The Diary of a Teenage Girl

[projekktor id=’20410′]

The Diary of a Teenage Girl is a dramatic comedy written and directed by Marielle Heller. It’s an adaptation of Phoebe Gloeckner’s graphic novel and premiered at Sundance earlier this year. The film stars Bel Powley, Kristen Wiig, Alexander Skarsgård, Christopher Meloni, and Austin Lyon.

Like most teenage girls, Minnie Goetze (Bel Powley) is longing for love, acceptance and a sense of purpose in the world. Minnie begins a complex love affair with her mother’s (Kristen Wiig) boyfriend, “the handsomest man in the world,” Monroe Rutherford (Alexander Skarsgård). What follows is a sharp, funny and provocative account of one girl’s sexual and artistic awakening, without judgment.

Heller has a long history with her film’s source material, first adapting it as a play in 2010 before mounting her feature film production, so it’s a very personal project to her. “The Diary of a Teenage Girl is sort of a hybrid novel: part diary, part graphic novel/comic book. And it’s just an incredibly honest version of what it is to be a teenager, told from the perspective of a teenager. Even if not every teenager goes through this exact experience— I didn’t go through this exact experience— it still feels closer to what it felt like to be a real teenage girl than anything I have ever read. As Minnie becomes a sexual being— and the emotional journey that accompanies it— I think this is a more honest version of what that experience is like, much more than anything we’re used to seeing.”