How to Have Sex is a tale that’s, if not quite as old as time, certainly a familiar one to anyone who’s ever been a teenager.
Three 16-year-old English girls – Tara, Skye and Em – are off on their first solo holiday, away from their families.
Which means a Mediterranean resort - in this case on Crete – loud music, more booze than is good for them, and if they’re lucky, plenty of holiday hookups.
How To Have Sex Photo: Supplied
There may be pursed lips among some people outside that demographic. But I think most of us have memories of when we were young, dumb and off the leash for the first time.
On day one, the girls are already chorusing “Best holiday ever!”
Skye seems the most worldly, Em is the most book-smart, while Tara is the most engaging – fun, boisterous, up for anything, a bit naïve.
Tara’s not particularly well-hidden secret is she’s still a virgin, and plans to rectify matters on this holiday.
And in many ways that’s almost all the story.
How to Have Sex was written and directed by a young cinematographer called Molly Manning Walker – she shot a little charmer called Scrapper last year - and the subject is one she’s clearly pretty familiar with.
Walker doesn’t fall into the trap of making her young leads better or smarter than they need to be.
The three girls meet a trio staying next door – two guys, Badger and Paddy, and their platonic female buddy Paige – a nice touch. But we have no more idea what to expect from them than Tara, Skye and Em do.
There’s every indication that it could all go terribly wrong – particularly in a resort full of extremely drunk, British teenagers.
When Tara – adventurous but younger and smaller than her friends - gets separated at a sleazy nightclub, we can only suspect the worst.
If ever there was a movie designed to bring out the worried parent in an older audience, it’s How to Have Sex. Honestly Tara, have you no idea what can happen at places like this? [Have you read that guy’s tattoos? Did you ask what they put in that drink?]
The obvious response is “Calm down, grandpa. We’re teenagers, we’ll be fine.” Which at most of these places is true. Mostly…
But, as the title suggests, if you want to learn How to Have Sex, I’m afraid you’re going to have to meet someone.
And with all those flashing lights, deafening beats and drunken strangers, telling Mr Right from Mr Very Wrong is pretty much the luck of the draw.
The two reasons why How to Have Sex is rather better than you might think are star Mia McKenna-Bruce whose expressive face is her fortune, and writer director Molly Manning Walker. Everyone has three names these days.
Walker’s script seems so true, it feels like a young girl’s journal. For all I know it is. It’s all in the detail, and her direction is spot-on too.
Her camera background means she knows where to look of course. But the performances she brings out of her young actors are something special too.
