The only thing drab about "The Diary of a Teenage Girl" is that title, which gives no hint to the raw pain, brutal honesty and flights of fancy contained within this fascinating coming-of-age drama.
"I had sex today" are the first words we hear, in voiceover, from Minnie (played by Bel Powley), a 15-year-old San Francisco girl in 1976. She's smiling as she walks through the park, barely containing the ecstasy she's feeling over her first time. When she gets home, she grabs her cassette tape recorder and starts pouring her feelings into an audio diary.
The story is complicated because of the man who deflowered Minnie: Monroe (Alexander Skarsgård), the 35-year-old layabout who's dating her mother, Charlotte (Kristin Wiig). The first encounter leads to more, and soon Minnie and Monroe are having an affair, fueled by drugs and the danger of getting caught.
Following the lead of Phoebe Gloeckner's illustrated novel, screenwriter-director Marielle Heller — in a stunning, assured debut — lets Minnie tell her story and pour out her own heart. Minnie looks in the mirror and wonders if she's ugly. She looks at the drawings in her portfolio and wonders if they're as good as those of her idol, comic artist Aline Kominsky. And she looks at her mother, drunken and inattentive, and wonders if that's her future, too.
Heller also follows Gloeckner by using Minnie's drawings to explore her emotional turmoil. The heartfelt animation by Sara Gunnarsdóttir, melding Gloeckner's work with the San Francisco style of Kominsky and R. Crumb, gives a look to Minnie's raging imagination — and counterpoints the dark spiral of drugs and sex that her life becomes.
Amid the bellbottoms and blown-out hair of '70s San Francisco, Heller draws strong performances from her cast. Skarsgård does great sleazeball, and his portrayal of Minnie's imperfect object of desire is unsettling. Wiig shows her dramatic range, depicting Charlotte as a wounded free spirit who's as self-centered as her teen daughter.
Powley, an English actress in her first major role, is amazing. She perfectly channels the awkwardness, self-doubt, curiosity and burgeoning sexuality of the 15-year-old Minnie, in ways shocking and emotionally honest. (Powley was 22 at the time of filming, an important fact considering the film's nudity and sexual content.)
What Powley and Heller capture most acutely is that feeling all teens share, that how one feels, what one does, whom one loves is more important and life-changing at this moment than at any time in an unimaginable future. Even in its trippy San Francisco setting, "The Diary of a Teenage Girl" is very much focused on the now.
spmeans@sltrib.com
Twitter: @moviecricket
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'The Diary of a Teenage Girl'
A 15-year-old in '70s San Francisco loses her virginity, and gains harsh life experience, in this powerful drama.
Where • Broadway Centre Cinemas, Salt Lake City; Cinemark 24 (Jordan Landing), West Jordan; Wynnsong 12, Provo.
When • Opens Friday, Aug. 28.
Rating • R for strong sexual content including dialogue, graphic nudity, drug use, language and drinking-all involving teens.
Running time • 102 minutes.
This photo provided by Sony Pictures Classics shows, Bel Powley as Minnie Goetze, in a scene from the film, "The Diary of a Teenage Girl." The movie releases in the U.S. theaters on Aug. 7, 2015. (Sam Emerson/Sony Pictures Classics via AP)
This photo provided by Sony Pictures Classics shows, Alexander Skarsgard, left, as Monroe, and Bel Powley, as Minnie Goetze, in a scene from the film, "The Diary of a Teenage Girl." The movie releases in the U.S. theaters on Aug. 7, 2015. (Sam Emerson/Sony Pictures Classics via AP)
This photo provided by Sony Pictures Classics shows, Bel Powley as Minnie Goetze, and Kristen Wiig as Charlotte Goetze, in a scene from the film, "The Diary of a Teenage Girl." The movie releases in U.S. theaters on Aug. 7, 2015. (Sam Emerson/Sony Pictures Classics via AP)
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