The Diary of a Teenage Girl

     There are some films that leave an awkward tension in the air. Especially if you watch them with someone like your parents or your sibling. It's taboo stuff. The Diary of A Teenage Girl is a film that's pretty full with those odd awkward moments, but despite the uncomfortableness of any given situation in the film, it has it's purpose.

     The Diary of A Teenage Girl centers around Minnie (brilliantly portrayed by Bel Powely). Minnie, after having her first sexual experience with her mothers boyfriend (Alexander Skarsgard: Nymphomaniac), soon finds herself cast into the world of hormones and self exploration.
     The film is not quite as much about pushing the envelope as Nymphomaniac or Kids, but it does touch on some very sensitive subject material and manages to flesh the situations out pretty smoothly. It's definitely a film you would need to see more then once to catch all the mature (and immature) nuances of each character as Minnie journey's her coming of age story, but it's worth the getting over it phase in order to actually see the film for it's brilliance.

PICTURE QUALITY:
     Though I felt the film was brave and refreshing, the picture quality was a bit of a let down. Mind you, it seems to be artistic intent to downgrade color and clarity to set the time and place and possibly the moods of Minnie, but a lot of the film is lost in a drab color scheme and is hazy enough in some parts to completely lose detail off on the edges of the screen. Though detail can be present, it seems all to lost in the mix of intent and need.

AUDIO QUALITY:
     Aside from the films fantastic soundtrack there is pretty much no use for the surround sound in my opinion. The film is dialog heavy and doesn't really warrant a 5.1 DTS-MA. If the film maker wanted to be so retro with the film they should have just gone straight stereo. In the grand scheme of things that could have been respected. Just don't expect sound immersion. It's a pretty simple film when it comes to audio, but well worth checking out for the substance.

BONUS FEATURES:
~Commentary: Cast and Crew chime in on the film and it's meanings, the history of the story from book to stage to film. It's actually one of the more informative commentary tracks I've listened to. Well worth your time.
~Deleted Scenes
~Marielle's Journey- Bringing The Diary To Life: Director Marielle Heller goes into more detail about the films slow but steady rise to becoming a film, as well as a slew of other technical tidbits.
~Q&A with Director and Cast
~Trailers (a lot of them, including one for the film)
~Digital copies