The Diary of a Teenage Girl

A 15 year-old girl winds up in a relationship with her mother's boyfriend, a man in his 30s, in this justifiably uncomfortable and very nicely acted film from director-screenwriter Marielle Heller. Bel Powley is fantastic as Minnie, a dark, awkward teen living in San Francisco doodling strange things in her sketch book and losing her virginity to Monroe (a never-been-better Alexander Skarsgard) behind her mom's (an excellent Kristen Wiig) back. The film handles the completely illegal relationship in a way that works out fine in the end, but it's a little rough at times. Skarsgard pulls out all the stops as a charming moron, while Wiig kills it in the scene where she finds out what's going on. Powley, who is actually seven years older than her character, captures the essence of a teenager who's getting a little ahead of herself and might not be altogether stable for a myriad of reasons. Heller infuses the film with interesting animated sequences, and does a nice job recreating 1970s San Francisco. It's a good movie, but it certainly isn't for everybody.