Watched How To Have Sex (2013) A Movie That Explores How People Don’T Understand Lack Of Consent And Knowledge

11 11月 2023

i got interested in the movie when people started describing it as a teen movie about consent. it definitely is that, but it’s also underselling how authentic it is as a teen movie. you have all the trappings (bad licensed music, flashing lights in clubs, just people partying) but also it brings out the actual british contexts and makes it quite clear these women are very young, definitely unaware of Society at large, and are uncritical of their own socialization — with one character being totally ignorant of what had happened to the protagonist.

so you end up having this movie that is clearly autobiographical but also critiquing the genre it works in. the movie kinda does the “big bang without laugh tracks” thing where you see the american pie comedy and then it’s just postrock or very slow ambient music to defamilarize the scene.

and we have many small moments when it’s just me and the silver screen and i have to think about what the protagonist is feeling. she can’t express herself as she watches the sexualization of her peers and she’s quite the silent protagonist, only saying things when she needs to.

so when the actual scenes about sex happen, they are kinda awkward and the movie has the good grace to barely depict it. we can’t imagine the pain. she dodges her friends’ curiosity about last night with euphemisms and “yeah, he’s fit”. she’s trying to understand what is happening and whether she even liked it.

i found this movie seriously effective, even horrifying at times. there’s nothing distinguishing this movie from any other teen movie besides its sound design and when the camera focuses on the protag’s thinking. you understand she’s partying in order to escape her shitty high school life but also she’s hurting herself.

and the ending is not very girlboss, even if the ending theme is kinda like it. she is still understanding her pain and i quite liked the ending.