The Diary of a Teenage Girl (2015)

What makes The Diary of a Teenage Girl special is how boldly it lets a messy, brilliant adolescent voice take the microphone—funny, hungry, contradictory, and alive—without sanding down the discomfort that comes with growing up. Marielle Heller directs with a buoyant 1970s San Francisco glow, mixing comic-book imagination and diaristic candor so the film feels like a secret you’re being trusted with rather than a lesson being delivered. Bel Powley is terrific as Minnie, capturing both her swagger and her vulnerability in a way that makes you understand her choices even when you can’t approve of them, while Kristen Wiig adds aching nuance as a mother who’s trying, failing, and human all at once. It’s not for everyone—its sexual content and moral knot are deliberately confronting—but if you can meet it on its own terms, it’s an unusually honest, witty coming-of-age story that earns its hard-won tenderness.

The Diary of a Teenage Girl is aiming for an unvarnished, darkly funny coming-of-age portrait—less “romance” than a messy, uncomfortable snapshot of a girl trying to define herself in 1970s San Francisco. It’s impressively candid and often sharply observed, with Bel Powley giving a fearless, empathetic performance and the comic-art flourishes adding personality. But the film’s central relationship involves a 15-year-old and an adult, and it doesn’t soften the sexual detail or the power imbalance, so if that premise or the explicit content is a hard no for you, skip it. Even if you can handle the subject matter, some supporting adults can feel thinly drawn, which can leave the drama a bit lopsided despite the strong point-of-view.