This intimate British coming-of-age film is this year's Aftersun
Mark Kermode reviews How to Have Sex – Kermode and Mayo's Take
The title How to Have Sex might suggest a raunchy, sassy teen sex comedy, somewhere between American Pie, The Inbetweeners and a Carry On film. Instead, this is a delicately sensitive and honest drama about sex, booze, consent, friendship, the painful precipice of adulthood and the secret history of a messy weekend. Written and directed by Molly Manning Walker, it's the latest in a new line of excellent, heartfelt directorial debuts by a new generation of British female filmmakers, including Charlotte Regan's Scrapper, Georgia Oakley's Blue Jean, and most famously, Charlotte Well's gorgeous, melancholy. Aftersun, which received an Oscar nomination for All of Us Strangers co-star Paul Mescal.
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Like Aftersun, How to Have Sex locates its drama in the strange, floating reality of a cheap Mediterranean package tour: a world of flimsy hotel rooms, laid-back beach days, raucous pool parties and karaoke in neon-lit liquor stores. Both films have a loving eye for this traditional escape for working-class Britons, while being candid about its ugly side.
