Diary of a Teenage Girl

(2015) dir Marielle Heller w/Bel Powley, Alexander Skarsgård, Kristen Wiig [102 min; DCP]

This bold and honest coming-of-age film set in mid-1970s San Francisco follows whipsmart 15-year-old Minnie (Powley) as she begins an affair with her self-absorbed mother’s dim-but-handsome boyfriend (Skarsgård). When her mother (Wiig) discovers their relationship, she presents an ultimatum that drives Minnie out of the house and into even more complicated situations.

“Morally complex and sometimes uncomfortably close to the bone, but also lushly bawdy and funny, and packaged together with an astonishing degree of cinematic brio by first-time writer-director Marielle Heller.” – Leslie Felperin, The Guardian