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How to Have Sex Is a Journey Through Euphoria and Dread


Directed by Molly Manning Walker, the film’s elliptical style has the quality of a dark, fragile memory.

Seen mostly through the eyes of recent British high-school graduate Tara (Mia McKenna-Bruce) who has just arrived in Greece for a few days of post-exams summer fun alongside her two friends, Em (Enva Lewis) and Skye (Lara Peake), the film has all the trappings of a coming-of-age story, but it’s too drifty and imprecise for that. Manning Walker, a cinematographer making her feature directing debut, heaps on the atmosphere — vivid colors, throbbing music, flashing lights, shouting and dancing and gyrating and vomiting — and lets her star’s face do most of the emotional and narrative work. She has a promising early connection with Badger (Shaun Thomas), a bleached-blond boy with a truly dire “Hot Legends” neck tattoo, who makes a bold but sweet overture to her from the balcony next door: “Oi, smoke show!” he yells, with a laugh.

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