, Shaun Thomas, Enva Lewis and Laura Ambler.

How to Have Sex had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival on 19 May 2023, where it won the Un Certain Regard prize, and was released in the United Kingdom on 3 November 2023 by Mubi.

Plot

Sixteen-year-old best friends Tara, Em, and Skye head to the party resort of Malia on the Greek island of Crete for a rites-of-passage holiday. While Em will be off to college in the autumn, Tara and Skye are less certain of their futures. The girls all look forward to drinking, clubbing, and hooking up in what should be the best summer of their lives. Tara, the only virgin in the trio, feels pressure to match the sexual experiences of her friends.

While on her hotel room balcony, a neighbouring guest, Badger, flirts with Tara, who reciprocates his advances. He and one of his roommates, Paddy, invite Tara and her group to spend the night partying with his friends. Skye, who is secretly attracted to Badger, openly teases Tara about her lack of experience despite Tara's embarrassment, and encourages her to lose her virginity to Paddy, while Em intends to hook up with one of Badger's female friends. Tara grows closer to Badger, but is disheartened when she witnesses him volunteer to go onstage at an outdoor club to have multiple strangers perform sex acts on him as part of a game, and she instead leaves with Paddy. Paddy takes her to the beach and pressures her for sex, which she reluctantly agrees to.

The next morning, Em and Badger become concerned when Tara is missing, having not returned to the hotel. However, Tara reappears, and reveals that she spent the night disillusioned and groggy after sex with Paddy and partied with kind strangers who let her spend the night at their villa. Tara seems embarrassed at her sexual experience and only privately reveals it to Em, and attempts to avoid admitting it to Skye. Tara also learns that she failed her exams and will have to retake them, further upsetting her. Paddy treats Tara poorly and distantly around their friends, but Badger, who learned of Tara's virginity through Skye (who confided in him in an attempt to humiliate Tara), takes care of her when she grows distant from the group and declines their invitation to skinny-dip at the beach. He takes her back to the hotel, and when she falls asleep, he puts her to bed and departs.

In the morning, the final day of the trip, Tara attempts to sleep in, but Paddy enters the room and makes romantic overtures, which Badger witnesses and is heartbroken by. When they are alone, Paddy tries to initiate sex with Tara again despite her pleas to stop, but he is interrupted during intercourse by Tara's friends joining them in the bedroom. In the afternoon, the friends return to the airport. When alone with Em, Tara privately admits that Paddy raped her by repeatedly having sex with her while she was asleep. Em is sympathetic, but asserts that Tara should have said something during the trip. Em promises her that they will overcome their troubles, and they board the plane back to England.

Cast

Production

In October 2022, Mia McKenna-Bruce, Lara Peake, Shaun Thomas, Samuel Bottomley, Enva Lewis and Laura Ambler joined the cast of the film, with Molly Manning Walker directing from a screenplay she wrote.[4] The film was shot on location in Malia, Crete, over two months from September 2021.[5]

Release

How to Have Sex had its world premiere in the Un Certain Regard section of the Cannes Film Festival on 19 May 2023,[6][7] Prior to its debut, Mubi acquired distribution rights to the film for North America, United Kingdom, Ireland, Italy, Latin America, Turkey and Benelux.[8] It was also invited screened in the Flash Forward section of the 28th Busan International Film Festival on 7 October 2023.[9]

The film is set to be released theatrically in the United States on 2 February 2024.[10]

Reception

Critical response

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 95% of 62 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.7/10. The website's consensus reads: "A powerful debut for Molly Manning Walker, How to Have Sex authentically captures female adolescence and friendship with sobering effervescence."[11] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 80 out of 100, based on 19 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[12]

Manning Walker's direction and McKenna-Bruce's performance received unanimous acclaim.[13] The Guardian's Wendy Ide wrote, "Walker's handling of the film's tonal range is remarkably assured: the picture is skittish, spirited and very funny, and at the same time troubling and bruisingly sad."[14] Guy Lodge of Variety described McKenna-Bruce's performance as "star-making", adding the film "lays out the minefield of sexual education and consent for a post-#MeToo generation, with a precision to its ambiguities that will draw gasps from its characters' contemporaries and elders alike".[15] Clarisse Loughrey of The Independent commented, "Described by its director as loosely autobiographical, How to Have Sex is built around a subtle but devastating rug-pull that exposes the culture of sex and consent in the same way F Scott Fitzgerald put the Jazz Age on blast in The Great Gatsby."[16]

Accolades

Award / Film Festival Date of ceremony Category Recipient(s) Result Ref.
Cannes Film Festival 27 May 2023 Un Certain Regard Molly Manning Walker Won [17]
Queer Palm Nominated [18]
Caméra d'Or Nominated
Jerusalem Film Festival 23 July 2023 The Nechama Rivilin Award for Best International Film How to Have Sex Nominated [19]
Melbourne International Film Festival 19 August 2023 Bright Horizons Award Nominated [20]
Zurich Film Festival 8 October 2023 Best International Feature Film Nominated [21]
Athens International Film Festival 9 October 2023 Best Picture Won [22]
Valladolid International Film Festival 28 October 2023 Golden Spike Nominated [23]
Young Jury Prize Official Section Won [24]
Best New Director Molly Manning Walker Won
British Independent Film Awards 3 December 2023 Best Casting Isabella Odoffin Won [25][26]
Best Costume Design George Buxton Nominated
Best Make-Up & Hair Design Natasha Lawes Nominated
Best Sound Steve Fanagan Nominated
Best British Independent Film Molly Manning Walker, Ivana MacKinnon, Emily Leo, and Konstantinos Kontovrakis Nominated
Best Director Molly Manning Walker Nominated
Best Lead Performance Mia McKenna-Bruce Won
Breakthrough Performance Nominated
Best Supporting Performance Samuel Bottomley Nominated
Shaun Thomas Won
Douglas Hickox Award (Best Debut Director) Molly Manning Walker Nominated
Best Debut Screenwriter Nominated
Best Screenplay Nominated
European Film Awards 9 December 2023 Best Actress Mia McKenna-Bruce Nominated [27]
European Discovery Molly Manning Walker Won
University Film Award How to Have Sex Nominated [28]

