British director Molly Manning Walker’s first film, which won the Un Certain Regard category at the Cannes Film Festival, inverts the codes of the American teen film to show the dark side of student drinking.
The abstract
To celebrate the end of high school, Tara, Skye and Em go on their first vacation with friends to a popular Mediterranean resort. The trio intend to engage in a series of parties, drunkenness and sleepless nights in the company of English flatmates whom they meet upon arrival. For young Tara, this journey of all excesses has the electrifying taste of the first times… to the point of dizziness. Given the whirlwind of collective euphoria, is she really free to accept or reject any experience that comes her way?
The review (4/5)
“American Pie”, “Supergrave” or even the oldest “Porky’s”: There are numerous teen films in which the white male hero has to lose his virginity. Harmony Korine did indeed choose a female angle for her “Spring Breakers,” but it was mostly an excuse to show off the bodies of Vanessa Hudgens, Selena Gomez and Ashley Benson in neon-colored swimsuits. In short, the young British director Molly Manning Walker tackles the clichés of the genre by following three young girls who are ready to do anything to have fun.
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The English people’s reputation as drinkers is well established and the first hour unfolds the expected program of drinks and little flirtations between friends. But the evening’s film goes wrong very quickly. Driven by social (and friendship) pressure, Tara wants to experience the thrill of the first time. But how not to lose your head, held by bold arms? Above all, how can consent be respected when the more experienced and adventurous partner is trying to prove his masculinity to the group? Molly Manning Walker’s intelligence lies in eschewing the closing film to show the background of a Saturday night on earth where hearts are broken and innocence is lost forever. We hope that the TikTok generation takes up the film like “Le Consentement”.