'How to Have Sex' Review: Teen Girls' Summer Vacation Takes a Devastating Turn in a Striking Debut Feature
Played by Mia McKenna-Bruce , Lara Peake , and newcomer Enva Lewis , the trio fulfills the “get wasted” part with expert precision and is seen falling comically out of clubs and bars, vomiting in the streets and staggering back to their hotel room, only to kick it off all again the next day. Alongside the cast’s clear ability to appear heavily intoxicated in front of the camera, there was another method deployed, one perhaps not taught in drama school. “We would also do this thing — which we’ve got in all the outtakes — where before every scene that they’re drunk, we’d spin them around on their feet,” says Walker. As McKenna-Bruce jokes: “Yeah, I think that’s a bit of Stanislavski.”
The wild partying scenes — actually shot in Malia — will likely divide audiences between those who want to be there with them having spirits poured down their throats and those who would prefer to be literally anywhere else. Large parts were inspired by Walker’s own experiences, with her admitting to going on many similar holidays as a teenager. “I was a very different person,” she says. “Fake hair, fake eyelashes, covered in fake tan.
For all the chaos, there’s the looming sense that there’s something unpleasant up ahead. When it eventually arrives, the story takes a darker turn, one dealing with sexual consent and exactly what that means. Is saying “yes” enough? What happens if someone’s clearly not having a good time? “We wanted to delicately talk about the gray area of assault,” Walker says.