The Diary of a Teenage Girl

Sony Pictures Classics | Release Date: August 7, 2015

6.5	USER SCORE Generally favorable reviews based on 125 Ratings

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User Reviews

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bevo76Sep 3, 2015

I found this movie to be boring. It started with an interesting premise but repeats the same sexually explicit scenes. The movie is overrated and I would not recommend seeing it. The acting was good but the story went nowhere fast.I found this movie to be boring. It started with an interesting premise but repeats the same sexually explicit scenes. The movie is overrated and I would not recommend seeing it. The acting was good but the story went nowhere fast. For me and my friend it was a waste of money.… Expand

5 of 8 users found this helpful53

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mandm1951Aug 30, 2015

I am learning to BEWARE when the critics scores are higher than the users scores, as they are for this movie. I should have read the reviews more carefully. If I had I might have avoided an unpleasant movie-going experience.

6 of 13 users found this helpful67

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GreatMartinAug 21, 2015

The past few weeks I have seen a couple of entertaining movies like “The Gift” and “Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation”, a few okay films like “Phoenix”{ and “Ricki and the Flash” but I knew, from experience, it would all come to a screechingThe past few weeks I have seen a couple of entertaining movies like “The Gift” and “Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation”, a few okay films like “Phoenix”{ and “Ricki and the Flash” but I knew, from experience, it would all come to a screeching halt and it did today with one of the worst movies I have seen this year called “The Diary of a Teenage Girl”. It is one of those movies I got suckered into seeing by word of mouth from movie reviewers of which there seem to be 3-4 every year, not some much from the actual reviews as I very seldom read reviews before I go to see a movie. There was the fact that it played at Sundance and magazines like Entertainment Weekly picked it as a winner and Hollywood Reporter stated ‘a strikingly intimate look---in an outstanding debut film” so off to the movies I went.

It could be that I have forgotten what a teenager is like or the fact that I was never a female teenager and/or that a male teenager losing his virginity isn’t that big a deal but except for a few startlingly incidents like the boyfriend, at 35, of the girl’s, at 15, mother is the one that loses her virginity, that she is shown in full frontal nudity (though in real life she, Minnie, played by Bel Powley, was 21 when it was filmed) along with many sexual scenes from lesbian shots, to teenage girls performing oral sex on teenage boys, the movie is pretty boring and I think it only appeal to teenage girls, maybe some women and voyeurs!

Reading a half of dozen reviews after seeing the movie it seems many give Alexander Skarsgard a pass on having sex with a minor and seem to ignore the fact that all the females, except Minnie’s younger sister, are pretty loose with the sex and drugs including her mother played by Kristen Wiig, her best friend Kimmie, Madeleine Watres, a young lady, Margarita Levieva, into gay sex and drugs in all forms.

Surprisingly the only off key acting is by Christopher Meloni who plays Minnie’s father, who lives in New York. I found Wiig and her female friend to be annoying while Bel Powley playing the teenager experiencing her sexual coming out is convincing and off kilter at the same time.

Directed by Marielle Heller, who also wrote the screenplay based on a novel by Phoebe Gloeckner, seems to add some of the “Birdman” fantasy plus more, shows San Francisco in a good light, also the good and bad of 1979, with many illustrations to add a comic book angle including many a Disney touch and a drawn Aline Komisky-Crumb who ’helps’ Minnie.

This is a movie I came very close to walking out on but stayed hoping it would redeem itself but, for me, it didn’t.… Expand

2 of 5 users found this helpful23

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kkcreevyDec 21, 2015

Yes, teens are thinking about sex. But telling them that a young girl, the daughter of a substance-abusing single mom -- a girl desperate for love, affection, and validation, who falls for her mother’s drunk boyfriend who molests her, isYes, teens are thinking about sex. But telling them that a young girl, the daughter of a substance-abusing single mom -- a girl desperate for love, affection, and validation, who falls for her mother’s drunk boyfriend who molests her, is somehow sexually empowered by the experience, is an utterly reprehensible message.… Expand

1 of 3 users found this helpful12

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THE_COCONUT_MANFeb 10, 2016

I found the graphic and repeated portrayal of under age sex disturbing. Story-wise, without spoiling anything, you have a very serious situation that is boiling over the entire movie which ends up essentially getting laughed off in theI found the graphic and repeated portrayal of under age sex disturbing. Story-wise, without spoiling anything, you have a very serious situation that is boiling over the entire movie which ends up essentially getting laughed off in the closing minutes, with no consequence, nothing learned, nothing lost... All in all terrible, disgusting trash.… Expand

0 of 4 users found this helpful04

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PrettyPotatoDec 10, 2017

I don't understand how critics are just okay with onscreen portrayal of pedophilia. 87....wow.
Stay away from this film I'd suggest,especially if you have been through trauma. People shouldn't empathize with pedos. End of.

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

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PANCHO_SANSAAug 23, 2019

Coming of age story about a floozy. There really isn't anything more to this movie. The main character is just one big thot and lacks any kind of moral compass. This movie is disgusting from beginning to end.

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

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