The Diary of a Teenage Girl Blu-ray delivers great video and audio in this overall recommended Blu-ray release
A teen artist living in 1970s San Francisco enters into an affair with her mother's boyfriend.
For more about The Diary of a Teenage Girl and the The Diary of a Teenage Girl Blu-ray release, see the The Diary of a Teenage Girl Blu-ray Review published by Martin Liebman on January 21, 2016 where this Blu-ray release scored 3.5 out of 5.
It's no secret that hormones do crazy things to people. They lead to newfound feelings of desire, affection, and physical need, topped off with a
heaping helping of confusion and emotional upset. They may lead someone to do the unexpected, with someone unexpected. Their arrival on the
scene results in a time of great upheaval, an individual's most trying, yet most personal, point in life. Cinema's exploration of teenage sexuality
hasn't left many stones unturned, but it gets perhaps its most blunt and original refresher in The Diary of a Teenage Girl, Director Marielle
Heller's debut feature based on the book of the same name by Phoebe Gloeckner. The movie offers a thorough study of one girl's transformation
throughout her sexual awakening, from her first encounter to experimentation and promiscuity and all of the emotional responses she experiences
along the way. There are no pies and no flutes but instead an open and deeply reflective, but still outwardly focused, and mildly humorous, journey
into sexual activation
and adulthood.
Glowing.
Minnie (Bel Powley) is a 15-year-old living in 1976 San Francisco and is just beginning to feel her body's needs for attention and sexual
gratification. But she has doubts about herself, physically and emotionally both. She lives with her mother Charlotte (Kristen Wiig), her younger
sister Gretel (Abigail Wait), and her mother's boyfriend Monroe (Alexander Skarsgård). One night, when just Minnie and Monroe are left watching
television, he lays his hand on her breast. The two go to a bar soon thereafter and he admits that she sexually arouses him. The two begin
sleeping together. He takes her virginity and she's swept off her feet. Minnie becomes obsessed with sex and, in a way, is more satisfied, and
more confused, by the
emotions she feels afterwards than those she experiences during the act. Soon, she begins experimenting with other men, sometimes in
conjunction with her friend Kimmie (Madeleine Waters).
While the film explores plenty of overt sexuality through the joys of physical contact, it's really, instead, the story of self emotional exploration, of
sorting through what it means to be a burgeoning adult, of dealing not so much with societal pressures surrounding sex but instead the innate,
almost animalistic drive to have sex while dealing with the inherently and uniquely human emotional responses thereof. It's a story not about
intercourse, fellatio, threesomes, and other sexually explicit conduct that the film depicts, or even the sensations they
engender in the body, but rather the feelings that flood the spirit and overwhelm the mind both in the moment and long afterward. Minnie
experiences everything from self praise to self doubt. Rarely does she not indulge in her physical sexual fantasies and satisfy her wants, and rarely
does she walk away from an encounter without a specific and unique response, a response that evolves throughout the course of the movie as she
learns that it's the value of her own self-worth, not the wants and needs of others, that will most deeply satisfy her. This is one of the more honest,
both inwardly and outwardly, teenage sex and coming-of-age films in memory. It's not for everyone, but it does offer, through the (literal stylistic
and metaphorical
thematic) haze a well-rounded look at the inner and outer sexual workings of adolescence.
The film offers an interesting counter perspective to Minnie in Monroe, an older man who has, obviously, matured beyond the frenzied turmoil of
puberty and is now, instead, a man whose sexual desires are no less and, really, no less in control. His relationship with Minnie, which is largely
only sexual
in nature but
hints at notes of something more -- brought on more by adolescent confusion on one side and mature experience on the other -- serves only as a
means to more fully explore Minnie's blossoming sexuality but also demonstrate that people don't necessarily figure it out with the passage of time.
