Popular reviews

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  Review by AmandaTheJedi ★★★½

  Screening was followed up by me and a few girls getting into it with a man who felt the need to debate the logistics of sexual assault on someone who was asleep

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  Review by hannah loveridge ★★★★½ 3

  After this film ended , I was in tears and I looked around me and saw every other woman under the age of about 30 was crying too. 
  It’s frustrating to see some of the early reviews from men who claim it doesn’t start a conversation because you could feel in the room that for many women (who likely know all of these characters in their lives), it did. 
  Films like this remind of how starved I am of female filmmakers sometimes, so glad I braved the rain for this one.

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  Review by davidehrlich ★★★

  Less an instructional film than a sloppy-drunk after school special about a girls trip gone wrong, Molly Manning Walker’s “How to Have Sex” folds a nuanced look at the pressures and permissiveness of teenage friendships inside a frustratingly didactic story about the vagaries of consent. Needless to say, that’s not the movie Walker’s three 16-year-old heroines were hoping to be in when they arrived on the Greek island of Malia for the kind of boot-and-rally bacchanalia that British kids have turned into a rite of passage. They signed up for “Spring Breakers,” only to find themselves stranded in something closer to an episode of “Skins.”

  It’s not their fault. Best friends Tara, Em, and Skye have no way of knowing…

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  Review by Ella Kemp ★★★★½

  GLORIOUS on a big screen. Thought about myself 10 years ago exactly having that same holiday and everyone watching it who has. Want this to travel so far!

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  Review by Brother Bro ★★★★ 1

  This was so uncontrived, realistic, and unimposing. If you want to experience spring break from the POV of a young girl with all the nerves and excitement and horrors therein, this is your trip. Would show this to my son or daughter when I have one. Then I’m gonna chain my daughter to the couch for spring break.

  Great sound design, direction, and lead performance from Mia McKenna-Bruce

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  Review by Ana V ★★★★½

  “It’s fine.”
  “No, it’s not.”

  It has been a long time since I was as moved by a movie as I was with this one, and as soon as I finished it I immediately reached out to many of the women in my life urging them to watch it.

  How to Have Sex is a raw portrayal of the vulnerability that comes with being a teenage girl, when you are at an age where everyone around you pressures you to act like the adult you aren’t yet.

  Though it pains me to admit it, I think it is almost impossible for any woman to not relate to this heartbreakingly realistic coming-of-age. To the insecurity we desperately tried to hide, the…

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  Review by Ella Kemp

  I love this movie and these girls loads and loads

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  Review by Maia ★★★★

  This is one of the most brutally accurate depictions of a girl's sexual-coming-of-age I've ever watched. How to Have Sex is atmospheric, horrifically relatable, and riveting from beginning to end. I love the way Molly Manning Walker imbues so much personality and joy into our main character, Tara (depicted immaculately by Mia McKenna-Bruce) - I really came to love her like a friend by the end of the film. The first half of How to Have Sex is so enjoyable and funny, that its emotional beats hit that much harder. Its exploration of teenage rebellion, the lines of consent, and peer pressure could easily dip into the territory of an after-school special, but Walker handles it with such grace, understanding, and style that you're able to truly immerse yourself without being lectured to. All around wonderful, brutal film.

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  Review by Sergio Muñoz Esquer ★★★★ 3

  warning: this is not a tutorial on how to have sex:(

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  Review by ash ★★★½

  MIFF2023 Film 12

  Everyone has a story of that one guy who was a little too handsy, a little too pushy, misread your discomfort for pleasure etc. What’s almost as bad as the experience itself is the second guessing that inevitably comes after it. Was I a bit too drunk? Was I actually giving consent? Was I just saying yes to get him off my case? Why is he ignoring me now? Did I do something wrong? All of this happens in this film, but it never announces itself in the way one might expect it to, which makes it all the more unexpected and powerful. It’s a film I definitely think would benefit from a rewatch since it subverted my expectations in a way that initially left me a bit cold, but it’s such a claustrophobic experience that I doubt I will want to do so any time soon. McKenna-Bruce is a fucking powerhouse.

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  Review by The Oscar Expert ★★★★½ 1

  How To Have Sex is GREAT. Molly Manning Walker’s debut is powerful and deeply insightful. The performances are authentic and it’s beautifully filmed.

  Full review

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  Review by Lynn Betts ★★★½

  TIFF #6

  HOW TO HAVE SEX is a misleading title - I thought it was either a sex comedy or a liberal coming-of-age / sexual awakening film... It's definitely not.

  The vibes of a rinse-and-repeat party vacation are on point, with some sketchy situations making up for the tension.

  It's no doubt meant to be a conversation starter but I feel its issue has been discussed privately and is well known within the world of women... Just largely ignored.