'Diary of a Teenage Girl' shocking, but not for shock's sake
<h3 class="briefHead">Mini-review: 'The Diary of a Teenage Girl'</h3>
Actress Marielle Heller's blisteringly honest directorial debut, "The Diary of a Teenage Girl," begins with 15-year-old Minnie Goetz (Bel Powley) uttering what will undoubtedly become one of the movies' most memorable opening lines: "I had sex today. Holy (expletive)!"
It's not just a cheap attention-getter, for these two sentences boldly announce the dominant theme in this pungently candid drama, adapted from Phoebe Gloeckner's autobiographical novel about growing up in San Francisco during the 1970s.
"Diary" is one of the extremely few motion pictures actually enhanced by the main character's voice-over narration, allowing us to access Minnie's thoughts, feelings and, most important, her 15-year-old female perspective on sex, romance, desire, dreams, security, friendship, parents and self.
"Diary" allows Minnie's adolescent adventure to unfold, unencumbered by gooey sentiment, movie moralizing and quick judgments. We quickly learn that Minnie (played with total commitment and unaffected comfort by Powley) made a successful play for Monroe (Alexander Skarsgard), the main squeeze of her single mom Charlotte ("SNL" star Kristen Wiig).
Like a kid in a new candy store, impulsive Minnie hormonally overdoses on sexual encounters. ("Is this what it feels like to be loved?" she asks in her voice-over diary.)
Even though several sex scenes become eye-poppingly graphic, they are framed with restraint and moderation, as they are experiences filtered through the romanticized notions of a girl with limited life experience, rendering her incapable of separating sex from true love.
She wants the latter, but pursues the former, not just with Monroe, but with fellow students and a street-smart friend named Tabatha (Margarita Levieva).
"Diary of a Teenage Girl" is a raw and realistic post-pubescent romp shot in subtle sepia tone for a slightly aged effect, complemented by frequent outbreaks of psychedelic animation (from Sara Gunnarsdóttir), lending a '70s Flower Power touch to Minnie's imagination (and the obligatory acid trip sequence).
This marks an amazingly auspicious debut for Heller, who adapts Gloeckner's novel with uncompromising and unsettling power, despite its slight incursion into a Hollywoodized upbeat ending.
Even so, how many movies allow us to experience (or be reminded of) what it's like to be an emotionally conflicted teen girl for 101 minutes?
"Diary of a Teenage Girl" opens at the Century Centre and River East 21 in Chicago, the Evanston Century 18 and the ArcLight in Glenview. Rated R for drinking, drug use, language, nudity, sexual situations. 101 minutes. ★ ★ ★ ½