Alexander Skarsgård is terrific as the man who is, even if he's not overtly aware, taking
advantage of Minnie's confused state. Rarely does the film depict him as doing anything other than flirting with or bedding Minnie or handling
Minnie's increasingly suspect mother. In one scene, he confronts Charlotte's ex-husband while lounging on the couch with a bowl of cereal and
most of his attention turned on the television. He has what he wants, and he doesn't necessarily care about anything else. He's come to terms
with all of the emotions and has compartmentalized them to where they linger below the surface rather than bubble over every minute of every
day, as is the case with Minnie. Bel Powley dominates
the film with an impressive performance as the explorative teenager who yearns to understand her body, experience the world, and be wanted. Her
work is a revelation in the genre for openness and authenticity in dealing with a difficult subject.
The Diary of a Teenage Girl's 1080p transfer comes sourced from a digital shoot on the Red Epic camera, but like several other recent digital
productions it nearly captures the texture of film. It's certainly aided by the movie's somewhat diffuse appearance and push to a heavy period tint that
favors a golden-bronze color scheme. That scheme helps accentuates locations, such as the overwhelmingly creamy yellow family kitchen or Monroe's
brown-accented apartment. Flesh tones pick up on that contrast and reflect it. Details are a little soft, but refined. Faces and clothes reveal fine
nuances and supporting environmental accents, whether in Minnie's home or more densely packed bars. Black levels push a little too pale at times but
appear reflective of the movie's intended vintage stylings. Noise is minimal and other eyesores aren't cause for concern.
The Diary of a Teenage Girl features a well-rounded, but rather basic, DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack. Music usually comes in
the form of mid-70s period music, which presents with rich instrumental clarity and easy spacing throughout the stage. Lyrics are sometimes a touch
muffled. There are not many instances of the track feeling truly wide-open, but considering that this is more of an inwardly reflective movie, that's
fine. Basic din at a few bars is adequately robust and filling as it lingers about the stage. An underwater sequence presents a nice bit of heavy depth
around the listener. For the
most part, however, this is a dialogue intensive film. The spoken word flows from the center with scene-commanding clarity throughout.
The Diary of a Teenage Girl contains several extras, included an audio commentary and deleted scenes. A voucher for a UV digital copy is
included with purchase.
Audio Commentary: Director Marielle Heller and Actors Bel Powley & Alexander Skarsgård deliver a track that's a mix of breezy, fun,
and anecdotal and technically and dramatically informative. Fans of the film should find plenty of value in a listen.
Deleted Scenes (1080p): Domino vs. The City (0:59), Charlotte's Making Dinner (2:22), and Minnie and
Friends
(2:14).
Marielle's Journey: Bringing the Diary to Life (1080p, 23:07): A closer look at Director Marielle Heller's history with the source
material, including a stage adaptation and transition to film. The piece features cast and crew discussing story details and themes, characters,
casting, qualities the cast brought to the roles and the qualities Heller wanted from them, finding the film's and characters' emotions, sex in the film,
sourcing details from the book, the film's visual tone, recreating a specific 70s look, shooting locations, animated supports, and more.
Q&A with Marielle Heller, Alexander Skarsgård and Bel Powley (1080p, 25:19): Moderator Jenelle Riley sits down with the participants
for
an informative question-and-answer session.
The Diary of a Teenage Girl Theatrical Trailer (1080p, 1:48).
The Diary of a Teenage Girl is an outwardly explicit, but inwardly satisfying, journey through adolescence and burgeoning sexual maturity.
Through experimentation -- defined, mostly, by various risqué encounters and predominantly with her mother's boyfriend -- lead character Minnie
explores her emotional response to sex and the urge to be needed and appreciated. Bel Powley and Alexander Skarsgård are revelations in the lead
roles, particularly in how they expertly handle extremely delicate material. Sony's Blu-ray release of The Diary of a Teenage Girl features a
strong A/V technical presentation and a helthy allotment of extra
content. Recommended.
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Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has detailed its upcoming Blu-ray release of Marielle Heller's film The Diary of a Teenage Girl (2015), starring Kristen Wiig, Bel Powley, Alexander Skarsgård, and Christopher Meloni. The release will be available for purchase on ...
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment will release on Blu-ray Marielle Heller's film The Diary of a Teenage Girl (2015), starring Kristen Wiig, Bel Powley, Alexander Skarsgård, and Christopher Meloni. The release will be available for purchase on January 19.
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