A Guide to Second Date Sex: Film Review

A Guide to Second Date Sex: Film Review

Cast: George MacKay, Alexandra Roach, Michael Socha
Director: Rachel Hirons

From writer / director Rachel Hirons comes a comedy that feels very much in execution and in scripting like a three act play mixed with a UK sex screwball comedy.

Roach and MacKay play Laura and Ryan respectively, a pair whose dabbling in relationships has been less than successful. After meeting in a club, the pair stumble into a second date, and the expectations that come with it....

A Guide to Second Date Sex is a serviceable slice of awkwardness, that incorporates as much cringeworthy actions as it does recognisable insights into everyone's teenage years.

Roach and MacKay make affable enough bedfellows, and despite McKay's awful chin hair, the pair has enough universal quirks to make them relatable and to allow the situations to feel natural, and not forced. (Although a final act twist pushes the film a little too far as the histrionics are wound as tightly as they can.)

Side characters aren't as fleshed out as they could be, and the script's reliance on their quirks rather than a bit more depth gives the comedy an OTT edge that's not quite acceptable enough given the decent amount of groundwork that's already gone.

But with some moments of laugh-out-loud comedy, some moments where the awkwardness pushes it to excruciating, A Guide to Second Date Sex does just enough to transcend its play roots and feel like its own living breathing mirror onto all our failed fumblings and burgeoning relationships.