Diary of a Teenage Girl
classified 18Please note: This was screened in Aug 2015
A huge hit at Sundance and based on Phoebe Gloeckner's popular graphic novel, this gutsy feature debut charts the coming-of-age adventures of Minnie (Bel Powley), a lonely and artistic 15 year old growing up fast in the countercultural haze of 1970's San Francisco. Minnie has set her sights on her hippy mother's (Kristen Wiig) ridiculously easy-going boyfriend Monroe (Alexander Skarsgard) and soon they begin a complex love affair.
She loves sex and plunges into the deep end, convinced that they can somehow make their wildly inappropriate relationship work. Minnie also chronicles their affair and her feelings through expressive drawings and painfully honest confessions confided to a tape recorder (what could possibly go wrong?) - and director Marielle Heller uses beautiful Aline Kominsky/Robert Crumb-esque animation sequences to underline her feelings. So, so much more than Adrian Mole with sex and drugs, this is a gust of fresh air - a warm and assured debut that captures the anxiety, wonder and passion of adolescence.