WORST NIGHTMARE (HOW TO HAVE SEX)
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The winner of last year's Un Certain Regard competition at Cannes, the film follows the hedonistic adventures of three teenage girls on holiday in Crete.
It's one of those Club 18-30 style holidays or Spring Break where young people go out of control.
They get wasted on alcohol, go to raves, take part in crude package holiday pool games and engage in casual sex.
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But the reality is that all that hard partying comes with a heavy price.
Arriving in Malia at the start of the film, Mia McKenzie Bruce's Tara, Enva Lewis's Em and Lara Peake's Skye are escaping the impending doom of their GCSE exam results and are in a mood to party.
Their first course of business is to go for a pre-dawn swim in the sea, get chips and then head to their hotel where they blag a poolside view from their apartment.
Entering the apartment, they holler and loudly joke about its facilities while Skye chucks cigarettes into a frying pan pretending to deep fry them.
© MUBI, Film 4 & BFIRepeatedly declaring their goal is to see who can get laid the most, they agree to Em's suggestion that whoever has the most sex can have the main bedroom while the others sleep on the couch or the floor.
The girls' first night is spent drinking alcopops from punch bowls, boorishly shouting the lyrics to Chesney Hawkes' 'The One and Only' during karaoke, throwing up and eating cheesy chips.
The following morning Tara spots Shaun Thomas' north of England lad Badger having a smoke on a neighbouring balcony and he tries to grab her attention.
Badger eventually succeeds by inviting her to join his gang in their apartment for preloading before a night of boozing and nightclubbing.
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His mates consist of Samuel Bottomley's Paddy and Laura Ambler's Paige who the girls suspect is a lesbian.
As they get to know their new friends with a drinking game, Skye eggs Tara on about losing her virginity, suggesting that she flirts with Paddy even though Badger seems keen on her.
After a night of more heavy drinking, the girls spend more time with their new friends the following day with Skye volunteering Tara for a crude poolside drinking game with Badger.
Later that night after more boozing, Tara loses her virginity but the circumstances of the sexual encounter raise questions that become more disturbing as the film wears on.
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A graduate of the National Film School, Manning Walker has since 2012 been building a career as a cinematographer working on short films and music videos for the likes of Tom Walker, ASAP Rocky and 645 AR featuring FKA Twigs.
Audiences will have also noticed her work on Charlotte Regan's debut feature 'Scrapper'.
You can tell immediately from 'How To Have Sex' this is the work of a director with a strong cinematography background.
Manning Walker shows a clear flair for images that burn into your memory and she works really effectively with her Canadian Director of Photography Nicolas Canniccioni.
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She also knows how to handle a sophisticated tale that dives beneath the onscreen boorishness and raises complex and often uncomfortable questions about young people's perceptions of sex and the issue of consent.
Inspired by an incident the director witnessed as a teen on a similar holiday, you can tell she has really taken time to fashion a credible screenplay.
Days and nights spent observing holidaymakers while researching the movie, absorbing banal conversations and outlandish behaviour pay off in a movie that just oozes authenticity.
The cast are excellent, with McKenna Bruce turning in what should be a career breakthrough performance.
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Tara is flawed. She is naive and insecure.
She is also horribly treated.
Manning Walker and McKenna Bruce don't, however, go down an obvious route in their depiction of her shabby treatment.
Knowing a lot more can be said when it is unsaid, glances between Tara and other characters convey an awful lot more than actual dialogue.
And that places a lot of responsibility on McKenna Bruce's shoulders which she carries off impressively.
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Bottomley and Thomas are also striking as the impact of how Tara is treated hits home.
Both take their audiences to places you might not expect and Thomas, in particular, shines.
Lewis and Peake are excellent as well, with it becoming more apparent as the film progresses who Tara's real friend is.
As good as the cast are, it is the panache of Manning Walker's direction and the astute observation in her writing that most impresses.
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Scenes of Tara wandering through the deserted, litter strewn streets of Malia just after sunrise are like something out of a zombie movie like '28 Days Later'.
The neon lights of the resort at night when the streets are buzzing with clubbers feel isolating and soulless like the street scenes in 'Lost In Translation'.
There's an intoxicated quality too to many of the party sequences which quickly wears off when the grim reality of what has happened to Tara hits home.
Blue filters, mid shots and close-ups of McKenna Bruce's face in a rave sequence where her character tries to forget her unease about what has happened by climbing up onstage and immersing herself in the music are a brilliant insight into Tara's fragile state of mind.
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These are matched by some superb sound editing by Steve Fanagan and Sean O'Shea which blurs the dance beats with the noise of Tara's shallow breathing as she struggles to blot out her discomfort.
When the film is not subtly conveying what is going on through image or facial gesture, Manning Walker shows she has an ear for youthful bravado
Lad and ladette goading about drinking and sex comes easy to her characters.
Understanding the boundaries, though, of what is acceptable and what is not when it comes to consent is challenging and sadly lacking.
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The film rams home how ill equipped young people are when it comes to talking honestly about sex.
On the cusp of adulthood, the girls and boys of the film are not mature enough to handle the dangers of hedonism.
They think they're grown up as they strut around with tattoos, six packs, bikinis and lip gloss but it feels like they think they are playing a part in a teen sex comedy when the reality is anything but funny.
It is for this reason alone why 'How To Have Sex' ought to be seen by teenagers and their parents.
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The film is an honest attempt to address issues that are rarely discussed.
Young men and women would undoubtedly benefit from watching and reflecting on a movie that drives its message home effectively by observing rather than preaching.
As directorial feature debuts go, it's on a par with Charlotte Wells' 'Aftersun'.
It announces Manning Walker and McKenna Bruce as huge talents behind and in front of the camera.
More importantly, it shines a light on an issue that we all need to honestly address.
('How To Have Sex' was released in UK and Irish cinemas on November 3 2023)
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