The Diary of a Teenage Girl
Director: Marielle Heller
Stars: Bel Powley, Alexander Skarsgard, Kristen Wiig
Thu 10 Sep 7.30pm Book Now
Duration: 102mins
AGE Rating: Cert 18
Adults £6
Premiered to 4 Star reviews at the Edinburgh International Film Festival this year, British actress Bel Powley delivers a star-making performance in The Diary of a Teenage Girl, a brilliant, provocative, achingly honest and intimate comedy-drama about a 17-year-old girl’s sexual awakening amidst the soured free love hippie dream of mid-1970s San Francisco.
Adapted from Phoebe Gloeckner’s semi-autobiographical graphic novel by first-time writer/director Marielle Heller, the film smartly uses the confessional aspect of its heroine’s audio journal – she speaks her thoughts directly into a tape recorder, hiding the cassettes in a shoebox under her bed – to provide us with unfiltered insights into her psyche as she processes her rapid transformation from arty and virginal school girl to confused but increasingly self-aware young woman.
Shot in the hazy style of an old instamatic camera, the film augments Minnie’s diary entries with comic book illustrations that further plug us into her heightened emotional state. But it’s Powley, with her Manga-wide eyes and ability to convey vulnerability, heartache and a hardening resolve about who Minnie is as a person that grounds the film and makes it special.
