Film No. 67 (2015) The Diary of a Teenage Girl. September 19th.

Film No. 67 (2015) September 19th.  10.45 AM LUNA Leederville. 

"If you are listening to this without my permission then stop right now, just stop" (Minnie talks into the microphone of her 70's style cassette recorder as she documents her coming of age story).

 

 

The Diary of a Teenage Girl is a seriously well made film. Bel Powley captures the screen in a Christina Ricci type manner, it's hard to peel your eyes from her doe eyed, square cut fringed features as she pours out her confronting dialogue describing one sexual awakening experience after another. The subject matter will be confronting for some, "I had sex today. Holy Shit" opens the film as Minnie begins her awakening with us.

 

So while it is a seriously well made film I didn't really have a great time with it. I'm still not sure why, so maybe it is one of those films which needs to catch you in the right mood. There are many quirky coming of age films released over recent years which dabble in animated sequences and display unique characters and Teenage is never clunky. I just didn't connect.

 

Monroe (Alex Skarsgard) is the boyfriend of Minnie's mother Charlotte (Kirsten Wiig). Minnie is keen to experiment sexually as she follows her body's urges. After Charlotte heads to bed early one evening Minnie throws herself into the arms of Monroe who cannot resist her advances even though she's a minor. The strength of the film is that there is no sleaze and while Monroe could have made a more mature decision, he is gentle and he genuinely cares for Minnie.  It's San Fransisco in the 70's and the era is captured brilliantly.

 

Teenage is based on a semi-auto biographical (not sure exactly what that means) novel by Pheobie Gloeckner. The novel is graphic and the film meets the novel's intentions very well indeed, mixing black humour with issues many of an older generation might find distasteful. Minnie embarks on a journey she very much controls and comes out the sort of person one might expect to have a very interesting life. The film has few flaws, I just didn't connect with Minnie. 7GUMS