Diary of a Teenage Girl captures the heady atmosphere of the ’70s

Opinion

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This article was published 02/09/2015 (3158 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The so-called “sexual revolution” of the ’60s and ’70s may have represented a spirit of liberation in response to the stultifying repression of the ’50s.

But liberation came with potential for disaster, one of the salient points of first-time director Marielle Heller’s excellent drama The Diary of a Teenage Girl, set in the free-thinking, free-loving San Francisco of 1976.

The film kicks off with one-of-a-kind, 15-year-old heroine Minnie (Bel Powley) walking down one of those funky SF streets, in awe of having just lost her virginity to Monroe (Alexander Skarsgard), a lover 20 years her senior.

That might be all very well given the context of time and place, but Monroe happens to be the boyfriend of Minnie’s mom Charlotte (Kristen Wiig). Charlotte is a woman entering middle age, intent on enjoying the sexual freedom of the era (not to mention the drugs and rock ’n’ roll).

The love triangle at the centre of this film is, we know, not going to end well. But the journey is often delightful, as curious, courageous Minnie throws herself into what the classification content warnings refer as “adult situations.”

It makes for frank, provocative stuff, whether it’s seeing Minnie naked in front of a mirror (“checking out her sex appeal” as Joni Mitchell might put it) or watching her mix hallucinogens and sex with Monroe.

Given that her mom acts more like a hard-partying sister, it helps that Minnie finds a literary mentor in underground cartoonist Aline Kominsky-Crumb. True to the druggy ethos of the era, Minnie fantasizes conversations with her heroine, portrayed onscreen with an appropriately animated proxy.

The film might be more disturbing if the actress portraying Minnie were as young as her character. That’s why it’s worth mentioning British actress Powley is actually in her early 20s, even if she convincingly nails the teenage thing.

Director Heller, adapting comic artist Phoebe Gloeckner’s 2002 graphic novel, likewise nails the loosely licentious atmosphere of the era, whether it’s punks hanging out at the comic-book store or ahead-of-the-curve kids in drag lining up for The Rocky Horror Picture Show. She resists the temptation to portray Monroe as a mere pervert or Charlotte as a hypocrite.

Interestingly, she also refuses to portray the female characters as the kind of unified feminist sisterhood we might have seen in films of that era. In fact, the other girls in Minnie’s circle are the ones most likely to either condemn or exploit her.

Heller’s grasp of the material is as firm as a more experienced director’s. Still, the primary attraction is Powley, who offers up the best acting performance I’ve seen all year. Even the way Powley walks is precisely accurate to the era.

In short, she is an actress as brave and uncompromising as the character she plays. She makes Diary well worth the peek.

randall.king@freepress.mb.ca