Lonely and artistic, Minnie chronicles her trials through expressive drawings and painfully honest missives confided to a tape recorder. One fateful evening alone with her mother’s boyfriend, Minnie is confronted with her burgeoning sexuality for the first time, and suddenly this precocious teen is in way over her head.
Based on the acclaimed graphic novel by Phoebe Gloeckner, The Diary of a Teenage Girl recounts the coming-of-age adventures of Minnie Goetze, a San Francisco teenager growing up in the counterculture haze of the 1970s.
The Diary of a Teenage Girl is an American coming-of-age comedy-drama art film written and directed by Marielle Heller, based on the graphic novel The Diary of a Teenage Girl: An Account in Words and Pictures by Phoebe Gloeckner. The film stars Bel Powley as a 15-year-old girl who becomes sexually active by starting a relationship with her mother’s boyfriend. It also stars Kristen Wiig, Alexander Skarsgård, Christopher Meloni, Quinn Nagle, and Austin Lyon. It premiered at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival and had a limited release on August 7, 2015 by Sony Pictures Classics.
About the Story
In 1976 San Francisco, aspiring 15-year-old cartoonist Minnie begins keeping an audio diary. She is stirred by her awakening sexuality and wants to lose her virginity. She fears she may be unattractive, but receives attention from boys at school.
When Minnie’s bohemian mother Charlotte is too busy to go out with her boyfriend Monroe, she suggests he take Minnie out instead. At a bar, Minnie and Monroe flirt and she tells him she wants to sleep with him. They begin meeting at his apartment and having sex. She shares the details of her sexual experiences with her friend Kimmie, as well as recording them on her tape recorder.
At a comic book store, Minnie sees cartoonist Aline Kominsky signing books. She mails Aline her first comic, about a woman walking through town.
Minnie sleeps twice with her schoolmate Ricky, but he finds her sexual enthusiasm intimidating. At a bar, Minnie and Kimmie decide to pose as prostitutes. They fellate two boys in the bathroom, but the next day, they agree it was a bad choice. Minnie’s stepfather, Pascal, calls from New York City and invites Minnie to live with him, but she declines.
Charlotte loses her job as a librarian. Minnie and her younger sister Gretel ask Pascal for money, and though he is irritated, he sends the family a check. Minnie, Kimmie, and Monroe have a threesome. Minnie and Monroe take acid together and Monroe has a bad trip, convinced they are being watched. During the trip he tells Minnie he loves her and she realizes that she no longer cares for him. He begins making plans for them to be together when she is 18 and Minnie leaves him.
The Diary of a Teenage Girl
Directed by: Marielle Heller
Starring: Bel Powley, Alexander Skarsgård, Kristen Wiig, Christopher Meloni, Margarita Levieva, Madeleine Waters, Abby Wait, Natalie Stephany Aguilar, Samantha Hyde, Miranda Bailey
Screenplay by: Marielle Heller
Production Design by: Jonah Markowitz
Cinematography by: Brandon Trost
Film Editing by: Marie-Hélène Dozo, Koen Timmerman
Costume Design by: Carmen Grande
Set Decoration by: Susan Alegria
Art Direction by: Emily K. Rolph
Music by: Nate Heller
MPAA Rating: R for strong sexual content including dialogue, graphic nudity, drug use, language and drinking-all involving teens.
Studio: Sony Pictures Classics
Release Date: August 7, 2015
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