References

  1. ↑ "How To Have Sex (15)". BBFC. 23 October 2023. Retrieved 23 October 2023.
  2. 1 2 3 "How to Have Sex". Cineuropa. Retrieved 2 January 2024.
  3. ↑ "How to Have Sex (2023)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 11 January 2024.
  4. ↑ Wiseman, Andreas (21 October 2022). "MK2 Boards Film4 & BFI-Backed 'How To Have Sex'; 'Vampire Academy' & 'Persuasion' Actress Mia McKenna-Bruce Among Cast". Deadline Hollywood.
  5. ↑ Segalov, Michael (27 October 2023). "'I sobbed my heart out': How to Have Sex star Mia McKenna-Bruce on consent, girlhood, and talking to teens". The Guardian. Retrieved 2 January 2024.
  6. ↑ "The Screenings Guide of the 76th Festival de Cannes" (PDF). Cannes Film Festival. 10 May 2023. p. 7. Archived (PDF) from the original on 11 May 2023. Retrieved 14 May 2023.
  7. ↑ Tartaglione, Nancy (13 April 2023). "Cannes Film Festival Lineup: Haynes, Anderson, Glazer, Kore-Eda, Wenders In Competition – Full List". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved 27 April 2023.
  8. ↑ Ntim, Zac (27 April 2023). "Mubi Picks Up Molly Manning Walker's Feature 'How To Have Sex' Ahead Of Cannes Debut". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved 27 April 2023.
  9. ↑ "The 28th Busan International Film Festival: Selection List". Busan International Film Festival. 5 September 2023. Retrieved 12 September 2023.
  10. ↑ Erbland, Kate (1 January 2024). "The 16 Best Films of 2024 We've Already Seen". IndieWire. Retrieved 10 January 2024.
  11. ↑ "How to Have Sex". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved 3 January 2024.
  12. ↑ "How to Have Sex". Metacritic. Fandom, Inc. Retrieved 3 January 2024.
  13. ↑ Feldberg, Isaac (31 May 2023). "Cannes 2023: How to Have Sex, Los Delincuentes, The New Boy". RogerEbert.com. Retrieved 15 November 2023.
  14. ↑ Ide, Wendy (5 November 2023). "How to Have Sex review – two stars are born with this searing study of consent". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 November 2023.
  15. ↑ Lodge, Guy (20 May 2023). "'How to Have Sex' Review: Molly Manning Walker's Debut Makes a Hot Neon Splash Before Turning Chillingly Dark". Variety. Retrieved 15 November 2023.
  16. ↑ Loughrey, Clarisse (6 November 2023). "How to Have Sex review: Teens go wild in a stark, devastating coming-of-ager". The Independent. Retrieved 15 November 2023.
  17. ↑ Goodfellow, Melanie (26 May 2023). "Molly Manning Walker's 'How To Have Sex' Wins Top Prize In Cannes Un Certain Regard; Jury President John C. Reilly Serenades Audience After Director Arrives Late For Ceremony". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved 21 July 2023.
  18. ↑ Ques, Florian (4 May 2023). "Festival de Cannes : voici les films en lice pour la Queer Palm 2023". Têtu (in French). Retrieved 16 May 2023.
  19. ↑ Brown, Hannah (28 June 2023). "2023 Jerusalem Film Fest announces international movie lineup". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 11 August 2023.
  20. ↑ Ward, Sarah (20 August 2023). "Senegalese-French Love Story 'Banel & Adama' Just Won MIFF's 2023 Bright Horizons Award". Concrete Playground. Retrieved 9 September 2023.
  21. ↑ Dams, Tim (14 September 2023). "Zurich Film Festival unveils full 2023 line-up; Todd Haynes and Jessica Chastain to be honoured". Screen Daily. Retrieved 9 October 2023.
  22. ↑ Grivas, Alexis (11 October 2023). "Molly Manning Walker's 'How to Have Sex' triumphs at Athens". Screen Daily. Retrieved 12 October 2023.
  23. ↑ Rivera, Alfonso (19 October 2023). "Valladolid's Seminci celebrates its first edition directed by José Luis Cienfuegos". Cineuropa. Retrieved 29 October 2023.
  24. ↑ Hopewell, John; Sandoval, Pablo (29 October 2023). "Valladolid: 'The Permanent Picture,' 'The Old Oak' Win Big as the Spanish Festival's Reboot Wins Applause". Variety. Retrieved 29 October 2023.
  25. ↑ Ramachandran, Naman (2 November 2023). "Jodie Comer, Paul Mescal Score Nods as 'Rye Lane,' 'Scrapper', 'All of Us Strangers' Lead British Independent Film Awards Nominations". Variety. Retrieved 2 November 2023.
  26. ↑ Dalton, Ben (20 November 2023). "'All Of Us Strangers' leads Bifa 2023 craft winners with three awards; 'Femme', 'The Kitchen' take two each". Screen Daily. Retrieved 20 November 2023.
  27. ↑ Goodfellow, Melanie (7 November 2023). "'Fallen Leaves' & 'The Zone Of Interest' Top European Film Award Nominations In Main Categories". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved 7 November 2023.
  28. ↑ "These are the five nominated films for European University Film Award (EUFA)". European University Film Award. 5 October 2023. Retrieved 2 January 2024.
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