B Movies Blog

Hello, Movie Mavens! Welcome back to the B Movies Blog. Today, we’re popping Molly Manning Walker’s How to Have Sex into the ol’ VCR. 

CW/TW: r*pe, SA, attempted SA/r*pe, and everything similar 

There also won’t be pictures in this one because it doesn’t feel right 

I knew that I would enjoy How to Have Sex, but I was shocked to discover how much it blew me away. 

I had no intention of writing a full piece about it. In fact, I chalked it up as another entry in my Movie a Day Challenge for 2024, and planned to keep it at that. 

But, I have to write about this movie.  

How to Have Sex focuses on Tara (Mia McKenna-Bruce) and her friends, Skye (Lara Peake) and Em (Enva Lewis), as they plan to party their way through a summer trip. The trio meets Paddy (Samuel Bottomley), Badger (Shaun Thomas), and Paige (Laura Ambler), another group in the room next door, and the groups become inseparable throughout the trip. However, Tara’s coming-of-age story isn’t as innocent as it should be. 

How to Have Sex perfectly encapsulates the carelessness of youth paired with the deep-rooted and supreme insecurity you experience in adolescence. 

This movie perfectly depicts the insurmountable peer pressures we’ve all faced, and, more importantly, draws attention to the toxic best friend. The Jennifer Check-esque friend most of us had growing up who is so deeply insecure that they sniff out your insecurities and choose to bring you down. 

They flirt with the people you like. They make fun of you and claim they’re only kidding. They strive to pound your insecurity into nothingness to make themselves feel better, if only for a fleeting moment. 

Not speaking from experience or anything. I digress. 

Tara doesn’t realize how great she is. She’s cute and funny, and she needs to learn how to grow outside of her built-in friend group. At one point in the film, Tara is taken in by another friend group who appears to be a little older. 

They take care of her, and it’s clear that she has more fun with them in the few hours they spend together than she does with her own friend group. You can tell that Tara is starting to learn that it’s time to let go and move on from her existing friend group, but she isn’t quite ready yet. 

Now, I would be remiss if I didn’t talk about Tara’s rapes. 

If you suspect the next few paragraphs might be triggering for you, I more than understand. Additionally, the next few paragraphs will contain spoilers. For these purposes, I’ve inserted a page jump, so click here to jump down or skip to the paragraph starting with Throughout the film…

I assumed from the trailer that something bad was going to happen to Tara, and, unfortunately, I was right. 

Paddy winds up getting Tara alone and pressures her into having sex. Tara does say “yes” to Paddy taking off her swimsuit bottoms, but it’s extremely obvious that she isn’t comfortable. 

And, friends, that’s rape. I don’t know how else to say it. He gets this girl alone, isolates her from her friends, is much bigger than her, throws her around, and then rapes her. 

Point blank. 

Tara is ashamed to tell her friends because she was eager to lose her virginity, but it’s clear she didn’t want things to happen in the way they did. 

Molly Manning Walker makes it clear. From Tara’s grimacing to her hand grasping the sand for comfort, this poor girl didn’t want to have sex with this guy. 

Afterward, he treats her like absolute shit. But, unfortunately, things don’t end there. 

Now, I’m going to be very honest. I’m a little unclear about this one plot point, but from everything I’ve read, my interpretation is correct. 

Later in the trip, Paddy rapes Tara again while she’s asleep. 

After he tells Tara about it, Paddy then tries to have sex with Tara for a third time, as she begs him to stop. Fortunately, Badger and Skye walk in and unknowingly save her. 

Towards the end of the movie, Tara tells Em about Paddy, and Em tells Tara she should have said something. Yes, Em is eventually comforting, but telling a friend they should’ve said something because you didn’t pick up on what was happening is so fucking unfair. 

Throughout the film, it’s clear that Badger and Tara like each other. Skye, of course, can’t handle this, and she tries to embarrass Tara at every turn, including telling Badger that Tara is a virgin. 

I would like to take the opportunity to insert a personal anecdote here. When I was 14 and a freshman in high school, I liked a boy who liked me back. This boy suddenly became distant and weird and eventually dated another girl. I found out months later from my “best friend” that this boy had asked her if I liked him because he planned to ask me out. 

My “best friend” said no because she didn’t want me to have a boyfriend before her. Should this boy have come to be directly? Absolutely. But, my “friend” had absolutely no right to intervene in the way she did, especially out of jealousy and insecurity. 

And, yes, she deadass told me the reason she lied and said I didn’t like him was because she didn’t want me to be the first one with a boyfriend. I swear on KP’s ashes. 

We’re obviously no longer friends, and seeing her life trajectory, I feel sorry for her. It’s clear those insecurities never left, and I pity her. 

Moving on. 

Skye also pressured Tara to have sex with Paddy to begin with. I don’t believe this is because Skye knew what Paddy was going to do, but I do think it’s because Skye knew he was an asshole while it’s clear Badger is a good guy. Or, at the very least, that Badger cares about Tara. 

I also think Badger knew, to a degree, what Paddy did. I think that’s why Badger explains his history with Paddy and tells Tara that Paddy is a “nightmare of a guy.” I do believe Badger liked Tara, as is evidenced from the night he takes care of her, and how Badger seems to rebuff all of Skye’s advances, much to her chagrin. 

Skye continues to belittle Tara throughout the film because it’s clear Tara’s great. Tara just doesn’t know yet and doesn’t feel that she is. 

How to Have Sex is incredible. It’s a coming-of-age story, but it’s also so much more than that. It’s a story about SA/r*pe and the expectations women, in this case, girls, face when it comes to sex. It’s about finding yourself and where you belong. It’s about realizing that you’re so much more than your high school self. It’s about learning that some friends will never have your well-being in mind. 

In my opinion, it’s one of the most relatable coming-of-age stories I’ve seen in a long time. Fortunately, I’ve never been r*ped, so I can’t speak to how victims are portrayed, but I can speak to the other parts of the film. And, for those, I can say it’s accurate. 

If it isn’t triggering for you, I would highly recommend catching this one during its theatrical release.