How to Have Sex

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How to Have Sex

2024

1h 38m

Drama

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

97%

Tomatometer

148 Reviews

63%

Popcornmeter

250+ Ratings

Three British teenage girls go on a rites-of-passage holiday -- drinking, clubbing and hooking up, in what should be the best summer of their lives.

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Critics Consensus

A powerful debut for Molly Manning Walker, How to Have Sex authentically captures female adolescence and friendship with sobering effervescence.

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Wenlei Ma

The Nightly (AU)

03/10/2024

3.5/5

It’s naturalistic, thoughtful, and deeply, deeply uncomfortable because there are familiar behaviours that almost anyone will remember from their own adolescence — and wish they could forget.

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Geordie Gray

The Australian

02/24/2024

3.5/5

This film marks Molly Manning Walker as a director to watch.

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Randy Myers

San Jose Mercury News

02/15/2024

3.5/4

Walker realizes this is risky material but she avoids sensationalism in charting Tara’s treacherous journey, one that requires lead McKenna-Bryce to crawl into tough emotional spaces.

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Maxance Vincent

Movies We Texted About

Jan 6

4.5/5

[Mia McKenna Bruce's] performance slowly devastates you until the final scene at an airport, which releases the tension meticulously built in an incredibly cathartic way.

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Rohan Naahar

The Indian Express

07/28/2025

A disturbing companion piece to Netflix's Adolescence; director Molly Manning Walker's coming-of-age film will be particularly satisfying to anybody who felt that the show was neglectful of the victim's experience.

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Samantha Schuster

Cinéfilo Serial

07/25/2025

4/5

With a great performance by McKenna-Bruce and an interesting perspective from its director, as well as the atmosphere she manages to create, How to Have Sex is an intense, surprising, and necessary coming-of-age story. [Full Review in Spanish]

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Ghederick Eshmont

02/04/2024

The film’s brilliance is evident in its nuance & what’s left unsaid by Tara. Molly Manning-Walker’s debut is exceptional.

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Vitor A

@RT78519417 Jul 21

Poor movie. It's depressing and shows how the 21st-century generation is messed up. But the movie doesn't show anything clear, just a confusing story with not-so-great action.

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Sally T

@RT35755808 May 25

Takes me back to being that age. Superb acting. A serious subject matter but it’s not preachy. Just kinda portrays it for what it is.

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Fleur V

@Fleurtjuh02 May 1

It was unfortunatly so real and even though i felt uncomfortable i also Felt like it is something we all go through as teens and feels so retable. The acting was phenomanal.

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Sharang L

@Scribe187 Apr 18

You realise you are watching something deeper than what you had expected. The lead actress is phenomenal. It's a teen drama but certainly not frivolous.

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florencia L

@Florencel 07/05/2025

It is a concerning movie. Through the eyes of the characters, it's a journey where binge drinking is desired, glorified and normalised. The reflection of the human quality and their lost meaning is reflected in the trashed, vomited and peed on landscape. Empty relationships and objectified sexual intimacy, this is not a rite of passage movie, but a worrying portrait of confused and damaged youth.

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Synopsis

Three British teenage girls go on a rites-of-passage holiday -- drinking, clubbing and hooking up, in what should be the best summer of their lives.

Director: Molly Manning Walker
Producer: Konstantinos Kontovrakis, Emily Leo, Ivana Mackinnon
Screenwriter: Molly Manning Walker, Molly Manning Walker
Distributor: MUBI
Production Co: British Film Institute, Heretic, Film4
Genre: Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Feb 2, 2024, Limited
Box Office (Gross USA): $177.4K
Runtime: 1h 38m
Aspect Ratio: Flat (1.85:1)