The Diary of a Teenage Girl

AroView: This brave and bittersweet portrait of an unusual sexual awakening has Bel Powley as a fledgling cartoonist entering into a relationship with her mother’s boyfriend.

With echoes of Lena Dunham-esque squeamish realism, Powley is fearless in her portrait of a pudgy, precocious teen with a wide-eyed, big-hearted libido, all beautifully rendered in suburban oche hues of the 1970’s. Based on the memoir of artist Phoebe Gloeckner, and realised by actor-turned director Marielle Heller, who crucially navigates the awkward dynamics with great sensitivity.

“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